The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#0: Vikings (Last Week: Positive Numbers).  Well, they did it!  They beat the Packers, in Lambeau Field, for the first time since 2009, won the NFC North for the first time since, I think, that same year, and reached the postseason for the first time in, I believe, three years.  I was sure that recency bias was the reason so many people thought the Vikes would get the monkey off of their back Sunday night.  I disagreed, pointing out that this is a road game and thinking they might want to rest some of their starters since they already sewed up a playoff spot.

However, do you think they actually should have lost the game?  Everybody seems to be pumped up about Minnesota hosting an outdoor playoff game for the first since, what, 1979 or 1980?  But by winning Game 256, their opponent becomes ... the Seattle Seahawks, the proverbial Team No One Wants To Play.  And they marched into Das Bank and beat the livin' shit out of the ViQueens 38-7.  The Hawks' strength plays into the Vikes' strength, too, and I'm not sure that Russell Wilson won't be able to scramble and throw downfield with ease like he did the last time, especially if Nose Tackle Linval Joseph isn't 100%.

See, if Minnesota lost the game, they would have had a rematch with the Packers.  And even though things might have been different because it's a playoff game, that team is the walking wounded, especially on the offensive line.  I take my chances that Aaron Rodgers won't be able to throw moreso than Russell Wilson.

But, of course, that's all water under the bridge.  Sunday afternoon will probably be The Last Vikings Game Ever At TCF Bank Stadium.  And with temperatures just above 0 with windchills expected to go through the teens below zero, and with the general pessimism I feel from most of the fanbase, I expect the crowd there to be 50/50 ... with all of the Seahawks fans staying around to congratulate their team after the game.  Just my thought.

#-1: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: 0).  I keep forgetting that with the New Year comes a new day of the week for the WMNSS.  As you may not know, I always reset the survey for the day of the week January 8 falls, which means that for 2016 these blog posts come out on Fridays.  When I started I decided that, to change the pace of the blog and to keep me on my toes, so to speak, I would change the survey's date annually.  With that, the screening week for the days bridging the two years encompass eight days, which I think is from December 31 to January 7.  But I keep forgetting to preview that fact in the last WMNSS of the year before, and by forgetting that I leave out any teams playing on January 7.  It might be an OCD matter with me, but I don't like it when I forget to do that.

The Gopher women basketball team is one of the two teams that had a 1/7 game.  And it was their first victory at Illinois in seven calendar years.  In fact, Rachel Banham set a new school record for most three-pointers in a game, ten, as the U. routed the bad Illini (they now have a record of 7-7) 106-75.  They followed an ass-kicking at the hands of Rutgers on New Year's Eve to start conference play and a win over Penn St. Sunday at The Barn.  All in all, another so-so year that'll appeal only to die-hard fans of the program.  This week they host Michigan Sunday (right around the third quarter of the Vikings game -- why didn't they move the time?) and visit Purdue Thursday.

#-2: Gopher men's hockey (Re-Entry!).  If this young, raw team wants to reach the NCAA Tournament, they damn well better gel now that we've reached 2016.  Falling in the title game of their Mariucci Classic won't cut it.

I was at the Friday game when they faced the Connecticut Huskies in men's hockey for the first time ever.  (Also attending the game: The soon-to-be-retired Garrison Keillor.  I was just walking around the concourse and then I see to my left this tall old guy rummaging in his coat pockets and I'm like, "Garrison Keillor?  The fuck?!")  They looked off all game.  No chemistry and seemingly no communication, and so there were really three or two clean passes in a row.  Shit, many times there wasn't even one.  But the Huskies were also a mess, so the two times they scored (the second of which tied the game at 2) the Gophers scored, so they eked out a 3-2 win.  Not so fortunate against ranked Harvard the next night.  They did hold the lead, until the Crimson pulled their goalie and Captain Kyle Criscuolo scored to tie the game with 34 seconds left in regulation.  Then halfway through Overtime Criscuolo put the puck past Goaltender Eric Schierhorn (who stopped 35 shots in the game) to give Harvard the Mariucci Classic win.

They resume conference play at Penn St. this weekend.

#-3: Wild (Last Week: -1).  This is the other team that had a 1/7 game.  And unlike the Gopher women b-ballers, the Mild lost, again in Overtime, this time at the X to Philadelphia.

I didn't know it last week, but the squad began a very busy stretch of their schedule.  They had five games for the eight days this survey encompasses, the first four on the road, and they finished it battered with a 2-3 record.  Furthermore, the injuries are starting to pile up.  His hat trick at Columbus aside, Zach Parise might be injured, and in that same game (I think) Mikko Koivu was taken to the hospital after a hit he took made him cough up blood.  Not a good time for guys to get hurt.  Not a good time to continue their shitty record after regulation, either.

They go back out on the road to face The Bastard North Stars before returning home to face The Bastard Colorado Rockies and Buffalo.

#-4: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -3).  Wow, this team sucks.  I mean, like, Dan Monson-Era bad.  They made it a contest Saturday afternoon against the soon-to-be-deposed-from-#1 Michigan St. at Williams before falling by 8, but then they looked disconsolate and lost in losing to Penn St. by nine.  That drops the Goofs to 0-3 in the B1G and 6-9 overall.  This is going to be a long winter at The Barn.  They face Northwestern at home then visit Nebraska this week.

#-5: Timberwolves (Last Week: -2).  Wow, this team sucks, too.  The state of basketball in Minnesota really blows.  (You have to include the Gopher women, who are going nowhere this year, but yes, spare the Lynx.)  Pat Reusse of the Star Tribune noticed, but even he would have to agree that it hasn't been this bad.

It is getting very frustrating with this team.  I don't know how a team this loaded with talent can just shit themselves and lose four games in a week-plus.  They can't believe it.  After the third loss, at Philadelphia (and thank God the 76ers won before they beat the Woofie Dogs) it got so bad that the entire team stayed on the court for 90 minutes and talked about their feelings.  Bunch of men just venting about losing to other men all the time?  Paging Robert Bly.

Such team meetings usually means that they have bonded and will win the next game.  Didn't happen here.  Nope, these are the Timberwolves, and their next game, two days later, at home to woeful Denver, was also a loss.  A narrow one where they dialed up the defensive intensity, 78-74, but a defeat nonetheless.  My God, if my friend doesn't get comp tickets soon, I'm going to be incensed.

You know, maybe it's the Wolves and not the Wild that are starting a busy part of their schedule.  They have four games this screening week too, the first three completing a four-game homestand: Cleveland, Dallas and Oklahoma City.  (The game against the Mavericks was going to tip off in the middle of the afternoon, but it was pushed later a couple hours because of the Vikings loss game.)  Then, the day after they play the Thunder they go to Houston the following night.