PLAYOFFS!

Playoffs here we come!

As I'm sure you have all heard, the Wild have clinched a playoff spot with their 3-2 OT win over the Avs Sunday night. The playoffs begin on the 9th, but it's not certain who we will play until just before then. As of right now, the Wild will play Colorado in the first round, and I'm ok with that, as long as they can keep Sakic at bay. I have a good feeling about playing them. Calgary not so much, and I don't know if we'd get lucky enough to see a distracted Luongo throughout an entire playoff series...

Anyways, the Wild have two games left. One at home on Thursday vs the Shames, that will be fan appreciation night. The last game of the season is on the 6th, vs the Avs. That game may affect just how much I want to play them in the playoffs.

I'm back at school now, so my nose is back to the grindstone, but I'll try and put something up soon about my playoff predictions.

In Which the Wild decide to hand over their playoff spot to the Oilers

So the Wild have apparently decided that making the playoffs isn't such a good idea after all. Maybe they'd rather work on their golf games or something. Maybe some of them haven't taken a look outside lately, but it's not exactly good golfing weather. Last night's 5-3 beating at the hands of the Oilers was not pretty. Three goals in something like the first five minutes of the game were enough to get Backstrom yanked, though he was back in the game for the third period.

This team is imploding like nobody's business. I'm all for the Oilers making the playoffs, but preferably not at the Wild's expense.


So yeah, we have to play them again tomorrow, and I will be there. We'll see how that goes, but I'll be there in my Parrish sweater cheering, even if I do like the Oilers. The Oilers are playing some desperate hockey right now, and the Wild should be too.

The Habs clinched a playoff spot last night, but unfortunately the Twins couldn't pull out a win today. Baby Bradke was on the mound for the start, but the Twins' fielding sucked more than the Wild's defence last night.

Minnesota Nice does not apply to sports

Memo to the Wild: See above. Helping other teams make the playoffs is not a good thing to be doing right now. You guys are sucking at life, and I want to know why. You blew a division lead in a week. LAME.

Calgary is on top of the division right now with 80 points. The Wild are tied with the Flames, but Calgary has a game in hand. Colorado is breathing down everyone's necks, and Vancouver is one spot out of the playoffs. With 13 games left, I expect this team to really step it up, but from I can see it looks like they are giving up. With three straight losses to teams that they should have been able to beat, and before that losing to teams like the Caps, it's really not a good sign in my mind. I'm not if full out panic mode yet, but I'm getting there. Jdoghooey mentioned that the sky was falling in the comments on 18,568 Reasons Why, and it might be a little bit. We need a Wes Walz to step up and peel the paint off the walls and get the guys going again. Carney, Hill, Schultz, Fedoruk, the stick boy, SOMEONE needs to do something. Rolston has been sucking at life. Parrish has been battling injuries, several of the young guys have disappeared altogether. Backstrom and Harding are getting bombarded every night, and players are having huge, costly brain freezes. Mikko Koivu seems to be the only player on this team really interested in playing right now.

All that being said, here's to hoping for an awesome game on Sunday and an interview with Joe Thornton by someone like Tom Reid so we will all be entertained. For an opposing viewpoint, you can check out Musings of a Radical Redhead or Battle of California.

Twins: HA! I am finally mostly caught up and have a clue what's going on. Sounds like the guys are ready for the season to begin, and Gardy is his usual self. I watched the Twins beat the Yankees the other day, and it was lovely. Once the Twins started winning, the announcers really had no idea what to talk about, since I don't think they know most of the players on the team. (Not that I can really say a whole lot about that.) I almost like not having Santana around for the one reason that I don't have to hear every three seconds about how he's going to the Yankees. The Mets are much more tolerable.
Margee will be doing a Squeeview of all the teams in MLB coming up soon, and Ckim, Finny, and McPhizzle have a new podcast up.