Wild – Page 57 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Wild Predicted to Fall in Six Games

Posted on April 10, 2018 by David Shama

The Wild isn’t expected to win its NHL seven-game playoff series that starts tomorrow night in Winnipeg against the Jets, but how Minnesota plays will be as scrutinized as the wins and losses.

A year ago coach Bruce Boudreau’s first Wild team was listless in an opening playoff series loss against the Blues. Minnesota entered the series as the favorite but the Blues eliminated the Wild in five games. The result added to the reputation of Boudreau’s teams for not meeting expectations in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Boudreau has coached NHL teams in Minnesota, Anaheim and Washington. Whether it’s fair or not, the coach has been criticized for his playoff results in 10 prior years. Despite good regular season records his teams have never reached the Stanley Cup Finals, nor won a postseason conference title.

There are always multiple perceptions about a coach and the opinion here is Boudreau has been effective with this season’s Wild team. He has juggled lines and made other maneuvers helping the Wild avoid long losing streaks. “I think he’s had a good year,” a veteran hockey source told Sports Headliners.

The source, who asked that his name not be printed, has a prediction about the series. “I think the Jets will win in six games,” he said. “They’re just better.”

The Jets scored 277 goals during the regular season, the best total in the Western Conference. “The one thing is can the Wild slow down the Jets offense?,” the source asked. “They’re one of the quickest and fastest teams in the NHL.”

No NHL goalie won more games than Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck who totaled 44. Only seven others had a better goals against average than his 2.36 per game.

The Wild will counter with goalie Devan Dubnyk who had five shutouts this season, one less than Hellebuyck. Dubnyk has been effective in 2017-2018 and might play better in the playoffs than a year ago against the Blues. Dubnkyk, according to the Sports Headliners authority, is fresher than last spring. “I think he was played way too much (during the regular season) last year,” the source said.

Minnesota must try to slow down the Jets without star defenseman Ryan Suter who won’t play again until next season because of a recently fractured right ankle. Replacing his experience and the amount of minutes he is capable of playing is a challenge.

The Jets finished second in the Central Division during the regular season, winning seven more games than the third place Wild. Surprises, though, happen all the time in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Perhaps the Wild can upset the Jets just like the Blues did to Minnesota a year ago. Although the Wild and the Penguins are the only NHL teams to qualify for the playoffs six consecutive seasons, Minnesota hasn’t played in the conference finals since 2003.

Emotions should be intense for both teams. They certainly will be for fans because of the division rivalry and geographic proximity of the franchises. Perhaps a couple hundred Minnesota fans will cheer on the Wild tomorrow night and Friday evening in Winnipeg. When Game 3 is played on Sunday night in St. Paul there could be more than 1,000 Jets fans at Xcel Energy Center.

How do they secure so many tickets at the “X”? “They’re resourceful, like North Dakota fans (in college hockey),” the source said. “This is a natural for them.”

Worth Noting

NCAA officials like the Xcel Energy Center as a site for postseason hockey. Look for the building to host future regional and Frozen Four games.

Word is the Serratore brothers, Frank and Tom, are having their names mentioned for the hockey opening at St. Cloud State. Frank is head coach at Air Force while Tom heads the program at Bemidji State. Frank once coached the St. Paul-based Minnesota Moose.

Lindsay Whalen has no coaching experience but there isn’t anyone with ties to the Golden Gophers women’s program that would be as popular with fans and local media if she were named head coach. With Marlene Stollings resignation yesterday to become coach at Texas Tech, this might be the only time the Gophers and Whalen will ever have to consider her for the Minnesota job.

Former Gopher football coach Glen Mason had his 68th birthday yesterday.

WCCO Radio’s Dave Lee will be honored with the Bolder Options 2018 Alan and Diane Page Legacy Mentoring Award Thursday night at the Minneapolis Event Centers. The Bolder Options mentoring organization, now celebrating its 25th year, is headed by former Gopher football player Darrell Thompson. Thursday’s gala is presented by Manchester Companies.

It could be that because of the wintry April, top public and private clubs won’t open for golf in the metro area until about May 1—thus placing a hit on 2018 projected budgets.

Comments Welcome

Twins Likely to Avoid Final 4 Conflict

Posted on April 3, 2018April 4, 2018 by David Shama

A Tuesday notes column leading off with Twins news.

The Twins have requested they not be scheduled for home games at Target Field during the April 6-8, 2019 Final Four in Minneapolis. Club president Dave St. Peter said after consulting with Final Four organizers and considering potential issues with hotel rooms, traffic and other concerns the Twins have requested that Major League Baseball schedule the team on the road during that early period in April.

The club has yet to receive the 2019 MLB schedule but it sounds like their request will be honored. “It will be very likely that we will be on the road during the Final Four next year,” St. Peter told Sports Headliners yesterday.

Because of the request to avoid the early April dates, the Twins’ 2019 regular season opening could begin at home outdoors in March. St. Peter said MLB teams may open the schedule on March 28. Since the opening of Target Field on 2010, the Twins have been scheduled at home to start the season just once.

