#-1: Wild (Last Week: 0). Saturday was Hockey Day In Minnesota. (It was also Women's March Day, and I'm glad I attended, even though I had to wait for the next light rail because the family of a woman who was in front of me at the ticket machine cut in front of me, and then this idiot woman didn't know how to stick the credit card in the machine correctly, and by the time I got my ticket, the doors to the train were closed, but yes, we're trying to keep this protest movement light and positive.) By most accounts it was a good and successful day for fall. Most but not all, and not by the most important account: Wins.
The Golden Gopher men's hockey team lost. The Golden Gopher women's hockey team lost. (And by the way, the way their season is headed, they'll be back on the WMNSS next season.) In fact, if you expand HDM to all Twin Cities games played on Saturday, it is, so far, the most miserable day in local sports because the Golden Gopher men's and women's basketball teams also lost. It would have been a complete wipeout if not for the Wild, who had to come back from a 3-2 deficit to beat Anaheim at the X. And come back they did: Erik Haula, Ryan Suter and Jason Zucker scored three goals within a 1:59 span late in the third to spirit away the win.
It was a good week for the squad. It started by beating Chicago in Chicago in the nationally-televised Sunday Night game and it includes a 4-3 win over The Bastard Winnipeg Jets. On Tuesday they had a sizable lead on the Bastard Kansas City Scouts at home and somehow choked out a 4-3 loss by allowing two goals in almost back-to-back fashion. Still, that was only their, what, third loss since early December? This team's rolling now. The only major blip is that Jonas Brodin has a fractured finger and will be out at least a month. It is the sole injury on a club that has been blissfully free of them. I am now have just jinxed them.
They're right back at it tonight, hosting Nashville. They then travel Tuesday to play The Team That Was Stolen From Us before coming right back home to face St. Louis Thursday.
#-2: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1). What I have learned intrinsically as a man who grew up in hockey country is that in College Hockey Nation, the world is flat. There is never any talk of whether a team can run the table and go undefeated for the season. I don't think it's ever happened, and I don't think it's even close. The top-ranked team in the nation loses all the time, sometimes in the first game after they reach #1, sometimes to a horrible team. You may call that parity, and you may grumble about it. I love the randomness, the ... sameness that top-flight college hockey seems from afar when you get into this part of the year and teams are just beating each other up.
Yes, there are still a lot of grumblings that Minnesota should be, and should have been, a much better squad/program than they're playing like now. A 5-3 loss at piss-poor Wisconsin isn't good, and although they did beat the Badgers Friday, they lost leads twice and had to get a lucky pass to Justin Kloos to pull it out in Overtime. But they will still be ranked and I think they will still be in NCAA Tournament inclusion in the PairWise. They're not in a tailspin, unlike another sport in Dinkytown, which you'll see at the bottom of this survey.
The club takes a break from Big Ten play as the 4th Annual North Star College Cup is next weekend. This will be the last time the Gophers can clip non-conference chits for the PairWise, but in years past the losses they've accrued here weighted down that score to the point they were left off the tourney. They have a big chance to boost their resume Friday because they draw Minnesota-Duluth. The U. then plays either Bemidji St. or St. Cloud St. the following day.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: Positive Numbers). Well, the Timberpups' winning streak last week couldn't last, and it didn't, going down in flames Sunday at Dallas. That was followed by a similar grinding down in San Antonio. But at least they came back from a deficit and secured a 104-101 victory over The Bastard Buffalo Braves at Staples. Sure, the Clippers were without Chris Paul, but a good team takes advantage of that, and this team did.
This week they play every other day. They host Denver, Indiana and Brooklyn, although in the middle of all this they have to play at Phoenix, for some reason.
#-4: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!). I was exercising Friday night. I stumbled upon the Big Ten Network, which was broadcasting, of all things, wrestling. Since the conference never play college basketball games on Fridays (at least not men's games), Friday (and Sunday for that matter) are prime times to dedicate to a non-revenue sport. Wrestling would be good, but I don't know if they schedule a dual every Friday night. Whether it is wrestling, or hockey (they need to start airing more of those games; after all, they rearranged top-flight college hockey just to create a conference) or women's b-ball, they need to start broadcasting something regularly then.
OK, I went off on a tangent. Anyway, Penn St. and Iowa were playing. (Guessing the Nittany Lions won. They'll win the NCAA title this year too.) They run a crawl during action, and it's wrestling-related. The rankings were listed, and Minnesota is still ranked ... but are the sixth-best team in the B1G.
Sixth-best. Sixth. We were always going to play tag with Iowa (although we hadn't the past few years), but third place in the Big Ten was sacrilege. But here we -- well, they -- are, barely holding on to a first-division spot in The Best Wrestling Conference In College Wrestling. And they'll still be fighting if they turn in performances such as Friday's humiliating 21-11 defeat at the hands of, of all programs, Nebraska. At home. Yeah, they beat Wisconsin last weekend, but it was only by a score of 18-15 and (wanking motion).
At Indiana this afternoon. Don't remember if the Hoosiers are one of the teams that are now above these Goofers.
#-5: Gopher women's basketball (Re-Entry!). It's rare to see so many U. teams below the pro teams on the survey. Anyway, the poor results so far into The Marlene Stollings Era is starting to turn into a troubling pattern that will be harder to remove from her tenure here. A 28-point shellacking of Illinois at Williams are bookended for the screening week with identical 15-point curb-stompings at Michigan and Iowa.
A lot of talk before the season began centered on how Carlie Wagner is going to lead the team. There are a lot of red flags that she wouldn't and couldn't have the impact of a Amanda Zahui B. or a Rachel Banham. Much of that is because Wagner's two predecessors have games and roles that are more impactful on the court. Zahui is a loose ball-eating post; Banham is a can't miss point. Wagner, far as I can tell, is a wing who plays best off the ball. Well, what happens if no one can get her the ball, not to mention what happens if her shot isn't falling? You have cases such as yesterday, where a close game at halftime was blown wide open in the second half by the Hawkeyes.
The WNIT is now in danger. Thursday they host Ohio St.
#-6: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -3). I am putting the men's b-ball team below the women's for two reasons: With yesterday's Overtime defeat to Wisconsin at The Barn, exciting as it was, they have lost three in a row; and unlike the women, they were in line for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, and their current losing streak has now put that in jeopardy. The hype behind this game surprised me; I think the game was sold out. But while this is better than a blowout, I wondered last week how tough these players are going to be in this game, and in the clutch, they were no match for Wisky.
And I don't know if the road is going to get any easier this screening week; they travel to Ohio St. and host Maryland.
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