#0: Whitecaps (Re-Entry!). A professional hockey team takes the top spot in this Week's WMNSS, and not only that, they're playing real well right now. Nope, not the Wild -- it's the Minnesota Whitecaps, who are riding high on a six-Game winning streak and a third consecutive series sweep after going to Montreal and taking both tilts vs. the expansion team Force, 4-1 and 3-2.
And next weekend, after about two Months away, the 'Caps will be playing at home -- home being the Richfield Ice Arena -- for a two-Game series against the bottom-dwelling Buffalo Beauts. They're in Richfield next weekend, too, so if you want to see some good hockey right now, and I for one do (and will), head on over to the RIA. I'm sure you'll see two victories next Week.
With that being said, they still remain in third place (albeit a safe third) in the PHF. If they move up -- by saying, for example, they sweep the Toronto Six two Weeks from now -- I could put them in Positive Numbers. But one step at a time, so the Whitecaps get a #0.
#-1: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -3). In the final Dual of the regular season, the Gophs win the border battle at 19th-ranked Wisconsin, 19-15. They finish 5-3 in-conference, 12-3 overall. So ... this is ... OK? Conference championships (in Michigan) the first weekend in March.
#-2: Gopher softball (New Season! [I think I can be a little more accurate than "Re-Entry!" whenever I bring back a team that starts its new season). It's always tough to know when the the college diamond sports' seasons begin because they always start away from home. Anyway, the U. softball ballclub began this weekend with the Northern Lights Tournament from ... Leesburg, Fla.? I don't get it, whatever. They started off with three Wins, the first two Mercy Ruled (10-2 over Western Kentucky in six Innings, 18-2 over Butler in five, then 8-1 over Portland St.), but their perfect season 1 1/2 Days into their year with a 4-3 Loss to ... Colgate? Really? I don't get it, whatever.
They wind up the tournament this/Sunday morning with a second contest versus the Lady Toppers. Next weekend Minnesota participate in the B1G/ACC Challenge in Chapel Hill, N. C. The Gophers will play four Games, alternating between the host Tar Heels and Virginia. (Maryland is the other Big Ten squad ... well, the other "Big Ten" squad, because we all know the Terrapins belong in the ACC, so it is totally ironic that the Terps are coming "home" to face their former conference mates. I don't get it, whatever.)
#-3: Gopher men's hockey (Re-Entry!). It's not the end of the world. They were playing on the road against a rival, here's still some season left, and I still think this is as good a team the U. has had in quite some time. But motherfucking God, Wisconsin was 11-18 overall and 4-15 in league play. And the Gophs only got a split? Yes, they fucked the Badgers over good Friday, 4-1. But last/Saturday night they weren't all that competitive in losing, 3-1. They'll lose that #1 ranking in the polls. They might also lose the top spot in the PairWise, since one would consider this to be a bad Loss. Again, we shouldn't need to go into crisis mode. But let's go into Happy Valley and sweep Penn St., shall we?
#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -2). A 2-2 screening Week that keeps the Wolves firmly in the muck of a still very compacted Western Conference, but of course that's not the big story coming from the squad. It's the trade of D'Angelo Russell, one of the Big 4, to The Team That Was Stole From Us v.1.0 as part of a three-team trade that brings Mike Conley, Jr. over from The Bastard New Orleans Jazz.
First things first: It's a somewhat-schadenfreude-ish embarrassment that this mural and this mural are now out-of-date mere months after they were finished.
As for the trade itself, there are so many dimensions to this that I don't know where to begin. But I'll start with the boast from D-Lo not too long ago that, if you read between the lines, he said it would be in the T-Wolves' best interest to keep him. Obviously, President Tim Connelly believes otherwise. But Russell's recent performance was markedly better than the choppy results that frustrated many fans and led Head Coach Chris Finch to bench him late, in Game 6 of last season's series against The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies and in several Games this season. They're going to miss his scoring.
The Woofs, however, are not going to miss his Defense, for which he provided very little. His Defensive Rating has been consistently shit. And the Wolves as a team improved on their backcourt when Russell wasn't playing. I'm not sure if Conley is supposed to be an upgrade over that. He probably can't be any worse, but it would help if the impending new starting Point Guard could try harder a little more on that end.