St. Peter also said suspended starting shortstop Jorge Polanco is at the Twins’ complex in Fort Myers where he is playing in what’s called “extended spring training games.” Polanco and others in the Twins system who have yet to be assigned to a specific team in the minor leagues play against similar competition from other organizations.

St. Peter said Polanco, who is suspended for using a performance-enhancing substance, will play for one or more Twins minor league teams starting 20 days out from the end of his 80 game suspension.

Gophers 1968-1969 basketball captain Al Nuness arranged a trip in 2010 with cousins Tyus and Tre Jones to the Final Four in Indianapolis. At that time Tyus was in eighth grade and Tre was a grade schooler. Back then no one could have predicted the basketball success the Jones brothers have achieved eight years later.

Tre, a senior now at Apple Valley, was named the state’s Mr. Basketball last week and played in the prestigious McDonald’s All-American Game featuring the best prep players in the nation. Those are two honors Tyus earned in 2014. The Mr. Basketball Award dates back to the 1970s, and Tre and Tyus are the only brothers to win the award.

Tyus and Tre led Apple Valley to Class 4A state championships playing for the Eagles. Tyus was named the 2015 Final Four most outstanding player when Duke won the national championship and a few months later found himself on the roster of his hometown NBA Timberwolves. Next fall Tre joins a loaded with talent Duke team that could be consensus preseason favorites to win the 2019 Final Four in Minneapolis.

So it looks like Nuness, who took his young cousins to Indy eight years ago to inspire them, might be able to witness another headline moment in 2019. He saw in Indy how the two youngsters studied the Final Four players in 2010 and the trip certainly made an impression. “We went to practices and they wouldn’t leave,” Nuness has said.

Tyus, who turns 22 next month, is one of only six players who were on the Wolves’ roster in April of last year. The club has nine new players including injured forward Jimmy Butler who the Wolves hope will return soon from his knee surgery and at least be available for the playoffs if Minnesota can qualify.

The Wolves have sold out 15 games at Target Center this season, the most since 2003-2004 when they last qualified for the postseason.

The Pirates’ Jameson Taillon, who overcame testicular cancer last year, earned his first win this season after starting against the Twins yesterday. Taillon, 8-7 with a 4.44 ERA last season, was the second MLB overall draft choice in 2010 and debuted with the Pirates in 2016.

The Twins haven’t had success bringing over high profile players from Japan but it looks like a different story for the Angels and rookie pitcher-DH Shohei Ohtani. He won his MLB pitching debut Sunday against the Angels, showing off a 100-miles per hour fast ball, according to NBC Sports California who reported 240 Japanese media were at the game in Oakland against the A’s.

It’s a good guess former Gopher coach Tubby Smith’s salary at his new position with High Point University in North Carolina is paying him less than $200,000 annually. A financial report on athletics from the University for school year June 1, 2013 through May 31, 2014 listed head basketball coach Scott Cherry’s compensation at $89,601. The same report listed basketball revenues during that period at about $1.9 million and operating expenses of approximately $1.6 million.

Smith, who played at High Point, is at his third school since being fired by the Gophers in March of 2013. Smith earned seven-figure compensation while coaching at Minnesota, Texas Tech and Memphis where he was dismissed last month and reportedly received a settlement of over $9 million.

The Gophers are offering discounted season tickets for football and men’s basketball and hockey to U alums who have graduated within the last five years. Pricing per ticket is $199 for football, $249 for basketball and $399 for hockey.

Fans can scout Minnesota Wild unsigned draft picks Nicholas Boka (Michigan), Avery Peterson (UMD) and Nick Swaney (UMD) in the NCAA Frozen Four April 5-7 at Xcel Energy Center. UMD plays Ohio State in the first semifinal the evening of April 5, while Michigan meets Notre Dame in the other semifinal. Both games will be televised on ESPN2. The championship game the night of April 7 will be seen on ESPN.

The Wild, who qualified for the playoffs last night, are one of only two NHL teams (Pittsburgh is the other) that has made the postseason six consecutive years.

Gopher baseball coach John Anderson, who labels Indiana as the favorite for the Big Ten title but sees his team as a contender, speaks to the CORES lunch group May 10 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington, 1114 American Blvd. More information is available by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

Comments Welcome

Kevin Love Impressive Role Model

Posted on March 8, 2018March 8, 2018 by David Shama

When Kevin Love played for the Timberwolves, I talked to him a couple of times and liked him. I also watched and admired his skills many times, but never have I appreciated him more than this week when he wrote openly and emotionally about mental health.

Love’s essay posted on the Playerstribune.com is a must-read for any thoughtful sports fan, including those who influence young athletes. Love details how he had a panic attack early this season that caused him to flee the court during a game. It was an experience unlike any the 29-year-old Cavs star had ever known, and it ultimately prompted enough self-examination to see a therapist for the first time in his life.

