Wild 2013-14: After Sochi, What?

Minnesota Wild (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Winter Olympics are over, and so is the Minnesota Wild's three-week break.  They returned to NHL action Thursday night with a 3-0 shutout win over the lowly Oilers at Edmonton.

The Wild are presently 32-21-7 totaling 71 points, which puts them fourth in the reconstituted NHL Central division, and seventh in the Western Conference.  They are at least five points ahead of a number of teams battling for one of the last playoff spots.  Once they get there, then they'll have the distinct pleasure of facing the Anaheim Ducks, St. Louis Blues or Chicago Blackhawks in the first round.

Before the Olympic break, the Wild have been meandering through another so-so season where people expected so much more from them.  They have a very good home record, but that's negated by having one of the worst road records in the league.  Coach Mike Yeo's job status came into question when the Wild teetered on the brink of disaster during the holiday season.  But after winning a few key games in January, nobody's talking about firing Yeo right now.

Part of the reason why the Wild have been underachieving has been injuries and illness in the goaltending corps.  Josh Harding has issues with MS.  Niklas Backstrom (not to be confused with the Washington Capitals player who was kicked out of the Winter Olympics for failing a drug test prior to his Swedish team's gold medal game against Canada) is recovering from an abdominal injury.  Which leaves them with rookie Darcy Kuemper, who has played well since being called up from the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League.  Unless Backstrom gets healthy or the Wild can swing a deal to get a veteran goalie before the trade deadline March 5, Kuemper can look forward to spending a lot more time in St. Paul than in Des Moines.

It will be a few more weeks before we know if the Wild are a playoff team or not.  They need to play better on the road and against division opponents, since that's where the bulk of the remaining schedule will be.  They need to stay healthy, which is not an easy task.  And they need to stay focused on winning games in regulation time, instead of going through the charade of a five-minute overtime period just to risk an extra point in the shootout.

The Minnesota Wild took that first step forward in Edmonton Thursday.  How many more will follow?

Hot. Cold. Sochi.: Conclusion

English: Skyline of Sochi, Russia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Olympic Winter Games of 2014 are now over.  No incidents warranting breaking news coverage.  The 'ring of steel' around Sochi, Russia has held.  And everyone will be going back to business as usual soon enough.

The Russians topped the medal chart with 13 golds, 11 silver and nine bronze for a grand total of 33.  That should more than make up for the men's hockey team's failure to medal, and to keep President Vladimir Putin happy.  The United States finished second with 28 (nine gold, seven silver, 12 bronze), Norway third with 26 and Canada with 25.

The Americans had a pretty good Olympics, considering that some of their high profile athletes were big flops when it counted.  No medals in speed skating or individual figure skating, where they had done well in the past.  A silver in women's hockey.  The men's team picked the wrong moment for its offense to disappear, getting shut out by Canada and Finland in their last two games to return home without a medal.

But there was at least one new American star in the closing days of the Games:  Mikaela Shiffrin, at 18, became the youngest American to win gold in the women's slalom event.

Canada shut out Sweden 3-0 to win its ninth men's ice hockey gold medal, and the third since professionals were allowed to compete.  Hope you enjoyed the tournament, because the National Hockey League is seriously considering pulling its players from future Olympics.  NHL owners are weary of shutting down during the regular season so that a few players can travel halfway around the world, risking injuries that might prove costly for their teams' playoff chances.   Can you imagine amateurs from the United States and Canada going up against Russian professionals?  Oh wait, that's why the NHL'ers were brought in in the first place.

Another figure skating controversy erupted when Adelina Satrikova won gold for Russia in the women's final, with defending Olympic champion Kim Yu-Na of South Korea coming up silver.  If you listened to enough figure skating experts, you can believe that either Satrikova won fair and square or was the beneficiary of a home-country decision among the anonymous judges.  Figure skating is a subjective sport, no?  Well, it depends on who is doing the subjecting.

Now a word for one of the Olympic sponsors:  McDonalds spent billions to promote its brand during the Games.  So how could they imply in their ads that a gold medal tastes just like a Chicken McNugget?  Yuck.

As Sochi fades into the rear view mirror, the focus shifts to the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea and the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.  No controversies there, right?  Right?

