#0: Wild (Last Week: -2). OK, so with the Timberwolves' Season over and the Twins still in their first month of their Season (it doesn't help that Games of a summer sport are currently being played when it doesn't feel like summer at all), the Twin Cities sports fan's eyes can be completely devoted to The Most Exciting Team In The History Of The Minnesota Wild.
The goal this Week was to beat out the Blues and get home-ice advantage for the First Round series vs. St. Louis. One inexplicably awful Loss at the Xcel Energy Center to The Bastard Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday -- in regulation, to a team that had lost ten in a row before then -- put that in serious jeopardy. But luckily they ended their regular season playing, according to many number crunchers, The Two Best Teams In The NHL ... luckily because they had sewn up their divisions and playoff spots long ago and had little reason to put forth a full effort. Minnesota did have motivation, however, and so they beat The Bastard Atlanta Flames Thursday in Overtime (thanks, Kirill!) and outworked The Bastard Quebec Nordiques last/Friday night, both tilts also being at home. (They began the week nipping the playoff-bound Predators in OT in Nashville Sunday night. The Wild finish their Year winning seven of their last eight contests. No team in the NHL had a better finishing kick than Minnesota.)
But now comes the season that matters, and Minnesota fans should rightly be chattering. St. Louis is a horrible matchup for Minnesota. The Blues have beaten the Wild in all three meetings this season. Two of the Losses happened in Overtime just this month, and both were in The Loo. The third defeat, if you'll recall, was The Winter Classic New Year's Night, in which the Blues went to Target Field and thoroughly outworked and worked over Minnesota, 6-4, and the Game was not as close as the score indicates. This franchise has a history of losing their identity in a playoff ... uh, "format" where the style of play and the rubric of penalties being called is different from the regular season, sometimes radically so. Finally, this is hockey, and as much as the Wild wanted to gain home-ice advantage, in no sport is being at home less of an advantage than in hockey. I would've been fine with this squad resting all their players and giving up home ice because it's almost inevitable they'll win one on the road. But whatever.
Hey, what they've accomplished is indelible. But you can't say this club's window is open. For the next two-to-three Years, the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter will eat into the team's salary cap. A few good players (Matt Dumba? Kevin Fiala?) will have to be jettisoned in order for the Wild to fit under the cap. This squad will be significantly cheaper, younger, and probably worse after this Year. This season seems to have appeared out of thin air, and yet if you recognize the storm clouds coming, this postseason run should have a Last Dance feel to it.
Because of all this doom and gloom, I'm only giving the Wild a 0 and not Positive Numbers. Let's see how they acquit themselves in The Stanley Cup Playoffs. The series begins Monday. That Game and Wednesday's Game 2 are in St. Paul. Game 3 is in the STL Friday.
#-1: Twins (Last Week: -3). OK, I see you, Twins. They pulled of a 5-1 screening Week. They swept the White Sox and the Tigers, thus pulling together a seven-Game winning streak that propelled them to the top of the American League Central Division. Sure, Tuesday's victory was their second "two errors on the same play to give them the lead/Win" such Win in four Days, but that's not their fault. The Starting Pitching is assuming form; Joe Ryan's performance in a 5-0 Win over Detroit at Target Wednesday was outstanding, and the Chrises, Archer and Paddack, have contributed well for what was expected of them. The relief corps is still finding itself (although Jhoan Duran should become the Closer if he can continue to throw gas like he has). And while the lineup still can't hit -- Miguel Sano, you and I both have a problem now -- at least Byron Buxton is still playing.
And then the winning streak ended last/Friday night in Tampa, and in a 6-1 thud. The Bay Rays' record isn't that much better than the Twinks', but on paper Tampa is projected to be much better. And while the Tigers have the makings of a better team in the future, they should take their lumps in 2022. Only the White Sox have become an enigma; is this just a slump, or are the Twins sweeping them an indicator that the Southsiders aren't going to duplicate what they did last season? This is all to say that there should still be some doubt as to whether this ballclub has what it takes to put together a playoff-reaching Year.
After finishing up in Tampa, they travel to Baltimore for four showdowns, then come back home to begin a three-Game set versus The Bastard Philadelphia-By-Way-Of Kansas City Athletics beginning on Friday.
#-2: United FC (Last Week: -1). If you're a polysport fan like me, you may have had it indoctrinated in your head that the Western Conference is much better than the Eastern Conference, no matter the sport. That appears to no longer be the case in the NBA and the NHL. But even though that contrast has never been that strong in Major League Soccer, if you look at the standings now, the West is the best. Has been for some time, if I'm not mistaken.
