In the midst of writing about the bad pro sports that occurred in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul on Tuesday night, there was at least a bright spot.
So let's pause for a moment and be reminded that not all sports end in sadness and not all the world is failure.
A young Wild fan, during Tuesday night's game between Minnesota and Vancouver at Xcel Energy Center, was leaning over and trying to get the attention of Canucks players as they come off the ice. He was asking players if he could have a stick — a pretty nice souvenir, and probably a long shot.
The fan — wearing a jersey of Zach Parise, the Wild forward who had back surgery Tuesday and will be out eight to 10 weeks — looked to be out of luck. And then Vancouver's Sam Gagner doubled back and handed him one. The expression on the kid's face, captured on a video distributed by the Canucks via Twitter, was pretty much perfect.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.
