Minnesota Foul Play-by-play

Wild's Shootout Winning Ways, Twins' Spring Games, and Vikings' Decision Days


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We discuss how Frederick Gaudreau is leading the Wild's shootout winning ways, how the Twins’ injury-proofness is already being tested, and the hard decisions the Vikings need to make before March 15.

The Wild are Shootout Gods!

* The Wild got another shootout win over the Islanders, Tuesday

* Frederick Gaudreau plays shootout god, again!

* Six shootout goals in 10 attempts

* Filip Gustavsson's .930 save percentage is second in the NHL only to Boston's Vezina Trophy favorite, Linus Ullmark (.938)

*  #DidYouKnow: The Wild lead the NHL with 17 points via shootout wins; 7-0-3 in games decided by shootouts

* Ryan Reaves won a fight and scored his first goal of the year

* At his kid’s hockey game, he was hearing a lot of chirping from kids who had more goals than him; his response via Joe Smith on Twitter: “Wherever you are, eat that”

* Wild are one point behind Dallas in the Central

* Stars have a game in hand

* Only one point ahead of the Avs, who have three games in hand

* Firmly in the playoff hunt, however

Spring Games Already Testing Twins’ Injury-proofness

* Pablo Lopez looked great; Jorge Lopez had command issues but did touch 97 on the gun

* Trevor Megill doesn’t look great

* Got one out; allowed three hits, three walks, and six earned runs (162 ERA)

* Our baseball boner for Brooks Lee is getting bigger

* .444 average, 1.000 OPS

* Elliot Soto and Edouard Julien are mashing 

* Julien went yard twice on Monday 

* Julien in AA ball last year posted a .563 on base percentage and a .686 slugging percentage

* If Lee and Julien keep producing like this, what do the Twins do?

* Tyler Mahle’s stuff looked good today

* Velocity already at 94; better than last year)

* Injuries? 

* Larnach–late scratch today–some sort of lower body injury

* Miranda has a sore shoulder (that’s why he’s been DHing so much)

* Thoughts on pitch clock: love it!

* Hopefully results in more manager/umpire arguments and ejections

* Keeps the game moving by punishing slow-ass players

What Hard Decisions Will the Vikings Make?

* Do the Vikings extend Kirk Cousins again?

* This is the last year of his contract

* Kwesi Adofo-Mensah doesn't say yes or no to a Cousins extension: “Let’s go full numbers, we talk about necessary and sufficient conditions in math; a necessary condition is having a starter-level quarterback, a quarterback above a certain threshold. Now that doesn’t mean for-sure you’re going to win, that's not the only thing you need, but that is one of the things you need. Having a good level quarterback is a necessary condition. Kirk (Cousins) meets that threshold, we know that...How long does he meet that threshold? Those are things we need to answer. Is there a chance to add somebody maybe with different skill sets? These are all questions we gotta answer so there’s not one right way but I do know one thing, he is good enough, he meets that first threshold. That's a question a lot of people can’t answer with a yes, so we have to make sure we treat that in the proper importance that it is.”

* Who’s gone on March 15th? 

* Adam Thielen, Dalvin Tomlinson, Patrick Peterson, Chandon Sullivan, Garrett Bradbury?

* Will the Vikings’ defense improve with younger players and Brian Flores?  

* The right scheme, especially on defense, is more important than having superstars 

* We do get back players we just drafted last year: Lewis Cine (S) and Andrew Booth (CB)

* We drafted heavy on the defensive side of the ball last year

Anthony Edwards Acts Alongside Adam Driver in Latest 65 Promo

* The Wolves haven’t been good on the court, but this made us laugh



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Minnesota Foul Play-by-playBy Anthony Varriano, Michael Haase, Esq., and Bradley Haase

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