#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -2). This could be seen as a pivotal weekend for this team, provided it capitalizes on this current momentum and, you know, gets far in the NCAA Tournament. Hosting a pair against suddenly juggernauty Penn St. (which, in its third season of being a full-fledged top-flight men's hockey program, was ranked #1 for the first time ever earlier this year), a team that was above them in the PairWise if not the Big Ten standings, they crushed the Nittany Lions by scores of 5-1 and 5-2. I heard that because of Friday's loss alone, Penn St. slipped behind Minnesota in the standings. And in the B1G standings, they are behind both the Gophers and Wisconsin, which are tied at the top. (For the record, Wisconsin sits 15th in the PairWise as of press time.) Now that is one hell of a return on investment.
The U. sits 4th in the PairWise and seems poised to move up from 7th in the USCHO next week, passing the Nittany Lions in the process. This will not quiet the Don Lucia haters, but he is doing all he can to remind fans that Minnesota is one of the preeminent programs in men's hockey. They visit Ohio St. for two next week.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: Positive Numbers). For the first time in, like, a dozen games on the road, they fail to collect even one loser point in Wednesday's 5-1 ass-kicking in Calgary. That's the only reason they don't sit atop the survey this week. But they soundly beat Edmonton, which finally appears to be going back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 5-2, and just (as of press time) doubled up the Canucks in Vancouver, 6-3, so this is still a pretty damn good team.
It's time to talk about a few players on the club. The first two were in the news this screening week. First, Goaltender Alex Stalock reached an agreement with the Wild. That contract automatically protect first-stringer Devyn Dubnyk from the Vegas Golden Knights in the Expansion Draft (I don't know how they figured that out). This move also means that it'll be Stalock that becomes the squad's backup Goalie and not Darcy Kuemper, who appears to be guaranteed not to be protected by the club.
Second, the franchise's first-round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, Alex Tuch, was finally called up for the Saturday night game vs. Vancouver. The move was seen mainly as a final tryout period to see if Tuch is good enough to keep away from the Golden Knights in the off-season. But the call-up from AAA Iowa coincides with Charlie Coyle going to Bruce Boudreau's doghouse for sucking as of late. A quick look at the Player Summary shows that Tuch was given one fewer shift than Coyle, but he had 1:28 more ice time than he, even though all of Tuch's time was spent 5v5. I don't know if this portends bad things down the road, but it might be worth watching.
Finally, the biggest name might be the one who made news a few weeks ago. I regret that I have yet to mention that Jonas Brodin broke his finger mid-January, and he was thought to be out for a month. That means he'll be good to go in the next two weeks, but I wonder what his absence exposed on the squad's blueline, and I also wonder what his presence back on the ice will do for chemistry.
They finish up a four-game Canada trip Tuesday against Winnipeg, then come home for Wednesday Night Rivalry against Chicago. That match starts an eight-game, three-week homestand, which will continue Friday against Tampa Bay.
#-3: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -4). This squad ended a losing streak at five and stanched the bleeding on their Big Dance hopes with an important 68-59 victory on the road against another program that's taking on water, Illinois. The conference record is still mediocre, 4-6, and they're certainly not out of the woods yet. But losing to a middling Illini team would poke even more holes into a group that seemed to have turned things around earlier in the year. Now to see if they can regain momentum this screening with contests at home to Iowa and at Rutgers.
#-4: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -1). With the way this club got crushed versus Penn St., Oklahoma St. and Nebraska, I am shocked that the U. is ranked 10th in both Tournament and Dual Meet, according to InterMat. Sure, results like Sunday's 29-12 trouncing of Purdue in West Lafayette means they are pretty good. I just don't know if this team really is good enough to be 10th, you know?
Hey, you know what? They could assuage my beliefs that this program is on the downswing by upsetting another great program that hasn't skipped a beat, Iowa, at the Sports Pavilion early Sunday afternoon.
#-5: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -3). Got embarrassed at home by 19 against Michigan St. Monday in the annual Cancer Game, then pulled away from Nebraska in Lincoln Saturday, although their ten-point win happened in overtime. I don't know what else to say. This week: at Penn St., home to Rutgers.
#-6: Timberwolves (Last Week: 0). A 1-3 screening week -- their only win was at home to Orlando, and even then they had to go to Overtime to secure the game -- and that isn't even the worst of it. On Saturday it was discovered that Shooting Guard Zach LaVine has a torn ACL and is done for the year.
At first glance this feels like a death blow for the Timberpuppies' chances to finally reach the NBA Playoffs. Between he, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, it was widely thought that it is LaVine that has grown leaps and bounds to reach his potential this season, even if that potential is seen to be much lower compared to KAT and Wiggy. On the other hand, I have seen several advanced metric scenarios where it has been shown that the team has played better without LaVine. He has been out lately, and that coincided with a recent upswing in the Wolves' fortunes. Would that in fact continue now that the team knows he's gone for the rest of the season?
Even though the T-Wolves remain below .500, they also remain in the hunt for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. The loss to The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies began a ten-day, six-game homestand; this week they will host Miami, Toronto and New Orleans.
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