Hot. Cold. Sochi: Week 2

American alpine skier Bode Miller at the bib draw for the Super-G in Hinterstoder (Austria) on 5 February 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In its second week, the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia have been relatively uneventful.  That is, unless you count members of Pussy Riot getting beaten up by police for an unauthorized performance, or the Ukrainian skier who quit the Games to protest the violence currently going on in his country.

As of February 20, the United States leads the medal count with 25 (eight golds, six silver, eleven bronze), which is two more than the Russians.  The Netherlands, Norway and Canada round out the top five.  It's not like the Cold War era, when people actually cared about this stuff.  But still . . .

• The U.S. women's hockey team choked its way out of a gold medal, giving up a two-goal lead to its biggest (and only) rival Canada in the final minutes of the championship game, who then scored the winner in overtime for a 3-2 victory.  Credit the Canadians, who have now become the most dominant team in women's hockey, for a great comeback, eh?
• The Russian men's hockey team, whom everybody thought would dominate their way to gold on home ice, were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Finland.  Granted, this team was nowhere near the powerhouse Soviet squads of the late 20th century, with some of the players we have come to know in the NHL.  But when you turn someone like T.J. Oshie into an overnight folk hero in an overtime shootout loss to the United States, something is seriously wrong in Putin Land.
• The U.S. speedskating team, which used to be dominant in the days of Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair, is leaving Sochi with no medals.  First they tried to blame it on a design flaw their outfitter put into the new suits they wore in competition, then ditched them for the old uniforms.  Nice try.  Didn't work.  Maybe it wasn't the suits?
• In alpine skiing, Ted Ligety won gold for the Americans in the men's giant slalom and Andrew Weibrecht earned silver in the Super G.  But all anybody wanted to talk about was Bode Miller, who won the bronze in Super G.  Not so much that he is the oldest (36) to win an Olympic medal in that sport, but because he participated in an NBC postrace interview that would have made Barbara Walters proud.  It's one thing for the network to mic Miller's wife to get her reactions during the race.  It's quite another for reporter Christin Cooper to constantly badger Miller with questions about his dead brother and how that has affected his skiing, to the point where he was "showing his emotions" (also known as blubbering like a baby) on camera.  Was that really necessary?  Isn't it enough to just let Miller enjoy the moment?
• The Americans also won medals in skeleton and bobsled.  But most of the attention went to Lolo Jones, the 2012 Summer Olympics track participant whose inclusion on one of the women's bobsled teams raised hackles because some folks thought NBC had a hand in getting her picked over a more deserving competitor.  As it was, Jones joined the list of those who competed at both the Winter and Summer Games without a medal to show for it.  
• The big news at NBC, besides promoting the heck out of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" (as Ed McMahon would have said it during the Johnny Carson era), was the return of Bob Costas.  After six nights of Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera, Costas' red eyes had apparently cleared up enough to allow him to return as prime time host.  As for Fallon, he's like a puppy just out of the shelter, eager to please his new owners.  Everyone seems to adore him, just like a puppy.  Too bad Fallon isn't as funny as a cute puppy.

So it goes in Sochi, with just a few days left before the Olympic flame is snuffed out.  What, pray tell, is going to happen next?

Wolves 2013-14: Dark Horse and a Playoff Spot

Wizards v/s Timberwolves 03/05/11 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Though you wouldn't have known it from their record, the Minnesota Timberwolves are actually in the hunt for the last playoff spot in the NBA Western Conference.  All they have to do is to get past the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets for the right to get blown out of the first round by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

With a 25-28 record after the All Star break, the Wolves would have been shoo-ins for an Eastern Conference playoff spot, where only four teams are above the .500 mark.  In the West, there are nine teams.  The Wolves right now are the darkest of horses.

Otherwise it's the same old problems:  Injuries to key players that leave the Wolves short handed.  The ineffectiveness of Ricky Rubio, J.J. Barea and other draft picks from the David Kahn era.  The inability to put away opponents in the fourth quarter.  The lack of a decent bench.  And the lingering questions about the futures of coach Rick Adelman and Kevin Love.

