#-1: Wild (Last Week: -2). This week is kind of weird. One team swept, the other won three-of-four, but yet I decided to give first place to a team that's one win away from the end of its season?
Guess so. They did win two-of-three, which is better than being under .500. But I'm putting the Wild up first because they are in the middle of what has shaped up to be a very good playoff series. Sure, it's kind of upsetting that the club blew yet another late lead to Colorado after Head Coach Patrick Roy put an extra skater on the ice, the second time the Mild has blown a lead. But I am certain that this club can stand up toe-to-toe with The Bastard Quebec Nordiques. And I'm not saying that I feel confident, let alone saying that they'll win, but the two blown leads do at least indicate that they won't piss down their legs and completely melt down. No, they just wait until the end to do that. But if they can grab the lead and respond to the extra attacker by finally getting an empty net goal, they can win tonight (Wednesday night).
You know, right now I'm feeling kind of psyched for a Game 7. Win or lose, they've held serve and battled as far as a series can go. Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy the game, and win, dining out.
#-2: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -3). A confident sweep at home (featuring the first-ever night games at Siebert Field) against Penn St. Back-to-back shutouts, the Nittany Lions only scored on Friday night, and the combined run total: 18-1. RHP Neal Kunik is the Big Ten Co-Pitcher Of The Week for allowing only three hits while striking out nine in seven scoreless innings in the Gophers' 12-0 shellacking Sunday afternoon. It was only Kulik's second start in college.
Meanwhile, the midweek one-off last Wednesday, against Hamline, was postponed due to weather. Meanwhile, this Wednesday game (aka today) is against Bethel, which was suddenly scheduled after it was determined that their original opponent that day, St. Thomas, would not be able to reschedule. After that there is a special series: The Gophers travel down to Tallahassee, Fla. to face Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston and top 10-ranked Florida St. for a three-game series this weekend.
#-3: Twins (Last Week: -1). Normally I would say that when this team has back-to-back rainouts, that's a good week. But I won't say that about the Twinks, at least not now. They are actually not horrid so far this year, flirting with .500 on the strength of nice surprises Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe and Chris Colabello and an offense with some pop. The pitching still needs some work, but nevertheless they took the last two games of a three-game series in Tampa, then split two games at home against Detroit before Sunday's rainout. A 3-1 record with two rainouts, especially when last Tuesday began a stretch of 23 straight games against teams that technically reached the playoffs? A promising start, and one where I wouldn't have minded seeing them try to win the series against the Tigers and am still wondering how they'd fare against the Dodgers, the first game in a series against them being rained out last (Tuesday) night. After playing Los Angeles as many times as possible while avoiding the current biblical rainstorm we're under, they host Baltimore over the weekend before starting a three-game series in Cleveland.
#-Infinity: Swarm (Last Week: -4). Yeah, I touched on the Smarm in a previous blog post, but I'll expound here, unfortunately. I saw what I still believe is the last game ever before the Swarm fold. And unfortunately I think I saw the last game of the worst team in Smarm history. Seriously.
They lost to Toronto 8-6, but if you were at the game, you would wonder how the score was that close. Early in the second quarter the Rock scored their only two goals in that period in seven seconds. And early in the third they scored their only three goals in that period in the first four minutes. The Swarm tried to rally, outscoring Toronto in the final stanza 4-1, but you'd wonder how in the hell did they become so competent after the clown show they put up the first 45 minutes. This team had problems doing the most fundamental things, things like scoring, passing, ball-handling, not turning the ball over, running, hustle, shit liking that. The Swarm are very young -- the team every year always seems to be very young -- but these guys looked like they were playing lacrosse for the first time, and I don't see how playing as a team after one year together is going to fix that. They need new players ... although you can keep rookie Forward Logan Schuss. Last year's #1 overall pick fired a rocket of a goal in the fourth quarter which was the only awesome thing his team did all game.
So they finish with a record of 4-14. After a very bad start, they "rallied" to tie the Vancouver Stealth for worst record in the National Lacrosse League. They'll have either the first or second overall pick in next year's draft, so they'll supposedly have more great yet young talent to "build" with -- assuming the Smarm are still around next season.
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