What helps is that they are 13-for-14 on the penalty kill (and a perfect 11-for-11 through the first three games), an area where they were well below average last year. We'll also see how trigger happy they continue to be during the game. Bruce Boudreau is known for allowing (making?) his teams shoot at the net while 5-on-5. You can't score if you can't shoot, so we'll see if this continues providing dividends.
After racking up victories at the X, they are on the road all four games this screening week: New Jersey Saturday, in Brooklyn to face the Islanders Sunday, Boston Tuesday and Buffalo Thursday.
#-2: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -1). In the rough-and-tumble B1G (and I don't say that lightly), the Gopher IX went into Ann Arbor and fought a good side, Michigan, to a scoreless draw through 110 minutes. That means that, as of press time, they are tied with Northwestern for second in the league, just a point behind Penn St.
All 14 squads have two games left in the regular season. All of them play their last games Wednesday. Only the top eight get into the conference tournament. Right now, Ohio St. sits in ninth place with 12 points while the U. has 20, so Minnesota's in. But the top four teams host quarterfinal matches next weekend. (The highest of the four teams to win its quarterfinal host the Big Ten semifinals and final the following weekend.) Right now, Rutgers sits fifth with 16 points, so the team's last two matches (Saturday night at Northwestern; they host last-place Maryland for the last game Wednesday) are vitally important to ensure a quarterfinal match at Robbie Stadium and, possibly, keep them in line for possibly hosting the championships of Big Ten women's soccer.
#-3: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). Well, I thought the trip to Michigan St. Saturday night could be a trap, and it was. They lost to the Spartans in five sets, and coughed up the last two sets on their way to their second conference defeat. I don't like how the Gophs lost that game, and since this is only the second of four straight road matches, I'm scared that the losses could snowball. But losing at a ranked Michigan St. team isn't the worst thing in the world, their berth in the NCAA Tournament seems all but assured, and if they do need to experience some setbacks (and I really think a championship team can become a championship team through defeats during a season), better to do it now than closer to the end of the regular season.
Nevertheless the U. is going through a thicket this weekend. Friday they visit a spry Iowa club. And Sunday afternoon they play at Nebraska, the #1 team in the country right now.
#-Infinity: Lynx (Re-Entry!). Well, what I'm afraid would happen actually did happen. That goddamn $29.25 I spent on getting a ticket for Game 5 of the WNBA is now The Biggest Waste Of Money I Have Ever Spent. It's now worse than the $285 I dropped on getting naked with two strippers in the hopes of getting some action.
This is what I get for believing in them. This is what I get for believing, period. I put my faith in them that they'll pull it out, and I was willing to put my money where my mouth is, and they just shoved their feet into my mouth right after I put in my money.
And the way they choked in this game angers me. It really does piss me off. It wasn't the blowout the Jynx needed at the start of the game to make me absolutely sure they were going to win. But they got a six-point lead heading into the half, and even though I still had a ton of anxiety, I felt a lot better. But in the fourth quarter that entire goddamn team just pissed down their fucking legs. The Sparks were making shot after shot, and the Jynx weren't. When they led by eight with three minutes left in the game, I got so fucking mad that I struck the program on the railing. Then I threw that poison loser program away and I left. Goddamn you, Lynx, for making me lose my temper like that.
By the way, it is unacceptable for the higher-seeded team playing the final game possible at home in basketball. Baseball, hockey, even football, sure -- the home team often doesn't win because that's how their sports are. But no, not basketball. The Jynx were supposed to win this game. That they didn't means this is an upset, an absolute fucking failure, and probably The End Of An Era.
And another thing: I am so glad I didn't join in the "Whose house? Our house!" chant that the entire (not sold out) Target Center crowd shouted throughout the entire game, because we had no right to boast about winning. And we didn't. Whose house is it? Well, it's their fucking house, because they came right into and made those players their bitches. How fucking humiliating.
This is what I get for having faith. This is what I get for sticking my neck out.
And now I have to talk about this shit team in the summer, just when I was hoping for another summer of doing surveys with just the Twinks and Minnesota United.
Fuck you, Lynx.
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