#-1: United FC (Last Week: -1). I was really torn on how to order this week's survey. I have given a lot, and I mean a lot, of thought to putting the Mild at #-1. They weren't playing, which means they didn't even have a chance to break my heart.
In the end, though, that seemed strange, and so I went back to the main criterion I have for the WMNSS, which is record for the screening week. Oh, with consideration for postseason prospects sprinkled in as a tiebreaker. With that, the Loons take the top spot for a second week in a row by dint of a 2-0 over Cincinnati Saturday night and a scoreless Tie in Nashville last/Tuesday night. Four Points drifts MNUFC to a tie for fourth in the West, even though they and Nasvhille SC were the only teams playing last/Tuesday night and the rest of the league plays tonight/Wednesday night.
In other news, lost in all the subsequent chatter over Donald Trump suspected of having the 'Rona, on Thursday the team announced that they traded Mason Toye to the Montreal Impact in exchange for money. I swear, this time a year ago I believed Toye was going to be this team's Striker of the future. And now he's gone? I'm not as heartbroken about this trade as I am for the one with Christian Ramirez. But I am starting to ... (sigh) understand that soccer teams are just meatgrinders, where players pass through so quickly that they might as well hole up in an ExtendedStay America until they're told to leave.
The problem, as I have read, is that Head Coach Adrian Heath demands that Forwards score consistently. That gives them more dependable playing time. And if he doesn't do that, off he goes. Heath is merciless like that. You remember all the hoopla over Thomas Chacon? He's not even with the team right now; he might have gone back to Uruguay. And despite Luis Amarilla playing like a bat out of hell pre-COVID, he likely is on his way out, too. Kei Kamara has a long track record in MLS of being a dependable Striker, but knowing Heath and the win-now attitude (and is this team in win-now mode, only in its fourth year of top-flight existence?) with the franchise, if he doesn't score, he's also done for.
Bottom line: The side needs to put balls in the net. Will they be able to do it Sunday night as they take yet another trip down to Dallas?
#-2: Vikings (Last Week: -2). I did not see this coming. I did not expect the Vikes to go down to Houston and beat the Texans. And, in my opinion, they shouldn't have. That catch by Will Fuller V was so wishy-washy that I didn't think there was convincing evidence to overturn the ruling on the field. Whatever it would have been, I thought it should have stayed, and since the ruling on the field was a catch for a Touchdown, it should have stayed that way. But somehow it was overturned, the Vikings got the ball back on downs, and they're off the schneid.
Sure, if the TD stood, the Texans would have had to go for two. They might not have made it, but maybe they would have because the Defense still isn't that great. And then, who knows? Maybe Houston wins in OT. Maybe the ViQueens go to 0-4. Maybe the Texans don't fire Bill O'Brien. (Imagine that, the Vikings being the death knell for O'Brien's tenure in Houston.) As such, we saw on Sunday an Offense that looked real good. Dalvin Cook remains the steadfast producer on that side of the ball. And Justin Jefferson ... well, he now has the most Receiving Yards of any Viking in his first four Games. I think he's on his way to becoming somebody.
Next is a Sunday night matchup in Seattle against the Seahawks. Nope, not happening. Well, maybe. A 5% chance. So ... nope. Not happening.
#-3: Wild (Re-Entry!). The way I'm feeling right now, at this moment, I wouldn't feel right giving the Mild the top spot in the survey based on a draft pick. It's the NHL, so I have no idea who the heck this Marco Rossi dude is. What I do know, however, is that more mock drafts had Minnesota selecting this Austrian Center. Moreover, for the ninth pick, Rossi would be projected as The Best Player Available. He also plays in a position of severe need for the Wild.
And what I find most promising is that a lot of writers thought this was a home run pick. There are more NHL-ready players, and there are even better Centers available in this draft. But a lot of writers are high on Rossi for his vision, his ability to keep the puck at his blade, and for ... well, for moves like these:
He slid down to ninth only because he's small and he isn't as strong as some would like. But some people think Rossi is ready to play in the NHL now -- and that includes Rossi himself. Some confidence? This organization sorely needs that right now.
In the meantime, General Manager Bill Guerin continues to, somehow, remake this roster. A lot of people fans have grown accustomed to seeing at the X are gone. Well, maybe not Ryan Donato, who was here for only a brief period of time. But Devan Dubnyk is also gone. (Both went to San Jose although, weirdly enough, in separate deals; the GM for the Sharks wanted it that way, for some reason.)
Dubnyk had family issues to deal with this season, and his play has slipped for the last couple. But I remember the Mild just after the New Year in 2015 and struggling mightily, especially between the pipes. The GM at the time, Chuck Fletcher, traded a third-round pick to The Bastard Winnipeg Jets for Dubnyk because they were desperate for a Goalie who didn't suck. Up to that point Dubnyk, who spent the previous year in the AHL in the midst of being traded twice, was a journeyman, and when I heard about the trade I just thought the Mild were absolutely fucking desperate. But he would win his first Game after flying in to Buffalo that day, he would start the next 37 Games, he would be the backstopper for a league-tying record of 12 consecutive wins on the road, and he would pilot the Wild from being eight Points out of a postseason spot to the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Devan Dubnyk was the perfect person, and the sole solution, for a team that needed no one less than a savior at its most vulnerable state. In fact, when this chapter of Minnesota professional hockey is written, I think he will be remembered quite fondly for saving the Wild organization from what would have been a year, and could have been years, of mediocrity and fan indifference. So, for that, I say: Thank you, Devan Dubnyk.
#-Infinity: Twins (Last Week: -3). Abject. Failure. Abject. Fucking. Failure.
I am so pissed off that this team is dead to me. What can I say that hasn't already been said? We can talk about the overreliance on sabermetrics, which shuffled out another Starting Pitcher who did well (in Wednesday's Game 2 it was Jose Berrios, probably turning in his best-ever postseason pitching performance) in favor of bullpen arms that noticeably ran out of gas -- in the case of the elimination Game, Cody Stashak gave up the Game-winning, Series-ending, Season-killing score with a Home Run by noted cheater Carlos Correa, and Taylor Rogers, so often good in the past but so leaky this season, finished the balance of the scoring by allowing yet another Run, the last in the 3-1 defeat. We should also definitely talk about the illusion of "The Bomba Squad" as they, for a second consecutive season, became The Broomba Squad after getting swept. The Offense was even more anemic than last year's postseason cameo. The Twinks didn't get two Run in the two Games in this Series; Nelson Cruz got two Runs.
And speaking of ... Nellie Cruz probably is the one guy out of the many rumored to be leaving the organization that I would want to keep. It doesn't matter if he's 50; he has proven to be the only guy on this team that can hit when it really matters. Odorizzi, Rosario, Gonzalez, Jorge Polanco and that goddamn fuck-up on that grounder in Game 1, which directly led to that 4-1 loss and, turns out, heralded the return of The Curse that damned The Bastard Washington Senators v.1.0. to 18 straight postseason losses -- they can go all the way to Go Fuck Yourself City, for all I care.
Sick of this fucking cuck team.
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