On Sunday
February 17 was to be a day of loving Minnesota sports as the Gophers men’s
hockey and basketball as well as the Minnesota Wild were in action in the early
evening.
The day
turned out bad for the Minnesota college teams and very good for the lone
Minnesota pro team in action.
It was just
last week on Thursday during rivalry week the Gophers basketball team hosted
the Wisconsin Badgers. The game starts out 10-0 Badgers and making it look like
it could be an awful night for the home team. As we know the Gophers caught up sending
it to overtime and eventually winning.
The Gophers
traveled to Iowa on Sunday coming into Iowa City having 3 in a row in Iowa City.
I really thought the overtime win against Wisconsin could give the boys a
boost. The game Sunday even starts out Minnesota up 21-5. We finally are going to
get a road win so I thought, but disaster. I spent all day Monday listening to
the radio and heard opinions of all sorts. It seemed pretty one sided that
Coach Tubby Smith needs to go. The name Shaka Smart has been popping up. I for
one do not want to hit the panic button and see just what happens in Ohio
State. Did this embarrassing loss ignite the desire to not let this happen
again? Who will step up as a player and take charge? Trevor Mbawke came back
for one more season after being injured last year. Can Trevor take this team on
his back as they head to the Big Ten tourney?
The Gophers
hockey team took a tough loss to the Badgers on Sunday falling short 3-2. I have
seen the Gophers enough this year to know it will be alright. This is a team
that has the ability to bounce back. As a lover of sports I cannot think of a
better sight that outside hockey. The sight of cold air being breathed out by
the players you just do not get the pleasure to see any more. The 52,000 fans
is a credit to people’s love of hockey sitting outside at Soldier Field and
sitting through the cold. I know Chicago Bears fans are used to it but this is
college hockey. It was history as Minnesota played its first outside hockey
game. It is too bad a loss occurred but did like to see the Gophers quit.
The
Minnesota Wild‘s play Sunday night went from oh on here we go again to wow that
was awesome. Minnesota rookie goalie, Darcy Kuemper getting the call 5 minutes before
the start of the game against the might Detroit Red Wings was quite the shock.
The way the
game started falling 2-0 and again hearing boo birds is not fun. This team
finally came out and showed what they can do. Kuemper played so well after
allowing 2 goals keeping the Wild game.
I could not
be happier for Jason Zucker who showed why the Wild think so highly of him by
calling him up. The speed he showed racing from one end of the rink to the
other and scoring was just the emotional lift this team needed. It is his first
career goal and the victory gives goalie Kuemper his first win in the NHL. A
goalie gets his first win and a rookie gets his first goal and they both are
against longtime rival even going back to the Minnesota North Stars days, the
Detroit Red Wings. Congrats to both!!
The
Timberwolves are on All-star game break but I did manage to find an interesting
number regarding the Wolves. The Wolves popularity is up the most in all
professional sports with a gain of 42 percent. The next is LA Clippers ( NBA 38%),
Nashville Predators (NHL, 30%) Phoenix Coyotes (NHL 25%) and then Oklahoma City
Thunder (NBA 22%)
The Wolves are
young with the likes of Ricky Rubio and Alexi Shved along with Derrick Williams
leading the way. I know the playoffs are not likely in 2013 but I am sure
excited to see how the team finishes going into next season.
The Twins
first spring training game is this Saturday, February 23rd which is
hard to believe. It was Saturday the 16th that tickets went on sale
to the public. I did find some numbers with the renewal numbers of tickets at
81 percent in 2013. I am very impressed considering the team has lost 90 plus
games the last 2 years.
In 2012 the
renewal was 85 percent and in 2011 it was 95 percent. The Twins have sold 1.8
million tickets for 2013 and projecting 2.5-3 million for the year. It was last
year at this time the team had sold 2.2 million.
This is a
young team with many new faces so the only thing we know is the team is 0-0.
Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are healthy. I am going to be an optimistic fan
and hope the team can find pitching.
Sources:
bizjournals.com
Scarborough research
Thanks for
reading
Purplestick
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