#0: United FC (Last Week: -5). Honestly, I gave the Loons ... oh, a 15-20% chance of beating the Red Bulls in Harrison, N.J. As I said in last week's survey, while RBNY are vulnerable, so is MNUFC, and since this game was on the road (the last of five to begin the year), I thought the effort our boys would give would be akin to that vs. a poor New England side.
But thankfully I was wrong. Abu Danladi put United FC on the board in the 34th, and then Angelo Rodriguez spun and fed Romario Ibarra in the box in the 50th, a scintillating kick begetting another scintillating kick that resulted in the Game-winner. And finally, the Loons beat a club that 1) is a model for how to develop talent and 2) seems to have Minnesota's number.
So, to give construction workers time to get Allianz Field together, MNUFC goes 3-0-2. Those nine Points (let alone three Wins) are more than they have in either of their previous two seasons on the road. And with Saturday finally opening up the gorgeous Allianz against NYCFC (I'm leaving work early to do this, and I think people are upset), things are looking up. Therefore, I am putting United FC up top, and I'm going to push them past negative numbers. Cool!
#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -1). The U. softballers won their series at Illinois over the weekend. Unfortunately, they lost the first game of a Saturday Doubleheader in extra (eight) Innings, 4-3. They host Michigan St. this weekend.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2). Won both games in Kansas City, then lost a series in Philadelphia over the weekend. They sit third in the division, I think, but some observers see a confidence, even a swagger, with this ballclub that has been entirely absent in recent years. Maybe it'll be the Twinks who will break the Twin Cities out of their major league postseason drought (sorry, Lynx).
They are about to begin a two-game series in Queens against the New York Mets, completing a ten-day, seven-Game road trip. They come home and play Detroit over the weekend for a trio.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4). Couldn't complete a season sweep of The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics Sunday, but they did beat two downtrodden teams and the superstars probably hanging up at the end of the year -- Dirk Nowitzki's Dallas Mavericks and Dwyane Wade's Miami Heat. Sure, both wins were only by two Points, but a win's a win, especially when the club is just playing out the string. The season ends, mercifully, in mere hours. Tonight (Tuesday night) is the final home game, vs. Toronto. Tomorrow/Wednesday night they complete the year in Denver.
#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -3). For a club that scheduled tough and then did not do much against it, it has very little margin for error to get to the NCAA Tournament. And that margin thinned even further after dropping two-of-three at Michigan over the weekend. (And no, their Tuesday win over St. Scholastica does not count, at least not in my eyes.) They are hosting North Dakota St. right now (Tuesday evening); hope the Bison can get back home safely in the midst of this blizzard that's coming. And I hope the Gophs can play all three Games of their series versus Illinois at Siebert this weekend.
#-Infinity: Wild (Last Week: -6). A 5-1 home win Tuesday over The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers in fact was a desperate attempt to stay in the playoff chase against a disinterested party already in the playoffs. But The Bastard Quebec Nordiques won that evening, and so The Minnesota Mild will sit out these playoffs after seven straight seasons. The team responded to that failure by promptly capitulating to shutout losses at the hands of Boston (at home) and The Team That Was Stolen From Us (on the road). So this organization is in the worst of both worlds: Not reaching the playoffs of a sport where an underdog has a good a chance of winning a title as any, but not so bad (Minnesota is only the 11th-worst record in the NHL) that they get a high draft pick. In other words, purgatory.
You can make the case that the Mild have been in purgatory for some time. As the litany of years ending way short of the Stanley Cup runs the signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Stuer were supposed to portend, it has become clear, and then obvious, that this simply wasn't going to work. There is some pride in making the playoffs so many seasons in a row, but I think a lot of fans were not just resigned to this run ending this year; a lot of people want General Manager Paul Fenton to begin the rebuilding and so are basically thinking (and I'm quoting the Geto Boys here), "If it's going down, let's get this shit over with."
Then again ... Fenton has managed to reverse the moves previous GM Chuck Fletcher made, sending away the supporting layer around Parise and Suter (Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund), so the change is underway. They are getting younger (Ryan Donato, Kevin Fiala) and more flexible, something Fletcher chose not to do when putting faith in those young guns that they'll all improve as a unit. And as much as Mikko Koivu and Matt Dumba drive us crazy, their absences were felt. Michael Russo noted on Twitter that the Mild scored the fewest Goals in the league after Dumba was lost for the season.
