I grew up with no hockey aspirations.  I was a dairy farmers son in small town Minnesota that thought high sticking was what happened when you were chasing the cows through the woods and a stray branch snapped back into you face. Sure I had heard about the North Stars, the Rangers, the Penguins, the Whalers, the Islanders - the farm radio used to give us the scores right after reporting the Vikings losses in the fall and the Twins prospects in the spring.

Going away to college, I went to my first minor league game in Fargo, the now defunct FM Bears.

I was hooked.

All through college, we took in hockey games when we could through a series of minor league teams that plyed the rinks in the Fargo Moorhead area.  Then on to the University of Illinois club team.

When I finally moved to Minneapolis and St. Paul on my second tour of duty on my job, I finally had the chance to go to my first Minnesota Wild game. 

It was fast, on the edge of your seat action.  You had to keep your eyes on the ice.  There was scoring, there was fighting, there was people being slamed into the boards - so in some ways just like growing up with my older brothers…

You also have to understand that growing up in Northern Minnesota, we Czechs were a bit of a minority among the Germans and the Scandinavians.  We got along with them great - except sometimes we felt they showed just a little to much emotion.  I can remember clapping at some football and basketball games, but shouting?  Never necessary.  Standing?  Discouraged - after all you will block the view of the people behind you.  Jeering a referee or a competitor?  You must show respect authority and the competition.  The wave?  Are you out of your mind!

The Wild games were something completely different.

Cheering and jeering.  Standing.  Shouting.  The entire atmosphere is charged.  They play the right music, show the right clips on the scoreboard, pump in just the right words to get people excited and on their feet.  Movie clips from famous war and battle movies?  Check.  A song that references the loss of the beloved North Stars?  Check (actually - the exact words from the Wild Anthem are “A big blue line runs around our state, A line that can’t be crossed.  The day they try to take this game, Is the day the gloves come off” and - I’m not kiding here - “The game’s in our blood and our blood’s in the game. Lay us down under a frozen pond.”

I’m not one to get carried away with the crowd, but I do get into it. 

I stand, I shout, I yell.  The hair on the back of my neck stands up when the Wild anthem is played.  In short, not normal Czech like behavior.

Sometimes you need to forget your cares a little bit, sometimes you need to cheer on your favorite team and release some that pent up stress and emotion.  What better way to do it then cheering on your favorite hockey team.

Especially when twenty-five of the team is make up of people from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  That’s enough to make a Czech cheer.