T1B

As some of you know I work with the Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League. We are owned by the Minnesota Wild of the NHL and are their primary minor league team.

Yesterday afternoon after practice the Wild's equipment was being taken to the game arena in Ottawa. As the truck was pulling into the parking lot a fire was noticed in the back of the truck and fire dept was called. 40 minutes later all but 6 players gear was untouched and also much of the common equipment. Over $100K in damage was done and people at all levels of the company sprung into action. Spare gear was sent from here to Ottawa and suppliers gathered what they could.

Tonight's game will go on as scheduled with all new gear. Here are a couple of pics:

actually the burnt equipment doesn't look much worse than the threads they wear for games.

Yeah, I know exactly what the company name listed on my paycheck says.

Honestly it works very well and not sure why more teams don't do this. Everyone is working toward the same goal. Instead of having a local owner with their own concerns, we are fully focused on developing talent for the Wild while not worring about getting enough fans in to make payroll.

When we were in Phoenix for the Wild and Yotes' my boss gave Ramsey one of our company ties. He wore it the next game on the bench against Colorado and they won. He also wore it against Edmonton the next game and they won again. I hope it didn't burn with the gear as it was a good luck charm!