Wild 2015-16: No Offense Taken

Minnesota Wild (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another season, another crisis for the Minnesota Wild.  This time around, it's not about defense or goaltending.  They're one of the best in the NHL as far as that goes, except when it comes to late-game miscues that cost them a point or two in the standings.

The Wild's record at the All-Star break--or should we just call it the All-Star Three-on-Three Tournament to be held in Nashville, with goalie Devan Dubnyk Minnesota's only representative?--is a respectable 23-17-5 in the tough Central Division, but whose 55 points (shared with the Colorado Avalanche) provides a small cushion between getting into the playoffs as a Western Conference wild card and staying to see who else wins the Stanley Cup on TV.

Instead, this season's crisis is about scoring, or the lack of it.  The Wild have scored 122 goals so far this season, which is far from the league's worst (that would be the Anaheim Ducks with 101).  But it's when they don't put the puck in the net that matters.  They have one of the league's worst power plays.  They'll score maybe once or twice per game and hope that holds up.  They were shut out twice on consecutive nights.  And they have yet to master the NHL's new three-on-three overtime.

All this talent--Zach Parise, Jason Pominville, Nino Niederriter, Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle and others--that Wild management have spent millions to bring a Stanley Cup championship to Minnesota, and they don't score?

Maybe we're being a bit hard on the Wild, having caught them at a bad time.  After all, they did get off to a good start before the calendar flipped to 2016 and things grounded to a halt..  But ever since Mike Yeo became coach five years ago (and maybe even before), the Wild have faced at least one period during the season when a part of the machine wasn't working.  This season, it just happens to be the offense.

Once the season resumes next week, we should know if either Wild management will be getting help for the struggling offense before the trade deadline, or the players they already have will be able to work out the problem themselves.  If the problem persists and the Wild somehow misses the playoffs, Mike Yeo may no longer be chief mechanic.

UPDATE (2/19/16):  After dropping an entire homestand, the Wild didn't wait to replace Yeo with  John Torchetti, who had been coaching their minor league team in Des Moines, Iowa.  Since the change, the Wild are 3-0 after scoring five goals each against mediocre teams in western Canada (Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers--in that order).  It's too soon to say whether they're out of the playoff woods or not.  But at least NBC's announcing crew will have something positive to say about the Wild this Sunday, playing outdoors against the Chicago Blackhawks at the University of Minnesota's football stadium.

The Los Angeles Rams, Act Two

Front gate of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What did F. Scott Fitzgerald say about second acts in life?  The NFL Rams are moving back to Los Angeles after having spent two decades in St. Louis.

Owner Stan Kroenke, a Missouri-born land developer who just happens to be married to a member of the Walton family (the one that owns Walmart), successfully convinced the NFL to let him move his football team to a stadium on property he owns in nearby Inglewood, California.  Until it's finished in 2019, the Rams will probably play out of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which they called home the first time around.

This development leaves the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders in the lurch.  Both franchises are stuck in old stadiums and couldn't wait to move to LA.  Unfortunately, the NFL voted down the two teams' proposal to share a stadium in Carson, California.  But they're both still in the running to join the Rams at their new digs in Inglewood.  Or maybe San Antonio is available.

For years, NFL teams have used Los Angeles as leverage to get the stadium deals they wanted:  Seattle, Arizona, Minnesota, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Miami--have we left anyone out?  Now that they can't do that any more, they'll come up with another city worthy of blackmail.  London?  Toronto?

So why did the NFL leave LA in the first place, when both the Raiders and Rams left in 1995?  Lack of fan support?  Lousy teams?  Fear of lawsuits if the league dared to interfere?  Or couldn't they make money on it any more?  Obviously, two decades have done wonders to change attitudes.

Going back to La-la land also means the NFL is returning to the second-largest TV market in America, which makes their current deals with several networks all the more valuable.  Hollywood's power elite will want to get next to pro football's poobahs, and vice versa.  The Rose Bowl can host the Super Bowl again.  It'll be a destination for free agent players and top draft picks, if only for the fat contracts and endorsements they'll bring.

None of this describes St. Louis, which has now lost its second NFL franchise (the other one being the Cardinals, who left for Arizona in 1988), and will probably not see another one any time soon.  Kroenke is Public Enemy Number One there right now, in the same way Norm Green was regarded by Minnesota North Stars fans when he moved the team to Dallas in 1993.  The city fathers and mothers tried to counter with a new stadium to replace the outdated (to the Rams) Edward Jones Dome.  But how do you compete with the glitz and glamour of southern California, and an owner hellbent on getting there?  Oh well.  St. Louis has always been a baseball town, anyway.

