Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 12.18.24

Dec 18

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Wild hosts defending champion Panthers tonight for an unfriendly 8:30 p.m. puck drop (more like 8:45) on TNT.

Frost returns from a two week international break when they host Ottawa on Thursday. Puck drop at 7 p.m. on Fanduel Sports Network which will broadcast 27 regular season games.

P.J. Fleck’s team will have just one returning offensive lineman after Phillip Daniels entered the transfer portal, according to The Star Tribune.

Charlotte Hornets apologizing after gifting a kid a PS5, and taking it away off camera and giving him a jersey instead.

Imagine the awkwardness on the first day of spring training in the Yankees clubhouse. New Yankee Clay Bellinger is married to Giancarlo Stanton’s ex. Hardly the first wife drama in that clubhouse (or any other).

No other games since the last Takeout so we’ll take a deeper dive on the Vikings below.

Vikings Set Themselves Up for No. 1 Seed in NFC

The Vikings’ ugly 30-12 win over the Bears on Monday Night Football did the improbable; even the seemingly impossible. Minnesota is in control of its own destiny for the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

Now there’s a long way to go, with three weeks left in the regular season. They’ve got the Seahawks - one spot out of a playoff spot on the road - this Sunday, followed by the really good Packers at home on Dec. 29 and a monumental matchup Jan. 5 with Detroit. That game will likely solve the division, but will it solve the conference?

Should the Vikings win out, as well as the also 12-2 Eagles, Minnesota would win the NFC by virtue of the FIFTH tiebreaker - strength of victories. That’s because the NFC North is so good. Philly needs to win out to make this happen, but two of those games - the Cowboys and the Giants - are virtual walkovers.

What’s at stake with first place? A much needed bye, but as importantly home field throughout the conference playoffs. Should the Vikings falter and not even win the division, they’d have to go on the road to either Tampa Bay, L.A., Seattle or Atlanta in round one.

This team could win two home games to reach the Super Bowl. In my opinion it would be very difficult to win three on the road, including at either Detroit or Philadelphia, to reach the Big Game.

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