And that imbalance continues to spell trouble for the Loons. They had a convincing 3-0 victory over The Chicago Fire Saturday afternoon, a Match in which Emmanuel Reynoso finally got on track and became the talisman he often was the past couple Years. (Oh, Bongokuhle Hlongwane had two Assists in that Game, too, give some love to him.) And yet, as of press time, they sit in fifth place, which would be on the road for the First Round of the playoffs. Now, they're only five Points behind first- place LAFC, and they play at LAFC tomorrow/Sunday night. But they're also only three Points clear of Nashville and Portland, both of whom sit outside the playoff picture. Once again, MNUFC are facing a marathon of rock fights.
#-3: Gopher softball (Last Week: -4). Hmmm, what to make of this program? They dropped the final two Games of their home series against Maryland last weekend (Saturday's Loss came in the retirement ceremony of U. great Gretchen Larson), but they followed that up with a tripling of St. Thomas Tuesday and, confoundingly, a 3-2 Win at ranked Michigan. Thank Buddha for Natalie DenHartog; her three-Run blast to Right Field in the Third Inning was the difference.
Still, this ballclub is 22-20-1, and 7-9 in the Big Ten. The tournament is pure fantasy now. But this program has been a solid one for several seasons. Now, they're a has-been. What has happened?
Believe it or not, these final two Games in Ann Arbor is the end of the road portion of this team's regular season. They (try to) make up the home Doubleheader to Wisconsin Wednesday, then start the final series of the Year, at home against Northwestern, Friday afternoon.
#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -5). Softball's fallen into mediocrity, but the baseball program might be worse. They dropped the back two Games of a three-Game set vs. Penn St. at Siebert Field, then lost Tuesday at home to, Christ almighty, South Dakota St., 12-6. They were able to shut out St. Thomas at Siebert the next night, 9-0, but began a three-Game series at Michigan St. last/Friday night with an 8-4 defeat. These guys sit at 2-11 in the B1G and, ugh, 12-28 overall.
After finishing up against the Spartans, they have no midweek dates scheduled, so they'll be fully rested in time for Nebraska to come to town for a trio starting Friday night.
#-Infinity: Timberwolves (Last Week: -6). See, what to make of these Timberwolves, this season? On the one hand, I think it's safe to say that the future for this squad, and this franchise, is bright, in fact brighter than at any point in recent memory, if not ever. Sure, they lost to The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies, sealed with last/Friday night's loss at Target Center in Game 6. (Aside: I am surprised that, with as many competitive Games, some of which were upsets by the lower seed at the higher seed's court, not one of the eight First Round series reached the full seven Games. The Timberwolves-Memphis series was the last one, and like many of the others, the higher seed beat the lower seed in six. First time since 2011 that has happened, as I just saw on Wikipedia.) But they showed some toughness in this series when I think many Wolves fans would have been happy if they had won just one Game -- me included. Also, they led Memphis for, I think, the majority of time throughout the series, and besides Game 2, they were leading, if not hanging with, Memphis the entire series.
The flip side begins, of course, with Memphis advancing and not Minnesota. While the Woofie Dogs had been leading Memphis -- by huge margins at many points -- they didn't finish. The Woofs blew not one, not two, but three double-digit leads when the Fourth Quarter began, an NBA first. So while winning twice is something to build on, it is hard to spin an unprecedented triple choke like that and say that the only thing this team needs to do is mature a little more. Karl-Anthony Towns still has his maturity issues, and the entire team folded too often in the final stanza. But if you want to hone in one dude, D'Angelo Russell had a shit series.
You can also find inspiration for, or a counterargument to the idea the T-Wolves getting better is just a matter of time, by the opponent who just ended their season. Bastard Vancouver reached the playoffs last season for the first time in four seasons, and they lost to The Bastard New Orleans Jazz in five. If they are older than Minnesota (and I'm not quite sure that's the case), it's not by much. And they have the second-best record in The Association. Especially in this series but apparently throughout the regular season, that team demonstrated the resilience, the toughness, and the "grit and grind" (an ethos that organization has successfully co-opted into a slogan they'll be able to profit from for Years) that advanced them to the next round ... and that the Woofs clearly lack. (Oh, I should add that the real reason the Two Elves have been eliminated was that there was no protestor who got onto the court. Since the Play-In -- well, there was no protestor who got onto the court at Target Center all Year, so let's just say all Year -- this squad was undefeated when a protestor got onto the court.)
It is very demoralizing to know that this team lost. (I seldom watch my teams in the playoffs. I should blog post about it. It has to be psychological.) And yet the window for this ballclub appears to be wide and widening. I think I have to go back to my main edict when it comes to sports teams: If you didn't win a championship, your season was a failure. And so it was, I guess.
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