Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 10.13.23
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Wild: You Can’t Go 82-0 if You Don’t Go 1-0
“They are what they are, we’ll see you in April…maybe?” Not the strongest marketing campaign, but what a fellow media member said to me on the phone discussing the Wild earlier this week.
The Wild started slow but got better as the game went on en route to a 2-0 win over Cup runner-up Florida in the season and home opener at The X last night. Brock Faber scored his first NHL goal and Filip Gustavsson rewarded the coaching staff for the opening night start with a 41-save shutout. Only two Wild goalies have recorded more saves in a shutout.
Starting the season is tough at home, although the Wild has won nine of its 11 such games. Many coaches would rather get on the road, do some bonding, and not have 18,000 fans breathing down their necks if things don’t go the right way immediately.
Florida dominated most of the first period, and a good half of the second period, but they couldn’t solve the Gus Bus. The Swedish netminder, who signed a nice contract in the off-season, made six saves on a power play late in regulation after Matthew Tkachuk shamelessly dove on a “hit” from Marcus Foligno.
Meanwhile, Faber, the former Gopher who swooped in and saw playoff action in April, slipped a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky from the blueline for a 1-0 lead. Joel Eriksson Ek took a defenseman deflection on the power play and deposited it by Bob, and the Wild was up two goals. Marco Rossi had his first NHL goal waved off due to offsides.
The Wild has a two-game Canadian road trip that begins Saturday in Toronto and ends Tuesday in Montreal. Nothing bad can happen with two straight off nights in either one of those cities…
Twins Beaten in Four by Astros
The Twins were beaten by a better team, but that doesn’t make a season with promise end any easier. Offense, defense, baserunning, managing. You name it, and the Astros were better. Yet still it’s not unthinkable that, had the Twins got just a handful more hits, they’d be preparing for a winner-take-all Game 5 tonight.
I went to Game 4 on Wednesday. What an incredible atmosphere. For an open air stadium, it’s amazing how loud it was. Yet there were so few highlights.
A few takeaways from Game 4, and the series in general…
I’m not usually a big batting lineup guy. But you have to maximize your best players. I predicted it publicly after Carlos Correa made the final out of the sixth, that the game would end with Correa on deck. And it did. Your most accomplished post-season hitter and hottest hitter can’t only get three at bats in an elimination game. You wanted Correa with fewer at bats than Max Kepler? Kepler by the way showed that his resurgence from a season and a half slump was maybe a mirage.
If Rocco Baldelli was going to ditch Joe Ryan at the earliest sign of trouble, he just should have made it a true bullpen game, or maybe started veteran Chris Paddack. The latter is a vet coming off serious arm surgery, but he was brilliant in relief. You have to wonder what Ryan’s frame of mind is heading into this off-season.
If you’d have told me the Twins would hold the Astros murderers row of 1-4 hitters to one hit in Game 4, I’d have taken my chances.
The majority of Twins hitters - all not named Julien, Correa or Lewis - looked overmatched the entire post-season. If Matt Walner had done anything, it would have been by mistake. Breaking ball after breaking ball, the majority of this lineup was outclassed. Even Lewis was made to look foolish on some cuts this series. The Astros had no automatic outs. The Twins had five or six every trip through the lineup.
I’m not sure putting Byron Buxton in to pinch hit in the eighth inning needing a home run to tie the game was the best idea.
Vikings at Chicago on Sunday
A pair of 1-4 teams meet in Chicago on Saturday, as the Bears host the Vikings while looking to win back-to-back games for the first time since late in the 2021 season.
The Vikings are a three point favorite, and had the Bears not run away from Washington last week, this would seem like a sure thing for Minnesota. But the Vikings make every game close, and Bears QB Justin Fields (who the Vikings could have drafted instead of long released QB Kellen Mond), can make things happen.
So begins at least four straight weeks without Justin Jefferson (hamstring). Calen Addison has been pretty good the first five weeks, but he’ll need to break out with Jefferson sidelined.
Gopher Hockey Meets up with St. Thomas
Both Gopher hockey teams play St. Thomas for two games this weekend, starting with a doubleheader at Xcel Energy Center today. The Gopher women are ranked No. 4; the men are No. 1 and will play their first regular season game. The Tommie men have already beaten St. Cloud State.
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