Conley, of course, is considered to be a consummate floor general, a pass-first organizer that Russell never was. That, at least on paper, is a huge plus. But the main reason Conley was acquired is because of his history dominating on the pick-and-roll with Rudy Gobert, whom Minnesota got over the offseason, when they were in Utah. With just over half a season in the books, it is looking as though trading for The Stifel Tower has been a huge, and maybe Herschel Walker-level, bust in Minnesota sports history. Getting Gobert easy buckets working in tandem with Conley is Connelly's effort to salvage the trade and Gobert's career. What troubles me is how much Connelly is needed to do in order to justify getting, and then trying to fix, Gobert. Yes, the Woofie Dogs were facing salary cap hell with up to four maximum contracts, and contract extension talks with Russell were going nowhere, so it stood to reason that D-Lo was going to get traded anyway. Still, with Gobert playing like he's a sunk cost, this feels like throwing good money after bad. And remember that Conley is nine years older than Russell, and his best years (many of which he played with Gobert) probably are behind him. Plus, does this move mean Gobert will start rebounding and playing D?
Finally there is, I think, the angle no one is talking about and should. Russell was acquired by Minnesota from Golden State (in the Andrew Wiggins trade) in large part because the putative current Alpha Wolf, Karl-Anthony Towns, wanted the franchise to get him so he could play with his friend. I don't know how much Connelly was talking to KAT about this move. But if Towns has any leverage, and assuming he and D-Lo are like blood, this trade should piss him off. And then you have another of The Remaining Big 3 potentially becoming a Big Headache.
But, then again, does it matter? He's been injured for weeks now, and we have no idea when he's coming back. In the meantime, Anthony Edwards has been carrying the team, and frankly, it feels as though he has supplanted KAT as the face of the team. So if Towns is pissed, who cares? Trade him for someone who cares about Defense, go with an Ant/Gobert axis ... and stay stuck in the middle of the Western Conference, still?
This Week: Finish a four-Game road trip with a stop in Dallas Monday (with newly acquired Galaxy Brain Kyrie Irving), then a Game at Target Center against Washington on Thursday before Anthony Edwards, recently named an injury replacement, goes out to Salt Lake City and participates in next weekend's All-Star Game.
#-5: Wild (Re-Entry!). They're now trying to pull themselves out of a spiral that had sent them out of a playoff spot. The spiral came in the form of a three-Game losing streak this Week to The Bastard Winnipeg Jets, The Bastard North Stars, and Loss Vegas, which came into the X and beat the shit out of the Mild, 5-1, in what may have been the worst Game they have played all season. They salvaged the Week with a Shootout Win at home over The Bastard Colorado Rockies which puts them, as of press time, tied for third in the Central Division with The Bastard Quebec Nordiques. But their 5-on-5 scoring has remained crap (I saw a stat that shows that top Center Sam Steel has cratered since the New Year), and the Trade Deadline is heating up with both Jordan Greenway and Matt Dumba apparently being shopped around by General Manager Bill Guerin. I don't know how a salary cap-strapped squad like the Wild are going to be able to find the money to trade for a scorer, and even then I don't know if that will make enough of a difference in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
They're in the middle of a seven-Game homestand which continues this Week with dates vs. Florida, said Avalanche and The Team That Was Stolen From Us v.2.0.
#-6: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -1). Now this is disconcerting. Wisconsin is ranked eighth in the country, so it's not as if they lost to, like, St. Thomas. But the Badgers went into Ridder Arena, packed to the gills in both Games, and lost -- In a Shootout Friday, 7-5 last/Saturday night. That means that Ohio St. is winning the WCHA regular season title. Minnesota's got second, that isn't in doubt, and I think they'll stick at third in the PairWise, so they're still safely in the NCAAs. But against the two power clubs in the same conference, the Badgers and Buckeyes, they're technically 3-5 (with one Win and two Losses coming in the Shootout, but still). I now doubt they have the juice to beat those teams, or Yale, who's second in the PairWise, in the tourney.
I used St. Thomas as an example/punching bag because they're the U.'s foe for the last series of the regular season, next weekend in Inver Grove Heights.
#-Infinity: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -4). Observation: Even with the stumbles both Dinkytown hockey teams suffered this screening Week, it's surprising to see the Gopher hockey teams doing so well and the Gopher basketball teams doing so poorly. The sports right now are diametric opposites of each other. Strange.
Anyway, I spent last Week's survey hating on the male hardcourters, so I think it's warranted that I now slag the female. They have doubled their losing streak from three to six. This sorry-ass squad had three Games this screening Week, and they lost all three. And they covered all their bases by losing only by seven at Illinois, getting blown out at Ohio St. by 30, then dropping a home border battle to Wisconsin yesterday/Saturday afternoon in Overtime. The U. is 2-12 in the B1G and 9-16 overall. Even though it stands to reason Lindsay Whalen's seat should be hot, it may not be because she's Lindsay Whalen.
Nevertheless, this program is a walking humiliation, so that's why I am throwing them a still-very-rare #-Infinity at them. Because this team sucks, and the players know it. This Week: Home to Nebraska, then at Northwestern.
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