Twins president Dave St. Peter said that during the last several years Tom Kelly has declined opportunities to discuss managerial jobs with other organizations. Kelly is a special assistant to general manager Bill Smith. Kelly’s responsibilities include visiting all the Twins’ minor league teams, evaluating players, coaches and managers, St. Peter said.
The Minnesota Wild players and coaches can only criticize themselves if they don’t make the playoffs. With 10 games remaining on the regular schedule, all but one game is against opponents from their Northwest Division. The lone exception is a game at San Jose on Wednesday night.
The Wild are at home tonight (Monday) against Colorado. Then they have four consecutive games on the road, San Jose, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. Four of the last five games are at home with Edmonton, Vancouver, Colorado and Calgary before Minnesota closes the season at Colorado on April 6. The Wild record is 11-9-3 against Northwest Division teams.
Wild forward Marian Gaborik, who scored his 200th career goal in Saturday night’s win over Los Angeles, has 36 for the season and is tied for sixth among NHL leaders.
In a Sports Illustrated poll, NHL players chose Gaborik as the league’s best skater. Scott Niedermayer of Anaheim and Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh were second and third in the poll published in the magazine’s March 17 issue.
Xcel Energy Center ends a busy run on Saturday that started on March 13. The facility is in use every night with hockey, lacrosse and music attractions. Over 200,000 fans are expected with a potential economic impact in St. Paul of $2 million or more, according to sources. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at Xcel last night. Bon Jovi is entertaining tomorrow evening and Wednesday night.
Former Viking Mewelde Moore, now with Pittsburgh, will play a similar role with the Steelers as he did here, returning kicks and playing as a backup running back, according to the Sporting News.
Newly signed free agent Viking linebacker Derrick Pope is expected to be a reserve and special teams player, although the five-year NFL veteran did start a career high nine games for Miami last season.