First off, can I get a quick moment of silence for the first Sunday without football. Yeah, I know the Super Bowl is next week, but that's still just one game, and this week reminds us what football-less Sundays are like. Not sure if the week break is genius marketing by the NFL or simply a public service. Maybe they know what a shock to the system it is to have no games and want to let us down easy by giving it a trial run, before coming back with one final game. Frankly the whole playoffs is kind of set up that way, as a gentle easing into an existence without the pigskin. Brilliant league that NFL, even when they're leaving you, the do it the right way.
First person to utter the words "Pro Bowl" however, is getting a size-13 shoe zinged at their skull. They should've taken that lame horse of a game out behind the barn years ago and put it out of it's misery. Instead they continue the charade of an All-Star game that not only fails to resemble the actual sport (which is fairly common), but also fails to involve most of the league's best players (which makes it kind of pointless). I guess if you want to spend an afternoon watching the 4th choice at outside linebacker not blitz, that's your business, I've never gotten the appeal.
But hey, if you are a fan of watching top athletes disinterestedly go through the motions, then Sunday is your jackpot! Following an afternoon of Pro Blow action is the NHL All-Star game, which incites minor interest, but only because of the system they've adopted featuring captains picking teams. I will definitely DVR the pick show tonight, game is a maybe, could be an Antiques Roadshow marathon going up against it or something. If the NHL has any marketing savvy, they will mike up some players expected to be picked toward the end, particularly if they could find a couple who are teammates or friends of the captains. Of course if the NHL did have any marketing savvy, this whole thing wouldn't be happening on Versus, so that's probably too much to hope for.
Amidst this weekend's inconsequential backdrop, there are a couple of interesting items lurking. The first is that Martin Havlat, former league leader in millions/goal ratio and general indifference, will be appearing in this weekend's game. Now sure it took an open format that didn't have to respect conference, and about 3-4 more deserving players getting hurt, to get him there, but the fact remains, he's an All-Star. This development, on the heels of a truly impressive first half, has caused me to reexamine some things and come to an important conclusion: It's time to drop the Halfthat nickname. Henceforth, he will once again be known on these pages as Havlat. It's only fair after all, he earned the name with uninspired, indifferent play last season, and is now shedding it with exactly the opposite.
Sure he only has 14 goals, but he's 22nd in the league in points and those assists have been of legit vintage. Not too many gift second assists that I've seen, Havlat has been the key to the offense most of the season and has been the best player on the ice a lot of nights. So farewell Halfthat, it was a good run. Rest assured we will keep you safely in the cupboard, should your namesake slide back to the place where you are once again a fitting handle.
And why is it relevant that Havlat has rediscovered his game? Well because the Wild are surprisingly relevant 50 games into the season. I'm not saying anything about the team has been a huge revelation, and they're still hanging on the fringe of the playoff chase, but I think we can give them and official Cleveland Indians/Major League "You know these guys ain't so f**kin bad!" The club is sitting nicely within striking distance of the #4 spot, has shown some nice upside in beating good teams, all-in-all there's every reason to be cautiously optimistic. How's that for a ringing endorsement?
Bizarre thing is, after a decade as a great home team that went belly-up on the road, the team has pulled a 180 this season, posting a 14-8-3 record away from the X, while middling along at 11-11-2 in St. Paul. A look back at history puts the oddity of this in perspective, as the Wild have only had two winning seasons on their history, with the high-water mark being 2 games above .500 (19-17-5) during the division-winning '07-08 campaign. Last season the team was 25-12-4 at home, but an abysmal 13-24-4 elsewhere; the year before looked pretty much the same. So what the heck is going on here? Beats me. I haven't broken down the schedules to compare this season to the last couple, but I'm guessing there's not much of a difference in who they're playing. I suppose the good news to take away from all this is that if they do make the playoffs, it will definitely be on the road.
But we can wait to jump off that bridge when we come to it, because even making it to the postseason will be a tall order for this team. There have been some bright spots this season, but the Wild still don't score consistently enough and rely on their goaltenders to save their bacon way too often. Not to mention they fact that good won't be enough, they've been playing good, but need to play better still, and for an extended stretch, if they're going to separate from the pack of contenders. At least it's a story to follow though, in this bleak stretch of the year. Coming out of the break, the Wild play a February schedule featuring 10 of 13 games against Western contenders, that stretch will probably tell us all we need to know.
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