Love made the most of his turn as a starter for the West at the recent NBA All Star Game in New Orleans, scoring 13 points in 33 minutes.  It has become increasingly obvious that Love is not going to be a Timberwolf much longer, with his stock rising to the point where it would no longer make sense for him to remain in the Twin Cities.  So instead of the Wolves waiting for Love to turn into a free agent and getting nothing in return, they should do him (and us) a favor by trading him elsewhere.

The Wolves do plan on sticking around downtown Minneapolis for the foreseeable future, whether Love does the same or not.  Target Center, now considered one of the oldest NBA arenas, is getting a makeover.  The team and the WNBA Lynx are also moving their practice facility to the much-maligned Block E, which will be renamed Mayo Clinic Square.  It seems the world-famous Mayo is getting into the sports medicine business.

What the Timberwolves would really like to do in the final few weeks of the regular season is to break from the five-team logjam and secure their first playoff spot in a decade.  It won't be easy--nothing about this team ever is.  If they somehow make it, it could go a long way toward keeping Kevin Love in Minnesota.  Not to mention ending a decade of bad basketball.

Hot. Cold. Sochi. Week 1.

Sochi_Winter_Olympic_Opening_22 (Photo credit: KOREA.NET - Official page of the Republic of Korea)

So far, so good at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  Terrorists have yet to attack, and President Vladimir Putin has yet to take off his shirt.  Although it is warm enough there to do so.

What's not so good are reports of stray dogs being shot near the Olympic venues where their families used to be.  Unfinished buildings, unsanitary conditions and other rotten accommodations have also been reported, which is not a problem if you happen to work for NBC, its affiliates and sponsors.  Dissidents being carted off to prison for the crime of raining on Putin's parade.  And we haven't heard much "propaganda" from the gay and lesbian contingent.

The weather in Sochi has been much balmier than anyone anticipated, which makes certain portions of the United States envious.  Temperatures are way above freezing, which makes the snow on the mountains soft, creating hazardous conditions for some of the athletes. 

Through the first week of competition, the Americans are tied for second in the medal count with the Netherlands with 12 (four golds, three silver and five bronze).  Norway has the most with 13.  Host country Russia has 11.  Canada has ten.

You will notice that most of the American medals have so far been won by snowboarders and freestyle skiers.  The ones who were supposed to pose proudly with medals have not:  Bode Miller (men's downhill), Shani Davis (men's speed skating), Julie Mancuso (women's downhill) and Shaun White (snowboarding).  There is still another week to go, but this does not look like a good Olympics for the United States.

The unofficial Olympic sport of NBC-bashing has been toned down somewhat, with the network allowing live coverage of most events online and on its numerous cable channels.  But NBC still gets to save the best stuff for its prime time coverage, such as figure skating and any sport in which the U.S. medals.  It's as if people realized that NBC cares more about attracting female eyeballs than regular sports fans, and don't give two hoots about what you think of their coverage as long as you keep watching.

Bob Costas, who has anchored every Olympics NBC has had the rights to since 1992, has had to step aside for a few nights because of an eye infection.  Looking like Harry Potter after an all-nighter (or three) and drinking vodka on the air didn't help matters, either. 

When NBC could have chosen Al Michaels or Dan Patrick to fill in for Costas, they went with Matt Lauer instead.  Despite his news background, "Today" show baggage and viewer complaints about his beard, Lauer's not that bad, actually.  With the prime time emphasis on manipulative sports coverage and gauzy profiles, Lauer should feel right at home here.  Until Costas wants his job back when his eyes clear up.

As we enter Week 2 in Sochi, there is still a sense that something big is going to happen.  Whether that comes from an Olympic athlete or not, it had better happen soon before the snow melts.  Like 48 hours from now.

Thursday Night Football. Only CBS.

CBS Logo Light (Photo credit: watchwithkristin)

Over 111 million of you watched the Seattle Seahawks dismantle the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 48, which made the Fox telecast the single most watched TV program in American history.  Now the National Football League wants to know if you're ready for more Thursday night football.

As part of its new TV deal with CBS, NBC, ESPN and Fox which goes into effect next season, the NFL wants to increase awareness of its league-owned cable channel by putting some of its Thursday night games on a broadcast network, which would be simulcast by that cable channel.  Not NBCSN or Fox Sports 1, which could use some awareness themselves as upstart cable networks.

