The Wild are ditching Prince's “Let’s Go Crazy” as the "song played after goals" after two seasons, according to Michael Rand of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. The team "paid tribute to Prince by playing the song after goals during its final playoff game" of the '15-16 season, and season-ticket holders "liked it enough that they voted to permanently change to 'Let’s Go Crazy' from Joe Satriani’s 'Crowd Chant,' which had been the goal song for a decade." According to a letter emailed to season-ticket holders, fans "surveyed this offseason favored another switch." The Wild will either "go back to 'Crowd Chant' or roll with 'Glass House' by Kaleo" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 10/3). The winning song will debut during the Wild's home opener against the Golden Knights. Wild VP/Brand, Broadcast & Production John Maher said, "This is something we ask fans about every summer. Musical tastes are all over the place. It's never 100 percent, but the sentiment to change was pretty strong in the last survey." Maher reaffirmed that fans are "still going to hear a lot of Prince music at our games" (THEATHLETIC.com, 10/1).
ON THE MEND: In St. Paul, Dane Mizutani notes Wild Owner Craig Leipold in May underwent "last-minute surgery to replace his left hip" that "confined Leipold to a bed nearly all summer." But before last Wednesday's preseason game, he "walked into the owner’s suite and plopped down at his usual spot." Leipold said, “I used to have 37 staples in my butt. That’s how long the incision was. It had to be in order to put the hip in. They took them out last week and I was immediately more comfortable. That was a dramatic change for me, so I decided to fly up and watch the game. It was good.” After getting a "double hip replacement a few years ago, Leipold learned last winter that his left hip was infected with bacteria" so doctors had to "remove the prosthetic, pump the area clean with antibiotic spacers, and replace the implant." That took "about three months," so Leipold was "without a left hip for basically the entire summer." He had surgery on May 30, about a "week and a half after hiring" new GM Paul Fenton. Unfortunately for Leipold, he "recently found out that his right hip is infected with similar bacteria," which means he will "have to go through the same process all over again at some point" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 10/3).
