They are currently tied with Colorado College for sixth place in the conference, one point behind Wisconsin, which, according to USCHO.com, would be the last team in the tourney if the season were to end today. Fifth place would give the Gophers home-ice advantage for the first-round series of the conference tournament, but would finishing fifth, and even winning that series, be enough for them to get in? I don't think losing in the conference final would be enough for them to get a bid. Kind of a bummer for the team that finished in first place for this WMNSS.
They finish up their series in Madison (I wonder how they're getting around seeing as there are tens of thousands of people crowding the state capitol to protest a bill that would bust the state's public unions -- man, I'd love to be there just to see what a mass protest looks like!) today (Saturday), then host Michigan Tech -- perennial bottom-dwellers, yet they upset Denver last (Friday) night -- Friday.
#-2: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). Another clean week -- completed a Ridder sweep of Bemidji St. Saturday (3-0), then beat North Dakota in North Dakota last (Friday) night (5-3). It looks like that after they finish the regular season by finishing their two-game series against the Fighting Sioux, these Gophs will finish the regular season in second place in the WCHA. That means that Friday, they will host MSU-Mankato in their first-round series. Like I say, when are they going to win the NCAA championship?
#-3: Wild (Last Week: -4). The three main hockey programs in the Twin Cities finish 1-2-3 in the WMNSS? Has this ever happened before? It looks like the state of hockey in The State Of Hockey is well, very well, thank you.
But this has to be tempered with the truth: They went 2-2 for the week. That's not great, and the two losses still indicate a young, offensively-challenged team (the loss to Vancouver was a complete non-starter and even more head-scratching 'cause it happened at home; the defeat to Chicago was one where they had chances but couldn't convert), but their two wins, over St. Louis and Anaheim, were ones where they were able to put the puck into the net and stop the opponent (one goal for both teams). I still think there is a lot of talent on the team, young talent that will grow into the majors, and grow together.
As it stands as I type this, the Wild have been shuffled back out of the playoff picture; they currently sit in tenth place, one point behind a four-way tie for sixth. So, is a trade in order? The consensus is that their priority is a scorer, but there are very few players that fulfill that role consistently. Plus, who would they give up? Mike Russo of the Star Tribune says that General Manager Chuck Fletcher would be willing to give up one of their young guns, Colton Gillies or, until he tore his ACL, Tyler Cuma.
(Aside: I saw Cuma when his Houston Aeros played at Xcel in the Wild's annual AAA-playing-at-its-big-league-affiliate game, a 3-1 loss to Peoria Sunday afternoon. He accidentally deflected a Rivermen shot past his Goalie, Anton Khudobin, and he reacted by slamming his stick against the goalpost, I think. I didn't completely see the play in which he tore his ACL, but reports say he slid into the boards feet-first. He already has an injury history, but from this one game, I did not come away impressed with Tyler Cuma so far. Oh, and by the way, being able to see the Houston Aeros in St. Paul is neat and a tradition that should continue.)
Oh, back to the trade winds. ... One other thing to consider -- well, actually two: Marek Zidlicky has come, and Guy Latendresse will soon be, back on the team after dealing with serious injuries. If they're able to perform, it would be like trading without actually trading. One more thing: This is hockey. A team that squeaked into the playoffs by winning a game on the last day of the regular season can make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. This isn't speculation; this was the Philadelphia Flyers just last year. So maybe there isn't a need for the Wild to trade anybody, especially if they're not able to ship an onerous, long-term contract that former GM Doug Risebrough mistakenly tied the franchise in financial chains for the next several years out of the state. I don't mind if Fletch sits tight. And you know what? I like Fletcher's plan.
(Aside: There was intense talk that Head Coach Todd Richards would be fired this year. How? He would have lasted less than two years at the helm. Things weren't so bad during the team's malaise at the beginning of the year to justify Richards's shit-canning. Yes, he was terrible last year. But he installed a new, up-tempo style, and there had to be a year of Jacques Lemaire's holdovers either adjusting to the new system or leaving the team. And besides, is less than two years enough to evaluate a coach? Unless Richards lost every single game this year, I think he deserved one more year. In fact, I think it should be a hard and fast rule: All coaches get to coach at least three years. At least give them enough time and space to show what they're made of ... or give them enough rope to hang themselves. Either way's good.)
