Along with Wednesday's 24-Point demolition of the Sparks in Los Angeles, the squad's 2-1 Week keeps them atop the Western Conference by a Game over ... Seattle? Las Vegas has played two fewer Games than both the Lynx and the Storm, but they're sitting at 5-4 after losing their second straight contest yesterday/Sunday. They play at The Bastard Utah Starzz/San Antonio Silver Stars tomorrow/Tuesday night, then host L. A. Friday.
#-2: United FC (Last Week: -1). The Loons had nine people called up for International Duty, more than any other team in Major League Soccer (even though I saw Puerto Rico International Zarek Valentin on the bench for Saturday's tilt vs. FC Dallas, I don't know what that's about). I was shocked that MNUFC is the XI with the most players playing for country, and not the Galaxy or LAFC. Along with injuries and excuses for personal reasons, eleven players on the first team were unavailable.
In cases like this, I guess the goal is to just pray and get a Point. And that's what United FC did, a 1-1 tie with the Hoops (which, apparently, wasn't good enough for FCD, for they fired Manager Nico Estevez last/Sunday night). I'm not happy that they blew a 1-0 lead off a really good around-the-horn Goal off a Corner Kick, but everyone seems relieved that got something out of the Match. What is notable for us Minnesotans is that, with the help of four call-ups the day of the Game from their reserve squad MNUFC2, four native Minnesotans were on the pitch playing for the home side: Starters Devin Padelford and Caden Clark, and substitutes Patrick Weah and Keith Romanshyn, Jr. (Romanshyn and Morris Duggan were the two call-ups who appeared in the Match; the others were Alec Smir and Molik Jesse Khan.) It was kind of scary to see on the big board that the Loons had only seven subs total. But hey, it worked out.
And hey, they remain in third place in the Western Conference as they will head out to Seattle to face a Sounders club that has historically mastered them but are pretty bad this season.
#-3: Twins (Last Week: -2). I think it was Athletic writer Aaron Gleeman noting that the Twinks' season basically has been alternating winning and losing streaks. It's very unfortunate that they're in a losing skid now. They started off the screening Week getting swept in The Bronx by the Yankees, which means they have swept all six Games from the Twinks and, yes, made them their bitches again, and then lost the first two Games in Pittsburgh before the Pirates seemingly was forced to use a really bad Relief Pitcher named Ben Heller to start the Tenth Inning. Heller allowed six Earned Runs and plunked at least three Twins batters on the way to Minnesota's 11-5, ten-Inning Win.
It feels as though different parts of the squad are taking turns sucking. Right now, tenth-Inning surge notwithstanding, that part is the Offense, which got blanked by the Pirates Friday and Saturday. And now they remain mired in third place in the American League Central Division behind Cleveland and Kansas City. Royce Lewis is back, but at what point do you start to panic?
What could fix what ails the team is one of their big homestands. They host Colorado for three starting tonight/Monday night, then host the soon-to-be Bastard Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics for four beginning Thursday.
#-Infinity: Minnesota (Last Week: Rise Above All). Oh, my fucking God, I am such a stooge. I can't believe I got suckered into following and then buying a ticket for a league I hated for its sordid origin story just because I'm a sad and desperate Minnesota sports fan.
In case you don't know, this past Week, General Manager Natalie Darwitz was let go by the single-entity league. No reason was initially given, and beyond that, it's pretty fucking weird that the GM of a championship-winning team suddenly leaves, right? After some digging, it has been revealed that Darwitz and Head Coach Ken Klee were at odds all through the season. Many of the veterans of the team -- and Kendall Coyne Schofield was singled out in particular -- sided with Klee. No one's still sure for the reason for the riff, or if there was some power struggle going on. But at the end, league management offered Darwitz three options, none of which were staying on as GM. None of those options were leaving, either, but that's exactly what Darwitz did.
There is a black hole when it comes to information. Anonymous sources revealed the rift. Other anonymous sources have Darwitz's back, both within the locker room and, just as important, the front office. Finally, the PWHL burped out a statement saying that Darwitz's, uh, removal resulted in an investigation headed by a third-party human resources company, which tells us nothing about why she was removed as GM. Finally, late last/Sunday night, Darwitz released a statement thanking everyone for their support and asking everyone to continue to support the league.
Fuck that. Fuck it all. 'Cause this is some bullshit, and this stinks to high heaven. I want someone to fucking stop hiding behind background and put their name on what the fuck is happening here. (Non-disclosure agreements are a bane to the truth, I can tell you that.) With information still at a trickle, I have no problem speculating based on what little I do know. Klee has his players on the team, and they, such as Kendall Coyne Schofield (KCS), are the best players in the league and the sport. It has been revealed that the person Klee replaced as Head Coach mere Days before the start of the season, Charlie Burggraf, stepped down because KCS and other players on the team didn't like him, despite the pabulum Burggraf said (or was told to say).
I'm setting up a scenario that KCS and others (that may include Kelly Pannek, which gets very complicated since she, like the ousted Darwitz, are native Minnesotans, and we are getting very, very provincial when it comes to the treatment of local legends) backstab their way to power. And I think I'm right. Remember that KCS and others (including Hannah Brandt, another Minnesotan like Darwitz) looked down upon the NWHL/PHF until they found a sugar daddy in Mark Walter to buy the league, fire every player and staff member, and take possession of all the assets and intellectual property like goddamn parasites. Despite all their talent, it never sat well with me that, instead of helping along a league that was picking itself up by the bootstraps and making a go of it, they just moved in on something they didn't even create and now act as if they've owned it the whole team ... and, if I may add, act as if the NWHL/PHF never existed.
The Professional Women's Hockey League has a clusterfuck on their hands, and it's of their own making. And complicating all of this is that the PWHL Draft is being held at the Xcel Energy Center tonight/Monday night. If we Minnesotans have any conviction, any balls, we would be screaming at the top of our lungs, "Where Is Darwitz?" and catcalling our own team. Will we? Well, I'll admit that I'm too tired to attend. But the PWHL is banking on Minnesota fans to continue to follow them because ... well, I don't know, maybe because we're The State Of Hockey, or that this band of ringers and bullies got this state its first title since the Lynx won in 2017, or that we're pliant and stupid. I hope that we show the league that we're not sheep.
As for me, not only will I not attend, but I will not attend a Game so long as this hollowed-out league exists. And I'm not going to put this fucking team or league in the WMNSS anymore. This goes beyond giving the team a free pass because they won it all this year. This is a league that was born from and continues to engage in cutthroat machinations, and I want no fucking part of it. And I am kicking myself because I got suckered in to giving this toxic brew a chance.
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