Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 1.5.26
The Takeout turns five years old this week, minus a couple elongated hiatuses. Thanks for reading around 500 versions of this thing.
Said goodbye to my stepdad Dave just 23 days after getting diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
World Juniors Attendance
A lot of conjecture about World Juniors attendance, so I’ll weigh in.
I said even before Saint Paul got awarded the tournament that this was no slam dunk, especially for non marquee games (Germany, Denmark). What I didn’t realize was that even the U.S. and Canada would struggle to draw.
The Americans filled up around 70 percent of Grand Casino Arena. But the Canadians filled up less than a third of Mariucci.
The reasons? Plenty. As much as we love the State of Hockey moniker, it’s still a niche sport especially when there aren’t marquee names involved. Lots of youth hockey tournaments over the two weeks, too. And the IIHF set unreasonable ticket prices early. When tickets first went on sale, you had to buy a package for the entire tournament for the tune of $2K-$3K. When you could buy tickets to each U.S. game, it was $120 a ticket (still reasonable for me, but not to all). Individual tickets for the upper level didn’t even go on sale until the middle of December. People thought they were priced out, when in fact I paid just $35 per ticket for upper level end zones (my favorite seats) to the U.S. Finland quarterfinal game. Finland, by the way, has the absolute best goal song.
It’ll be Sweden and Czechia in a very empty GCA tonight for gold. The level of hockey is really quite good if you’re looking for something to do on the first of five Mondays this week.
Vikings Finish Just Short of Playoffs After Five Straight Wins
If you went for a long winter’s nap on December 1, imagine your surprise when you woke up this morning to find out the Vikings missed the playoffs by a half a game. Now, there’s no guarantee things would have gone the same way, of course, and the Packers would have not rested most starters including Jordan Love in yesterday’s 16-3 Vikings win had the game meant something. But the 19-17 home loss to Chicago on Nov. 16, when the Vikings allowed a 56-yard kickoff return to set up a winning Bears field goal looms large.
The Vikings won their final five games to somehow finish above .500 (9-8). But there are plenty of questions heading into the off-season.
First and foremost, is J.J. McCarthy “the guy”. He re-injured his hand yesterday. He’s not been great when healthy, and he can’t stay healthy. Max Brosmer isn’t an NFL quarterback, at least not at this stage of his career.
Can the Vikings keep Brian Flores as defensive coordinator? I expect he’ll be an NFL head coach again as soon as this week, although the Vikings pay him very handsomely. Minnesota allowed 13 or fewer points in four of the five wins.
The Vikings are projected to be $30 million over the salary cap. How will they replace the likes of the likely retired Harrison Smith and C.J. Ham?
Justin Jefferson went over 1,000 yards for the sixth straight season and all I have to say is, big whoop. In a 17-game season in a pass-heavy league, we can’t let an average of 60 receiving yards per game be the standard anymore.
Wild in Ding Dong Central Race
Bill Guerin and Craig Leipold may grab their counterparts in Colorado and Dallas and force a mutiny to change the NHL playoff rules.
The Wild - currently the Central’s third-best team, is also the league’s third-best team, with five more points than any other team. So the division has the NHL’s three best teams - by a significant margin - and two of them will play each other in the first round, and only one will advance to the conference finals.
Because of World Juniors, the Wild plays game six of a seven-game road trip tonight in Los Angeles. They’ve yet to lose in regulation, going 3-0-2.
Quinn Hughes is good, my goodness. Keep him at all costs.
Wolves Have Won Three of Four
The Wolves laid a couple eggs late in 2025 but have turned it around to win three of four, including a 141-115 blowout of an overmatched Washington team last night.
Minnesota is in sixth - barely - in the West - and returns home after a four-game road trip to face Miami on Tuesday.
Gopher Sports
The Gopher men’s hockey team skated to a 3-3 exhibition tie against Bemidji State over the weekend, a game that doesn’t bode well for their return to play this weekend in Penn State.
The Gopher women blasted Sacret Heart (as they should) by a combined 20-2 margin over the weekend. They’ve got a home-and-home with Minnesota State this weekend.
Gopher men’s hoops has won four in a row, including an 84-78 win over Northwestern in Big 10 play. Minnesota is 9-5 overall and 2-1 in conference. The rest of the Gophers’ games are Big 10 tilts.
The Gopher women have also won four in a row, but they’ll get tested off a week layoff tonight at No. 6 Michigan.
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