One huge problem: Leader Mikko Koivu left the Ducks game in the first period. Michael Russo, Wild beat writer for the Star Tribune (of Minneapolis) and considered to be one of the best hockey writers in the universe (I believe it) says here that he's got a broken left finger. The prognosis is not good.
They have a second consecutive week of playing four games. It all starts out with a Very Special Edition Of The NHL, as Sunday's contest at home against Detroit was flexed up to an 11:30 start so that it can be a regional game in NBC's "Hockey Day In America" hegemony. About damn time they showed up on NBC. They then host Edmonton and visit Southern California (Los Angeles and Anaheim).
#-4: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -1). A tie. I don't think I've ever dealt with a team's result for the week being just a tie. Where should I put the grapplers for this week? In the end, the fact that the Gophers managed to tie Penn St., a team that's ranked third (Minnesota's fifth), and the team's potential for postseason success, puts them here. In other words, I feel better that the Wild could somehow win the Stanley Cup by the way they're playing now than I do about this team winning the NCAAs.
Sunday afternoon is their final dual of the regular season, and it's against hated archrival Iowa, which is ranked third in Intermat but second somewhere else. It'll be some fuckin' match; too bad I think I'll stay home instead of watch my first-ever wrestling match because there's going to be a huge goddamn blizzard coming through on Sunday.
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -8). Postseason-wise, I think Gopher wrestling has brighter prospects than the Minnesota male ballers do, and it's not even close. They trounce Iowa in Iowa City Sunday evening, but everybody does. They then lose at Penn St. when they had the lead without about two minutes left but couldn't hit the dagger jumpshot or protect the ball. My God, do they miss Al Nolen.
And yet, according The Hoops Report's latest Bracketology, not only would the Gophers make it to the Big Dance, they're still relatively safely ensconsed in it: They would be a 9-seed and face Washington of the very, very down Pac-10. Why is there such a huge, lenient safety net for a team that has lost five out of their last six -- the fact that Minnesota's a BcS team or the addition of three new at-large teams to the Tournament? They don't deserve to be the NCAAs by the way they're playing.
One game this week: home to reeling Michigan St. They have to win this one.
#-6: Gopher baseball (Re-Entry!). There's good news, there's bad news, and then there's good news.
First, the good news: The college baseball season started! Yeah, it's kind of lame. But I'm never sure of when the season starts. It kind of lays hidden amidst the Super Bowl, the shifting focus of the sports landscape to college basketball, and Spring Training. But it began for the Gophers yesterday (Friday) afternoon.
The bad news: They won't go undefeated this season. Minnesota, picked by Baseball America to win the Big Ten, got the livin' shit kicked out of them by 23rd-ranked St. John's -- yes, a fellow cold-weather baseball program -- 14-1. Yes, the Red Storm are ranked, but if they lose by 13, how good can this team, and this program, really be? It's not going to get any easier. Their three games this week: 9th-ranked UConn, Louisville (both part of the Big Ten/Big East Challenge in Clearwater, Fla.), and at Wake Forest (hosting the titular tournament).
Now, the other good news: They will get to play all their home Big Ten series at Target Field! What a boost for the Gopher program, being able to use the Twins' brand-new ballpark for their most-important games of the season. (They'll play midweek games against local teams at Siebert Field, but who cares?) Shit, I can't imagine a better place for a college team to play than at a Major League Baseball park. And what a validation of the building of Target Field. It's proof that the Twins know that we taxpayers funded the stadium, and therefore it is a public asset that can and should be used by other public institutions like the University of Minnesota baseball squad when they need it. In fact, I wouldn't mind the Gophers making Target Field their homebase. I think both teams' schedules can be tweaked so that one team will be able to use it every weekend once the Twins begin play in April. Anyway, I look forward to driving out on a spring evening, park after hours for free at a meter, walk up to Target, show my student ID, and being able to enter a one-year-old MLB ballpark to watch a meaningful top-flight college baseball game for free.
