If New Year's is your favorite holiday, it likely has something to do with the idea of renewal — a chance to turn the page, for a fresh start, for the optimism of what is yet to come.
It only took two days to put a dent in 2022 Minnesota sports optimism
The Vikings, Wild and Wolves all delivered clunkers right after the turn of the calendar.
January 3, 2022 at 5:42PM
If New Year's is your favorite holiday AND you are a Minnesota sports fan, you quite possibly woke up Monday thinking: Well, now what.
So far, not so good. The calendar might have changed, and you might be scrawling a different date on the checks you write five times a year now, but any optimism you might have had about Minnesota sports in 2022 has already taken a hit.
Patrick Reusse and I talked about three reasons on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast: The Vikings' stumble in Green Bay; the Wild's continued slide in front of a national audience at the Winter Classic; and the Wolves continuing to fight old habits.
*The Vikings are at the top of the list, of course. Losing 37-10 at Lambeau Field was both utterly predictable given the COVID absence of Kirk Cousins (also utterly predictable) and the course of this season, but it was still direct evidence of this team's status.
The Vikings are not a contender. They existed all year on the fringe of a seven-team playoff field, and they are not going to be any better in 2022 based on what we know now. Plenty has been written about that status of Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman, and it is correct.
*The Wild's five-game losing streak feels more like an alarming blip than a reason for panic, given absences on its blue line and rust from a COVID layoff. But if the mood in mid-December was one of starting to dream of a Stanley Cup parade route, the sentiment is much different now.
*The Wolves battled but lost to the Lakers, which in and of itself is no crime given the absences of Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell. But we are past the time of moral victories, and that game was there to be won.
Maybe the next 363 days will be different?
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
