"Keep the blue out!"
At this late juncture, it'd probably be hard to do, but maybe the Wild should take a page out of the Nashville Predators' book (and the St. Louis Blues', Buffalo Sabres', Edmonton Oilers' and even the Miami Dolphins') and orchestrate a way to keep Winnipeg Jets die-hards out of its rink April 6 … and beyond.
It's become a tradition since Atlanta's move to our frigid neighbor to the north in 2011, but Jets fans — many who can't get into MTS Centre because the small rink is overrun by season-ticket holders — travel by the busload to fill Xcel Energy Center whenever the Jets visit St. Paul.
That was the case Dec. 27. Jets fans were everywhere.
Lower bowl, club level, upper bowl, loud (we'll call 'em) … passionate fans dressed in blue cheered the boys from Winnipeg and mocked Wild fans anytime the Jets scored. During the national anthem, they screamed in an ode to the Jets' owners, "True North," and chanted throughout, "Go Jets Go!"
When Andrew Ladd scored a fluky goal to win the game in overtime, it was so noisy, you would have thought the Wild won.
In 2013, in an attempt to keep Chicago Blackhawks fans out of Nashville, the Predators held a "Keep the red out" campaign that forced folks who bought tickets to any Blackhawks-Predators game to buy an additional game. The theory is out-of-towner Blackhawks fans wouldn't waste their money on a second game.
As a Predators' spokesperson said, "Our objective is to give our team the best home-ice advantage each and every game."