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With pitchers and catchers reporting in less than three weeks, I broke down the Twins’ new uniforms as each generation sees them for Pulltab Sports: https://www.pulltabsports.com/blog/twins-jerseys

Happy Hockey Day Minnesota weekend. I’ll be celebrating from afar, as it’s a Dance Day Missouri for me, a quick day trip to suburban St. Louis.

ICYMI, Uber Eats delivery at a college hoops game earlier this week. I really want to think it’s an Uber Eats bit but no one’s fessing up. Also, I guarantee you the guy didn’t tip, because if there’s anything I learned in my illustrious year as a full time DoorDash driver it’s that the harder the delivery, the less the tip.

Wild Wins in OT; Let’s Ditch the Fights Okay?

Ok, I’ll give you Mats Zuccarello’s amazing overtime game-winner before we have a serious conversation about the state of hockey (not the State of Hockey).

Remember when you played soccer as a kid (I did) and you tried to go between some person’s legs with the ball and then get it on the other side of him and do something with it? Zuccy did that in front of 18,000 plus in overtime and beat the Flyers, 3-2.

Two goals for Matt Boldy as the Wild managed the two points after coughing up a late 2-1 lead.

But let’s talk about fighting in the NHL. Look, I’m as old school as they come. I cut my teeth in the minor leagues - check out video of an IceGators/Tiger Sharks brawl.

But it’s time for it to go. Four fights in the span of what was seemingly 60 seconds last night. I’ll spare you the video or names of most of the participants. Both teams were agitated; the Wild slipped out of a playoff spot recently and the Flyers are an absolute mess.

Did these four fights have any impact on the game? Not really. Do they ever? Not really. In twenty years of watching hockey closely, I can probably count on two hands the amount of times a fight actually affected an outcome - mostly for the negative. I’ll always remember Stephane Veilleux fighting Dion Phaneuf while up 3-0 in Calgary. The Flames scored six straight in a game that wound up being Wes Walz’ last.

There are four men in stripes assigned to control the game. Why do we, in 2023 and in the stage of CTE, need to keep cheering two grown men beating each other’s brains in. Of course, the NHL doesn’t even acknowledge CTE, so why would they ditch fighting?

I am jaded, I admit. I considered Derek Boogaard a close friend. We were “rookies” together in Louisiana of the ECHL in 2007. I’ll never remember the call on May 13, 2011: “Stanzel it’s a bad day, we’ve lost the Boogeyman.” And several days later I brought my one month old daughter to Gate 1 of The X and told her the best I could, “we’ll never be afraid of The Boogeyman in our house.”

There are countless other enforcers who’ve died, of course. And those are the ones we know about. What about the guys in the minors? What about the fights I watched on the I-10 corridor in 2003 between a couple guys making $350 a week?

It’s not even that there are many fights anymore. Ryan Reaves, brought to the team to help its “swagger” (the Wild still needs more goals by the way), has only fought twice in a Wild sweater. It’s not like he’s playing six minutes a night as an enforcer. He’s playing six minutes a night just in case someone takes a run at Kirill Kaprizov.

It makes me sad. Tough guys are some of the best in the NHL. Until they’re not.

Maddening Wolves Win in N.O.

How maddening is this team? I think I’ve written that before. Recently. A couple nights after they handed the Rockets their first win in 14 games, the Wolves looked like playoff contenders when beating the Pelicans 111-102 in New Orleans. Now, the Pelicans have lost six straight but they’re still in fourth in the West.

ANT, who absolutely should be in the All-Star Game, led the way with 37 points. D-Lo continues helping his trade value (though how can you get rid of him at this point) with 19.

For all their faults, the Wolves will head into the weekend just a game and a half out of fourth in the West - that would mean home court in a first round playoff series.

The Wolves host Memphis tonight in a playoff rematch. These two teams do not like each other. The Grizz have lost four in a row but are second in the West.

Gopher BB

You have to hand it to Ben Johnson’s team, they play hard. With just seven scholarship players - one of which hasn’t played since November - the Gophers grinded away Wednesday before eventually falling 61-57 to Indiana.

Imagine efforts like these with another year or two of recruiting and playing around with the portal. Johnson has assembled a good freshman class for next year, too.

Jamison Battle led Minnesota with 20 points. The Hoosiers scored the game’s last seven points to secure the victory.

Minnesota plays at a good Northwestern team Saturday at 11.

The women will not have played in eight days before having to face No. 13 Michigan at The Barn on Sunday at 2.

Gopher Hockey

The Gopher men are in control of the Big 10, seemingly a sure fire NCAA No. 1 seed, but it’d be nice for them to pick up a four-point weekend for the first time since early Dec. Minnesota hosts Michigan State tonight and tomorrow as I’ll get my second opportunity to see that top line up close this season. The Gophers swept the then No. 11 Spartans in December. Michigan State has just one win in its last seven games.

The Gopher women have won 10 straight since losing against Yale in Nevada in late November, and they’re likely to get tested for the first time since, visiting UMD today and tomorrow - both games are at 3 p.m. Saturday’s is on Fox 9+. The No. 4 Gophers play sixth-ranked UMD, No. 1 Ohio State and No. 8 Wisconsin the next three weeks. It’ll go a long way towards deciding the WCHA regular season title and a No. 1 seed, although it’d be possible for a couple WCHA teams to get that.

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