Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 2.2.26
Olympic week is upon us. Opening Ceremonies are Friday, although curling and women’s hockey get underway a day earlier.
Can you believe girls hockey sectionals start this week. Tourney time is right around the corner.
Huge brawl in the National Lacrosse League…Anyone else miss the Swarm? Me either.
Black Friday for Local GM’s
The fact that the Twins fired Derek Falvey (okay, mutually moved on from each other) and the Vikings definitely gassed Kwesi Adofo-Mensah only an hour later wasn’t all that surprising. But the timing was for sure.
The Pohlads let Falvey hire a new manager, and then decided they’d had enough. They’ve cut $30 million in payroll, and Tom Pohlad had the audacity to say he plans on “being competitive” in 2026. Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan and pray for rain…and that doesn’t even bring the offense into play. You don’t generally fire a baseball GM two weeks before spring training.
The timing was somewhat surprising on Kwesi, given that the season ended almost a month ago and the Wilfs let him go through normal post-season media appearances. It’s clear that hitching his truck to J.J. McCarthy, while we watched Sam Darnold perhaps win a Super Bowl this week, was a breaking point. However, his overall body of work wasn’t good. His best draft pick in four years could very well be…a kicker. It’s also not just that he let Darnold walk, he let camp begin without a bonafide veteran QB to step in.
Wild Blows Out Oilers
The Wild will be sad to see the Olympic Break.
Minnesota outclassed a pretty good Oilers team all over the ice on Saturday in a 7-3 win in Edmonton. I know I was dubious about all the Wild gave up to get Quinn Hughes, but he’s worth all of it. The Wild has never had a defenseman like him, obviously (franchise-record seven-game point streak for D-Man), and has only had one or more players (Kaprizov, Gaborik) as talented as him overall.
It got so bad for the Oilers they waived goalie Connor Ingram after the game.
Seven Wild players scored, including Hughes and Brock Faber, who each had two points from the blueline. Faber absolutely embarrassed Evan Bouchard at the blueline before his goal.
The Wild has won three in a row - with Dallas (four in a row) on their heels. Minnesota has gotten within seven points of a moderately slumping Avs team for first overall, although Colorado hsa three games in hand.
The Wild hosts Montreal tonight and then visits Nashville before the Break. I know a certain former Wild PR guy who would be staying in Nashville for a few days…
Wolves’ Win Streak Hits Four
The Wolves have won four straight after losing five in a row, the latest in a run of inconsistent play that still has them only 2.5 games behind Denver for second in the West.
Anthony Edwards, named an All-Star yesterday, scored 33 points in a 131-114 win over the Grizzlies on Saturday. Still, Chris Finch wasn’t happy with the team’s performance over the bottom-feeding Grizz. Memphis has lost six in a row going into tonight’s rematch against the Wolves.
Gopher Sports
The Gopher men’s hoops team had made strides lately even if not in the win column, but a 77-75 loss at a Penn State squad that hadn’t won a Big 10 game will leave a mark for the rest of the season. A month ago it looked like this team could play in some tournament in March. But not lately. They’re at Michigan State on Wednesday.
The Gopher women blistered Purdue by 33 on Sunday, pushing their winning streak to four games and setting up a great matchup at No. 8 Iowa on Thursday. Minnesota’s women will play important games in March, for sure.
The Gopher men’s hockey team’s sweep of No. 7 Wisconsin will go down as one of the more improbable weekends in Minnesota sports history. The Gophers put up 12 goals over two nights, including this highlight-reel, behind-the-legs goal from Brodie Ziemer. If the season ended today, the Gophers and Badgers would play in the first round of the B10 Tournament. Minnesota hosts Ohio State, one of two teams behind them in the league standings, this weekend.
Without Olympians on both sides, the Gopher women played the Badgers to a series split, with a 3-2 OT win on Friday overshadowed by a 6-1 loss at home on Saturday. Minnesota’s win Friday did knock the Badgers out of first in the WCHA. It’ll be interesting to see if Ohio State leapfrogs them in the national rankings this week. Minnesota plays a home-and-home with St. Thomas this weekend.
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