Positive Numbers: Swarm (Last Week: -4). Just realized that if I continue this practice of giving teams that win playoff games spots in the survey above -1, they will suffer precipitous falls once they get eliminated.
Well, so be it. It's always a surprise whenever a Minnesota team is successful in the postseason. Even more so for the Swarm, who won only their second-ever playoff game Sunday afternoon. They did it against odds as insurmountable as they would be in this season's National League Playoffs: On the road against Toronto, the best team in the league. And they didn't just paper the Rock, they destroyed them by a score of 20-11. They outscored Toronto all four quarters but put the game away in the second, outscoring the Rock 5-1. Five guys scored hat tricks, led by the prolific Ryan Benesch, who added six assists with the three goals he scored.
In short, the Swarm probably turned in the best game of the season; it's great that they did it in the playoffs. Onward and upward -- and still on the road, since not only do they have the worst record of the eight teams that started the postseason, but since five teams from the Western Conference made it while only three from the East did, Minnesota will have to travel eastward in order to win the Champion's Cup. The Eastern Conference Final is Saturday afternoon in Rochester against the Knighthawks.
#0: Wild (Last Week: -3). They didn't necessarily finish with a flourish. With Detroit leapfrogging the Mild in the Western Conference playoff standings and Columbus breathing down their necks (finishing the year 19-5-5), they turned in a really shitty performance in getting dicksmacked by a team that had nothing to play for, Edmonton, 6-1 Friday at home. But on Tuesday they fought to a 2-1 win over defending champion Los Angeles at the X (a game where Dustin Brown hit Jason Pominville with an elbow that doesn't seem as dirty as other people say; it's not as if Brown was looking up and aiming his elbow at Pominville), then on Saturday they showed enough grit in outlasting Colorado in Colorado 3-1. They and the Blue Jackets end the season tied in points, but the Wild win the tie-breaker, which is more wins.
Their prize for finishing grabbing the West's 8th seed? An opening-round Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Chicago Blackhawks, the President's Cup winner and the team that started off the season winning, like, 21 games in a row. Do the Wild have a chance? Sure they do. It is hockey, after all, where you can truly throw the records out the window. Remember the Kings last year; they won the Stanley Cup as the West's 8th seed, the same place the Wild are this year.
But really, do they have a shot? Uh ... no. And honestly, I don't care. Yes, I'm one of those people who still thinks that any season that falls short of winning the championship is a failed one, and therefore if Minnesota doesn't hoist Lord Stanley's Cup, it will, technically, be a failure. But my expectations for this team this year was to reach the playoffs, and although they were leaking a shit-ton of oil, they made it. (Aside: And you can largely credit them making the postseason to their double-major acquisitions last off-season, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Without the scoring of the former and the yeoman's ice time of the latter, there's no telling where the hell this team, this franchise, would be.) They remain a very young team, so any experience, any ass-kicking they receive, should be lessons for Jason Zucker and Charlie Coyle and Jonas Brodin and Mikael Granlund and all the young Wild players that will be participating in this series. It's OK to be swept this year; just work hard so you can actually win games and series next year. And hell, if you win a game or two, even better. And if you win three or even -- gulp -- four? Fuck, that's just gravy.
Series starts today (Tuesday). Game 2 is Friday, which is the day we're asked to wear our favorite sports jerseys to work. I think I will break out my North Stars jersey for that.
#-1: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2). A 5-3 midweek win over North Dakota St. at Siebert, followed by taking 2-of-3 in Iowa, and the one game they dropped, the Friday one, they lost 10-9 in ten innings (although the Goofs blew a 9-4 lead and allowed the Hawkeyes to score the game's last six runs).
Going into the last month of regular season play, it's good to look at the team's NCAA Tournament prospects. In the latest "College Stock Report," Baseball America writer Aaron Fitt's version of college basketball's Bracketology, which went out last Tuesday, he considers the Gophers a "Bubble Out" team. Despite them being 9-3 in the Big Ten and 26-14 overall (granted this does not include the team's 3-1 screening week), they have an RPI too low to even be considered. Now, if they keep winning conference series that definitely could change. But Fitt seems to think their best chances of making it to the postseason is to win the Big Ten Conference Tournament ... which will be played Memorial Weekend at Target Field. Plus, Fitt thinks the starting rotation, if healthy, could stand toe-to-toe with the rest of the conference if it goes down to a double-elimination scenario.
But first they must continue to win. Wednesday they host St. Thomas before embarking on their final road series of the year this weekend at Penn St.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -1). A 2-4 week which technically began with the second half of the Tuesday doubleheader, an 8-5 loss to Miami. They then dropped the first two games of their four-game series with Texas before winning Saturday and Sunday to finish their homestand at 3-3, which was blown up to be more than it actually was by many pro-Twinks pundits around town. With Monday's 4-3 loss in Detroit, a game where Mike Pelfrey held a 3-1 lead but gave up a three-run dong to Prince Fielder in the sixth for the decisive blow -- they now sit at 8-8. That is a hell of a lot better than last year, but they're not winning the World Series, either.
The scary thing now is Joe Mauer's hitting slump, which currently sits at 0-for-20 after his 0-for-4 failing Monday in the Motor City. This is the first time in his professional career Mauer has gone five straight games without a hit. That should be worrisome. On the bright side is Kevin Correia, the closest team this squad has to an ace. He hasn't been lights-out, but he's been steady enough to already garner three wins. This makes up for putative ace Vance Worley, who has been more down than up.
After finishing up against the Tigers, they have Thursday off before continuing their longest (one of their longest?) road trips of the year by playing a trio against Cleveland. They immediately travel to Boston to play the Red Sox starting on Monday.
#-3: Gopher soccer (Re-Entry!). This happened more than a week ago, so this really should have been in last week's WMNSS, but sue me. Sophomore Striker Taylor Uhl, who scored 21 of the Goofs' 44 goals last season in which they probably were one penalty-kick loss away from reaching the NCAA Tournament, has decided to leave the program. There's no telling where she's going, although a person on this women's soccer message board thinks the top destinations are Marquette, Portland and Stanford.
Scuttlebutt on this same board believe Uhl's last straw was when she was told, possibly by Head Coach Stefanie Golan, that she couldn't practice this spring because of "fitness reasons." There has to be more to it than this. Whatever the case, Golan, a coach known for her defense, will now have to replace what really was her whole offense last year. At times Uhl was fantastic, a woman among girls. Who the hell is going to score now?
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