Want to see YOUR backyard rink on FOX Sports North?

Backyard rinks are a Minnesota tradition. Last winter, hundreds of puck-heads from around the state (and even a few of our neighbors) sent in photos of their neighborhood ice palaces, and Darby Hendrickson even skated on a few of those frozen ponds.

This year, with the added help of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and KFAN, we're doing it again. Just send your photos (information below) by February 15 -- we'll select two winners, and during the next week, former Gophers coach Doug Woog will visit those rinks to skate with the owners for features that will air on the Wild pregame show on FOX Sports North on February 18th and 24th!

CLICK HERE to submit your pictures!

The boys have returned for 2011 and are once again providing all of the hockey coverage you'd ever want and then some.

Listen here to see what you might have missed from their 2011 show debut!

By Brandon Mileski

With the Wild clinging to a 1-0 lead late in the 3rd period last night vs. the Avalanche, Guillaume Latendresse was sent to the sin bin for hooking with 2:29 remaining in regulation.

So with the Avs on the powerplay with 2:29 to go, and a faceoff in the offensive zone, Colorado coach Joe Sacco decided to pull the goalie and play with an extra man. This would then give the Avs a 6-on-4 advantage for 2 minutes against the Wild. While you're probably thinking, 'hey a 6-on-4 advantage sounds better than a 5-on-4 advantage', I disagree with this coaching strategy.
 
Here's why:

I'm willing to bet the Avs players have rarely ever practiced 6-on-4 situations. Every hockey team on the planet practices 5-on-4 PP situations a ton. So on a normal PP, every player knows where everyone else is on the ice at all times. You always know where your teammates are positioned because you've worked on it so much. A 6-on-4 PP is rarely practiced, if ever. So while, yes, it's nice to have an extra guy on the ice, it can become chaotic because you don't know  exactly where everyone is positioned on the ice because you have an extra guy on the ice that they're not used to having. As weird as it sounds, a player's thought process is more difficult when having an extra guy on the ice because you don't know where that person will be, whereas on a 5-on-4 PP, you always konw where your teammates will be. Combine this with the fact that the opposing team's PK can now throw the puck toward the net without fear of an icing, and it makes it much more possible to give up an opposing empty net goal.

Now I applaud that the Avs coach pulled the goalie with 2:30 remaining, because frankly, I think coaches wait too long for this sometimes, but in this situation, I would let the normal PP take a stab at the final goal. If the PP had no flow, or wasn't going well, then with 1:15ish on the clock, I would throw the extra player on the ice and pull the goalie.