#-7: Swarm (Re-Entry!). They once led the Western Conference. But the Swarm have slipped into second on the heels of a two-game road losing streak, the last being this week's result, a come-from-ahead, 12-10 loss to the Knighthawks in Rochester. This defeat despite four more goals from Forward Ryan Benesch.
Benesch now has 20 points, which is third-best in the NLL. He also has 18 assists, which puts him seventh in the league. (And he has no penalty minutes so far this season.) So being named a starter for the NLL All-Star Game coming up next week is absolutely deserved. Nick Patterson has also been named the starting Goalie for the NLL ASG. Patterson, along with Colorado's Chris Levis, could be considered the best backstoppers in the Western Conference, but Patterson gets the starting nod because Levis is 1-5. Congratulations also go to Forward Callum Crawford and Transition Andrew Watt, who were named as reserves about a week ago.
They play the first of their two back-to-backs, both of which consist of a home and a road game. They host Boston tonight (Saturday night), then travel to Colorado in a rare Sunday night game in the NLL.
#-8: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -7). Stick a fork in this group, they're done. Two home games, two losses, two efforts where they weren't really in it at all. One uninformed observation: In the defeat to Purdue, a junior named Brianna Mastey scored a career-high 17 points. I don't think (though I'm not sure) that she's a regular starter. I just looked at her previous game, the loss to Ohio St.; not only did she not start, she only played eight minutes off the bench. Does Pam Borton have a set rotation yet? Does she have a go-to guy? Does she have anybody that she feels she can rely on? Is there a player that is reliable? This season's over, but is this inconsistent disarray when it comes to personnel and knowing roles a matter of poor player performance or an scattershot gameplan -- or bad recruiting? More importantly, whose fault is this?
The Goofs, 3-10 in-conference and 11-15 overall, might be better off playing on the road; they're at Northwestern Sunday afternoon and at Michigan Thursday night.
#-9: Timberwolves (Last Week: -5). Type timberwolves.com. Right now, they automatically lead you to 612 All-Star, a propaganda site touting the appearances of Kevin Love and Wesley Johnson at All-Star Weekend. That's nice and all (and I care about Love making the actual All-Star Game instead of Johnson's spot in the Rookie-Sophomore Game), but when I need to just look at the Timberwolves' schedule, man, I don't give a shit!
So I have to Google "timberwolves schedule," where I can see that, yes, they really did lose all three games this week, all at home. I went to the loss to Philadelphia Saturday, and this is what I learned:
- Corey Brewer's a nice guy, and he tries to make up for his mistakes, especially his bad passing, but I don't think he's going to cut it;
- This team is bad when a below-.500 team, off a big win at home against the best team in the league, San Antonio, can travel west for a game the next day and win what should be a letdown game by fucking 20;
- At least the Woofie Dogs had the courtesy to collapse in the third quarter. Collapse in the first, you witness three quarters of shitty basketball. Collapse in the second, you still have a whole half to wince through. Collapse in the fourth, your hopes that the Wolves could actually win a game will be raised, only to be dashed visciously in ooh-they-were-so-close! fashion.
- For all their abandonment of defense, they can't score; the FG% was 36.4 us, 51.3 them.
- I was unimpressed with the three dunks I saw of The Blake Show, though on TV, a dunk he made in the third was sufficiently awesome. I believe he jumped so high that his elbow got to the rim. Any dunk like that is awesome.
- I was much more impressed with some of the mid-range and just-inside-the-three-point-line buckets he made. For a guy so big, strong and athletic, he looks like he's got a silky shot. If he can develop that? Shit. ...
- Even with Griffin pouring in 29, the Two Elves still had a chance to win this. Wayne Ellington hit three threes at the end, but the reason the eight-point loss seemed larger is because it felt like the team didn't give a fuck. And they couldn't score in this game, either; Minnesota hit 35.4%, the Bastard Buffalo Braves hit 45.6%.
After the All-Star Break, three games in four days: at Milwaukee and home to Memphis and New Orleans.
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