So maybe there needs to be a few years of deep wallowing, where the squad hasn't bottomed out yet. Or, maybe these new young guns will improve as a unit, and both Koivu and Dumba come back at 100% next year. Maybe, just maybe, they don't need to retrench with a high draft pick this year. And maybe, just maybe, this season really is only an anomaly.
But thankfully I was wrong. Abu Danladi put United FC on the board in the 34th, and then Angelo Rodriguez spun and fed Romario Ibarra in the box in the 50th, a scintillating kick begetting another scintillating kick that resulted in the Game-winner. And finally, the Loons beat a club that 1) is a model for how to develop talent and 2) seems to have Minnesota's number.
So, to give construction workers time to get Allianz Field together, MNUFC goes 3-0-2. Those nine Points (let alone three Wins) are more than they have in either of their previous two seasons on the road. And with Saturday finally opening up the gorgeous Allianz against NYCFC (I'm leaving work early to do this, and I think people are upset), things are looking up. Therefore, I am putting United FC up top, and I'm going to push them past negative numbers. Cool!
#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -1). The U. softballers won their series at Illinois over the weekend. Unfortunately, they lost the first game of a Saturday Doubleheader in extra (eight) Innings, 4-3. They host Michigan St. this weekend.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2). Won both games in Kansas City, then lost a series in Philadelphia over the weekend. They sit third in the division, I think, but some observers see a confidence, even a swagger, with this ballclub that has been entirely absent in recent years. Maybe it'll be the Twinks who will break the Twin Cities out of their major league postseason drought (sorry, Lynx).
They are about to begin a two-game series in Queens against the New York Mets, completing a ten-day, seven-Game road trip. They come home and play Detroit over the weekend for a trio.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4). Couldn't complete a season sweep of The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics Sunday, but they did beat two downtrodden teams and the superstars probably hanging up at the end of the year -- Dirk Nowitzki's Dallas Mavericks and Dwyane Wade's Miami Heat. Sure, both wins were only by two Points, but a win's a win, especially when the club is just playing out the string. The season ends, mercifully, in mere hours. Tonight (Tuesday night) is the final home game, vs. Toronto. Tomorrow/Wednesday night they complete the year in Denver.
#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -3). For a club that scheduled tough and then did not do much against it, it has very little margin for error to get to the NCAA Tournament. And that margin thinned even further after dropping two-of-three at Michigan over the weekend. (And no, their Tuesday win over St. Scholastica does not count, at least not in my eyes.) They are hosting North Dakota St. right now (Tuesday evening); hope the Bison can get back home safely in the midst of this blizzard that's coming. And I hope the Gophs can play all three Games of their series versus Illinois at Siebert this weekend.
#-Infinity: Wild (Last Week: -6). A 5-1 home win Tuesday over The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers in fact was a desperate attempt to stay in the playoff chase against a disinterested party already in the playoffs. But The Bastard Quebec Nordiques won that evening, and so The Minnesota Mild will sit out these playoffs after seven straight seasons. The team responded to that failure by promptly capitulating to shutout losses at the hands of Boston (at home) and The Team That Was Stolen From Us (on the road). So this organization is in the worst of both worlds: Not reaching the playoffs of a sport where an underdog has a good a chance of winning a title as any, but not so bad (Minnesota is only the 11th-worst record in the NHL) that they get a high draft pick. In other words, purgatory.
You can make the case that the Mild have been in purgatory for some time. As the litany of years ending way short of the Stanley Cup runs the signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Stuer were supposed to portend, it has become clear, and then obvious, that this simply wasn't going to work. There is some pride in making the playoffs so many seasons in a row, but I think a lot of fans were not just resigned to this run ending this year; a lot of people want General Manager Paul Fenton to begin the rebuilding and so are basically thinking (and I'm quoting the Geto Boys here), "If it's going down, let's get this shit over with."
Then again ... Fenton has managed to reverse the moves previous GM Chuck Fletcher made, sending away the supporting layer around Parise and Suter (Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund), so the change is underway. They are getting younger (Ryan Donato, Kevin Fiala) and more flexible, something Fletcher chose not to do when putting faith in those young guns that they'll all improve as a unit. And as much as Mikko Koivu and Matt Dumba drive us crazy, their absences were felt. Michael Russo noted on Twitter that the Mild scored the fewest Goals in the league after Dumba was lost for the season.
So maybe there needs to be a few years of deep wallowing, where the squad hasn't bottomed out yet. Or, maybe these new young guns will improve as a unit, and both Koivu and Dumba come back at 100% next year. Maybe, just maybe, they don't need to retrench with a high draft pick this year. And maybe, just maybe, this season really is only an anomaly.
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