The 23rd anniversary of the North Stars' final game passed without attention Friday. The conclusion of the franchise's 26-year stay in Minnesota came with a 5-3 loss in Detroit. It landed the Stars in fifth place in the Norris Division and meant they would be one of eight teams in a 24-team league to miss the playoffs.

Lou Nanne was making a radio appearance on Thursday and got Judd Zulgad, my colleague on AM-1500, all riled up over the potential to restore the North Stars as the name for Minnesota's NHL team.

According to Lou, the NHL might be persuaded to have both "Stars" in Dallas and "North Stars" in St. Paul, just as baseball has the Red Sox in Boston and the White Sox in Chicago.

I love Louie's optimism about everything. I enjoy Judd's exuberance for his youthful fandom for the North Stars.

I know all about the success of "Minnesota North Stars: History and Memories with Lou Nanne," a book imagined by Bob Showers and self-published with Nanne in 2007. Heck, I got a steady stream of checks from Louie as sales mounted for editing his 80,000 words of stories to about half of that.

Then again:

The Wild has been much more popular with the sporting public than were the North Stars for most of their 26-year stay in Bloomington.

The moms, dads and two kids from Woodbury stream into Xcel Energy Center and fill it every night with green, red and white Wild jerseys, and could give a hoot about the North Stars.

The parents vaguely recall the North Stars, I'm sure, but it is a legacy that's meaningless to 90 percent of the people whose loyalty has made the Wild a remarkable success.

There are no North Stars Stanley Cups to remember from those 26 years. There is more defeat to recall than triumph: 758 wins, 970 losses and 334 ties, a .449 winning percentage.

Leave the Wild — the organization and the fans — alone, fellas. They are doing just fine without pipe dreams about the North Stars' nickname and delusions about the grandeur for which it stood.

PLUS THREE FROM PATRICK

The North Stars' all-time winning percentage of .449 doesn't compare well with that of the Vikings and Twins (other teams started in the 1960s) or their NHL successor, the Wild:

Vikings: 449-379-10 (.552) in 55 seasons. Super Bowls: 0-4.

Twins: 4,358-4,423 (.496) in 56 seasons. World Series: 2-1.

Wild: For these purposes, wins and losses are just that — either wins or losses; 558 wins, 583 losses, 55 ties (.490) in 15 seasons. Stanley Cup Final: Wild not yet, North Stars 0-2.