In the history of the Rams franchise, they have won one NFL championship (1951) and made one Super Bowl appearance (1980, lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers) while in Los Angeles.  They won a league title in 1945 as the Cleveland Rams before moving west.  In 2000, the St. Louis Rams (then called "The Greatest Show On Turf" ) won the Super Bowl over the Tennessee Titans, in what could only be described as a Hollywood ending.

What will the script be for the Rams, now that they're in love with LA again?

It's Only Football. Isn't It?

English: American football with clock to represent a "current sports or American football event" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a season in which the Minnesota Vikings overachieved enough to win the NFC North division title over the stumbling Green Bay Packers, who won enough to make the NFL's wild card round, it must gall the Vikings and their supporters that the Packers are moving on and they are not.

The final on Sunday was Seattle Seahawks 10, Vikings 9.  Contrary to popular belief, this playoff loss was a team effort.  It wasn't just Blair Walsh's incredulous miss from 27 yards that would have won the game for the Vikings in the below-zero cold of TCF Bank Stadium.  It was Walsh being the entire offense with nine points on three field goals.  It was Adrian Peterson fumbling the ball at a most inopportune moment in the fourth quarter, which would have eliminated the need for Walsh to win the game.

After three quarters of being frozen out offensively, the Seahawks' Russell Wilson showed what a savvy, experienced playoff quarterback looked like.  He made the most out of a fumbled snap, picking it up at midfield and throwing the ball to an open receiver who almost took it to the end zone, resulting in the game's only touchdown that led to Seattle's victory.

Meanwhile, the Packers will be moving on to Arizona, having won their wild card game at Washington with ease.  Aaron Rodgers also showed the Redskins what an experienced playoff quarterback can do.

With the season suddenly cut short, everybody is predicting great things for the Vikings for next season and beyond.  Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and Adrian Peterson are the offensive cornerstones, the defense is playing up to its potential, and the Vikings are going back indoors.  On the other hand, Bridgewater has yet to show he can be an elite signal-caller like Wilson or Rodgers, Peterson is getting older, and the Vikings are going back indoors.

In their 55-year history, the Minnesota Vikings have had more bizarre things happen that have kept them from winning a world championship, rivaling Charlie Brown's attempts at kicking a football.  It's happened at every place they've called home:  Metropolitan Stadium, the Metrodome and TCF Bank Stadium.  What kind of horror awaits them at US Bank Stadium?
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Our projected Super Bowl 50 matchup:  Seattle vs. New England
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In the second College Football Playoff championship game at Glendale, Arizona Monday, the Alabama Crimson Tide won its fourth national title in seven years (only Notre Dame in the 1940s has also done that) with a 45-40 win over Clemson.  The Tigers had been the top-seeded team for half the season.

Tide coach Nick Saban won his fifth championship, putting him one shy of the mark set by another Alabama coaching legend named Bear Bryant.

While the championship game was an entertaining shootout between two Southern football powers, all the talk has been about how far the people who run the CFP would go to sabotage their own product.  Unlike last season, in which both semifinal games were played on New Year's Day in the Rose and Sugar bowls, Alabama beat Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl while Clemson took care of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl . . . on New Year's Eve.

Granted, the two games were one-sided and ESPN kept reminding its viewers that the new Taylor Swift video was about to be shown on fellow Disney network ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest".  But New Year's Eve fell on a Friday this year, meaning some folks were still at work and/or had to choose between partying and watching football.

Add to that the refusal of the Rose and Sugar bowls to move from their traditional New Year's Day time slots--unless it's January 2nd, because the NFL usually has first dibs when the holiday falls on Sunday (which it does in 2017).

Predictably, the New Year's Eve games had ratings that resembled flat champagne.  Still, the CFP insists on putting its semifinals on that day despite pleas to move them somewhere else.  They might get lucky next season when New Year's Eve falls on a Saturday, when more people will be home.  Other than that, an awful lot depends on the calendar and what the NFL wants.

ESPN usually gets blamed for a lot of things when it comes to sports on TV.  In this case they really can't be, unless you want to claim that the Worldwide Leader spent too much money over the next decade to let themselves be pushed around by an organization that rivals Augusta National Golf Club in not letting TV networks call the tune on when to schedule their events.

But then, it's only football.  Right?