After much spirited bidding, CBS emerged as the winner.  They and NFL Network will televise the first eight weeks of the regular season, then NFLN takes over the second half of the schedule, along with a couple of late-season Saturday games.  This is a one-year deal, with an option for a second.  The only exceptions are games on opening night and Thanksgiving night, which will be on NBC.

At first glance, you might think that the NFL gave away its prized package to the network that needed it the least.  As CBS likes to tell us, they have the top-rated prime time broadcast network with an already successful Thursday night sitcom lineup.  Of the other networks, NBC has Sunday nights, Fox has the World Series, and Disney has Monday nights on ESPN.  Had any of them won the Thursday night package, it would have boosted their otherwise pathetic prime time ratings considerably.

The announcing crew on CBS/NFLN will be Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.  This is going to be real strange, with a veteran broadcasting team that has called a few Super Bowls reduced to covering low-grade matchups--as opposed to the doubleheader games on Sundays-- for what might not be a long-term gig.

Thursday night games have always been a problem for teams in which the quality of the game suffers because they had three days off, and the risk of injury is high.  (The tradeoff, of course, is more time to heal before the next game.)  But people watch.  As long as they do, the NFL will be more than happy to provide as much football as they possibly can.  Even if it kills them.

Together we make football, indeed.

Seahawks Fly Off With The Super Bowl

Seattle Seahawks huddle (Photo credit: Mike Morbeck)

The Seattle Seahawks dominated the 48th Super Bowl in East Rutherford, New Jersey with a defense that rendered the Denver Broncos' vaunted offense useless.  The Seahawks' offense was pretty good, too, racking up 43 points to the Broncos' 8 for Seattle's first pro championship since the SuperSonics (now based in Oklahoma City) won the NBA title in 1979.

You might say the Seahawks won this game almost from the very beginning, with the Broncos' Manny Ramirez sailing the football over Peyton Manning's head into the end zone twelve seconds into the game for a safety.  It was all downhill for Denver's offense from then on, turning over the ball four times including a misbegotten Manning pass picked off by Seattle's Malcolm Smith, who took it 69 yards for a touchdown.

The Broncos' defense wasn't that great either, giving up 206 passing yards and two touchdowns to Seahawk QB Russell Wilson, and an 87-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to Percy Harvin.

If this is the way Manning may have wanted to end his illustrious NFL career, he and his teammates couldn't have picked a worse performance to go out on.  Especially after setting several records during the regular season.

It must irk Minnesota Vikings fans to see former players Harvin and Tavares Jackson wearing Super Bowl rings, while Adrian Peterson is in danger of never getting near the big game unless he bought a ticket.

Pete Carroll, who won a national college title at Southern California before the NCAA posse came for him, wins his first Super Bowl.  His coaching, cited by most as stereotypical laid-back New Age, belies a harmonic convergence between mind, body, soul, and a punishing style of play.  Whatever it was, it must have worked because the Seahawks are coming back to the Pacific Northwest with the Vince Lombardi trophy.

Other things you might have noticed during the Super Bowl telecast:

• Joe Namath in a fur coat doing the coin toss.  PETA must not like that.
• All the handwringing about the conditions for the first outdoor cold-weather Super Bowl were overblown.  The NFL really lucked out with temperatures in the 40s and rain, instead of snow on the frozen tundra of MetLife Stadium.
• Bruno Mars was this year's halftime entertainment.  He appears to be what the NFL wants--a safe, bland pop star who appeals to advertisers' target audience of young women.  The Red Hot Chili Peppers, on the other hand, gave the show some sorely needed energy with a higher nipple count than Janet Jackson's a decade ago.  OK, they were shirtless guys.  And this time it was intentional.
• The commercials for mostly cars, snack food and beer were so-so with recycled ideas.  But some of them were head-scratchers, such as the ones where you couldn't decide if they were selling a product or an idea.
• Bob Dylan does a Chrysler commercial.  Prince appeared in the sitcom "New Girl", a special episode which ran on Fox after the football game.  As Mr. Dylan would put it, things really have changed.