Positive Numbers: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -3). After a worrying, humbling sweep at home at the hands of unranked Notre Dame, it was important for the U. male icers to get back on track. They did last week, and how: They swept Arizona St. at Mariucci Thursday and Friday by scores of 10-0 and 10-2. Now, the Sun Devils aren't really the 1980s Edmonton Oilers. But it nonetheless was important to pocket wins, and with these two they maintain a ranking of fourth in both polls and remain on the inside when it comes to the PairWise. Mainly for the crushing wins, I have elevated this team up to Positive Numbers.
This squad is at Ohio St. tonight/Friday evening and tomorrow/Saturday afternoon.
#0: Gopher volleyball (Re-Entry!). Finally, the Big Ten begins play in women's volleyball. Like with most other sports, the league is playing only against each other, and similar to what the NBA and NHL are doing in response to the pandemic, the league is also going to play college hockey-style, with a pair of Games against the same opponent over two days. So the Gophers began last weekend with a sweep of Michigan St. at Maturi. They thus maintain their #7 ranking on the AVCA Top 25, and thus, I am going to put them at 0. They are in Maryland tonight/Friday night and tomorrow/Saturday evening.
#-1: Whitecaps (Re-Entry!). Have to admit that the National Women's Hockey League snuck up on me. And like a cat burglar, it'll be gone before we know it. The NWHL "season" is a bubble in Lake Placid, N.Y., the six teams will play each other round-robin style only once before having one-Game Semifinals and Final. This will all wrap up a week-and-a-half from now.
Under such a format, the 'Caps have picked up where they left off, which was preparing to play for last Year's Isobel Cup Final vs. the Boston Pride before the pandemic hit and, unfortunately, the league decided to scuttle the title Game. They began Saturday with a 2-1, come-from-behind victory over the Pride. Then, the Whitecaps roared back from a 5-1 deficit to beat the expansion club Toronto Six (stupid-ass name, by the way) in a Shootout on Sunday. Then on Tuesday, Minnesota's Haley Mack scored on a 5-on-3 Power Play with ten Seconds left in regulation to beat the Metropolitan Riveters, 1-0. They thus are the only team in the six-team league that is undefeated.
They were supposed to play yesterday/Thursday. But the league postponed all the Games because the Riveters have an outbreak of coronavirus cases. In fact, it was announced that the entire club has pulled out of the quasi-tournament. This pullout stands out because, unlike teams in the NWSL and MLS, apparently this breakout began once Games began, and under the assumption that players were only congregating with each other. If that's not the case, well, these Rivs done fucked up, because they fucked up the schedule for the rest of the league.
I unfairly would dock the Whitecaps for this coronavirus-related postponement. But unfortunately it gets worse than that. I have just made myself aware of a coordinated online attack orchestrated by the alt-right sports section, also known as Barstool Sports. Earlier in the Week, the CEO of this sports ... thing tweeted her support of the NWHL, which she has done from time to time. That brought up critics who say that the league should not attract the support of someone leading a company that promotes racism, sexism and online harassment of journalists. To which the CEO tweeted about her being a victim ... and then naming those critics and journalists so Republican trolls can harass them online. It gets worse. Saroya Tinker, a Rookie Defenseman for the Riveters, clapped back at the CEO. To which the founder of Barstool tweeted that Tinker should be in jail, which set off another round of online attacks against Tinker.
What really gets me is that this Republican hate group (seriously, I don't know how Barstool hasn't teamed up, or even been bought out by, Breitbart yet) has support from many in the NWHL. Several players have showed on the CEO's podcasts. After her quasi-doxxing tweet a player, Kelly Babstock, retweeted several of the CEO's tweets. Babstock is a teammate of Tinker. Later in the week, a director of hockey operations named Gabrielle Gjelaj tweeted her own words defending the CEO, bemoaning cancel culture, and outright ignoring the entire controversy, including the harassment of Saroya Tinker, a member of the Riverters ... for whom Gjelaj is the director of hockey operations. Talk about an inside job. For the league's part, they put out a statement that is half-ass. Goddamn, they are thirsty for that Barstool attention, even if it fuels the fire of this controversy. Anyway, this breakdown on Defector (formed by the writers of Deadspin, an online publication that I have not totally liked, but has frequently taken down Barstool) is fantastic.
Even though I have no evidence beyond this, enough of a shitstorm has been created that I have to toss some of this on the Whitecaps. I have to think that at least several players on the club love Barstool -- a few of them probably are stars, even. The founding and growth of a women's pro league is by its very definition progressive, and therefore I will attest that the NWHL has a duty to reject any support from regressive, pro-stupid, Republican groups like Barstool. The league has not, at least not genuinely, and many of its players are siding with this hate group and against progress, and some of its own players. This has the potential to destroy the league ... and if the powers that choose not to be on the right side, then they deserve to die.
So yeah, that's why I've ranked the Whitecaps -1. They're supposed to play the Buffalo Beauts on Saturday, then after that, who knows?
#-2: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -1). I don't think it matters since it's too late, but this squad has won three Games in a row. Apparently Head Coach Lindsay Whalen lit into the team (I assume it was after the Third Quarter, after they got outscored in that Quarter, 21-12, and thus was trailing by seven) and her players responded by doubling up Penn St. in the Fourth, 32-16, and thus claimed the road victory Monday, 85-76. They then followed that up by outlasting Purdue at Williams yesterday/Thursday afternoon, 77-72. This week the U. hosts Iowa and visits Michigan.
#-3: Wild (Last Week: -2). A 2-2 screening Week -- splitting two-Game series with San Jose and Los Angeles at home. An early storyline emerging with this team is their lack of production on the Power Play. However, highlight efforts by Kirill Kaprizov and Kevin Fiala show offensive talent on the Wild for the first time in a long time.
#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -5). It was possible that this past Week could have been the last Week Ryan Saunders was in charge of the Woofie Dogs. He avoided being fired -- barely, I assume -- with a surprising 120-110 victory at home over New Orleans Saturday night. Once again they were without the services of Karl-Anthony Towns (still battling COVID-19) and D'Angelo Russell (quad, but also "load management"), but they somehow rocked the Pels. Of course, that win was surrounded by somnambulant losses at Target Center to Atlanta and back-to-back defeats at Golden State. Moribund remains the apt descriptor for this franchise. This Week: Home vs. Philadelphia tonight/Friday night, a back-to-back home-and-home with Cleveland Sunday and Monday, and at San Antonio Wednesday.
#-5: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: 0). Home Dual versus Iowa last Friday was going to be a massacre, and it was: 35-4. The only Points came courtesy of Heavyweight and #1 in that class, Gable Steveson, who took a Major Decision over the third-ranked Heavyweight, Tony Cassioppi, 14-6. Otherwise, the Hawkeyes got a pin (at 125; the top-ranked rassler in that class felled #9, Gopher Patrick McKee two Minutes into the Match), a Technical Fall, and three Major Decisions. Sunday they will participate in the second of two "tri-Meets" where, in Piscataway, N.J., they will face Purdue and then Rutgers.
#-6: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). I thought that this club was good enough to shore up their already lofty resume with wins on the road vs. teams that are not the class of the B1G. I did not think I would have to worry about the direct opposite -- losing to bad league teams at home. But that's what happened Saturday afternoon, when the Goofers fell behind early and never was able to get it together in a humiliating 63-49 defeat at the hands of Maryland. I will assume this is a blip on the road to The Big Dance, but this team right now is 4-5 in-conference. Plus, they have to go on the road this screening Week to play Purdue tomorrow/Saturday night and Rutgers Thursday night. Be careful; a winless week will undermine the CV lots.
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