In macho America, boys and men have forever been taught to bury damaging feelings including guilt and shame. Love writes that during his life he never wanted to show emotional weakness but he knew something was very wrong that night last year when he panicked and experienced shortness of breath.

Love has been seeing a therapist and he’s targeted some personal issues including one he shares in detail. He writes about his grandmother Carol who lived with the family when he was growing up. Carol was still alive during part of the time he played for the Wolves and she had planned to visit him in Minneapolis at Thanksgiving one year. The trip was cancelled, though, because Carol was hospitalized and shortly thereafter she died unexpectedly. In therapy Love came to realize how he had not adequately grieved about his grandma’s death.

In and out of athletics this is a mixed up world with a lot of confused and troubled minds. Love writes this warning in his article: “Everyone is going through something that we can’t see.”

It’s true and so many people, whether involved with sports or other parts of society, need help. Troubled with burdens real and imagined, they frequently don’t receive help. (See the latest news on opiate use, or school shootings). There are no easy answers but there is always someone out there—family, friend or stranger—willing to give support and encourage a person to seek assistance.

Love, a former NBA All-Star and contributor to the Cleveland Cavs 2016 league champions, has long been known as one of basketball’s better passing front court players. This week he might have made his biggest “assist.”

Worth Noting

Credit Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher in making one of his best moves signing center Eric Staal to a three-year free agent contract in June of 2016. Staal, 33, is tied for fourth among NHL players in goal scoring with 36, and is a valued leader on a team with a need in that department.

Staal has been exceptional at the right time, producing 21 points last month while helping the Wild to a 9-2-2 record. He’s a catalyst for a team that sometimes prompts doubt about qualifying for the playoffs.

Now it looks like the Wild will make the playoffs (at times the team falters when the schedule gets busy and the ages of players shows). How far they go in the postseason appears tied to—no surprise—whether goalie Devan Dubnyk is hot.

While the Wild seem likely for the playoffs, the Timberwolves can be labeled iffy. The club was on track to make the postseason for the first time since 2004 before Jimmy Butler went down with a knee injury sidelining him indefinitely. He is the team’s best defender and fourth quarter big shot and big play specialist. This is a less capable and confident team without the 28-year-old Butler, who may deserve a place among the top 10 players in the NBA and is in his first season with the Wolves.

In the competitive Western Conference race for eight playoff spots, the Wolves will probably have to earn a surprise win or two in this immediate schedule stretch that starts with games against the Celtics and Warriors tonight and Sunday at home. There are only 16 Wolves games left in the season. If the season ended today, the Wolves would have one of the eight Western Conference playoff spots but the competition to be part of the field is intense.

The Wild is averaging 19,006 fans per game at home—seventh best in the 31-team NHL, according to Espn.com. The Timberwolves, according to the website, average 16,811—ranking No. 22 in the 30-team NBA.

I once argued with Lou Nanne about whether this was a better pro basketball or hockey town. Guess which position Nanne took? What I know is the Wolves set an NBA single season attendance record in the franchise’s first year of 1989-90 and despite a mostly poor product this century have been pretty successful at the box office. Decades ago the basketball Golden Gophers led the Big Ten and even the nation in attendance.

Former Gopher Natalie Darwitz, now coaching at Hamline, has the Piper women’s hockey team in the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time ever. Hamline has a 20-4-3 record including a 4-1 win over the Gusties in the MIAC Playoff Championship game last Saturday at Gustavus. The Pipers will play their opening NCAA game Saturday against the winner of Friday’s Gustavus and Wisconsin-Eau Claire game.

Two of the five finalists for the 2018 state Mr. Basketball Award will be Gopher freshmen next fall but it’s difficult to think Apple Valley’s Tre Jones won’t win the honor. Jones, a McDonald’s All-American, is the best all-around Minnesota prep guard I’ve ever seen.

Other nominees are guards Owen King from Caledonia and Calvin Wishart of Delano, and future Gophers Gabe Kalscheur from DeLaSalle and Daniel Oturu of Cretin-Derham Hall. As a center or power forward, Oturu seems likely to emerge as Minnesota’s best rim protector on next season’s team. Kalscheur gives the Gophers a big guard off the bench playing behind senior Dupree McBrayer.

It’s surprising there is still no announcement identifying who the Gophers will play in next December’s nonconference game at U.S. Bank Stadium. The game (date not known) will be an operations rehearsal for the 2019 Final Four in Minneapolis.

Will the December date include not only the Gophers, but a second men’s game?

A ticket lottery for the 2019 Final Four opened this week and continues through May 31. The tournament dates are April 6 and 8, with tickets priced at $210 per sessions (a steal compared with the Minneapolis Super Bowl pricing). More at Gophersports.com, or Finalfourminneapolis.com.

The Twins home opener is four weeks from today, April 5 against the Mariners. The weather forecast is for a high of 52 with a “little afternoon rain,” according to Accuweather.com.

Comments Welcome