The Minnesota sports calendar certainly kicked off with some big events at the start of this new year.
First, the Winter Classic between the Wild and the St. Louis Blues came to Target Field on New Year’s Day, followed by the Vikings playing the Packers at Lambeau Field the next day with hopes of staying alive in the NFL playoffs. While my disappointment at not making plans to go in person to either of these marquee events was quickly snuffed out by seeing the temperature readings those two nights, disappointment was quickly replaced by seeing the Wild and Vikings both go down to defeat. While this wasn’t the best start to the year for us ever-patient Minnesota fans, I have optimism this year can bring some positive change for these two teams.
First off, the team I’m most excited about in the new year is the Minnesota Wild. If you haven’t been paying as much attention to them this season, the third period of the Winter Classic is what you should think of in terms of their playing style. This team has been growing and building, scoring nonstop, and is looking set to be a playoff contender. At one point this season the Wild had the best record in all of the NHL.
Heading up this revival of the Wild is Kirill Kaprizov, who joined the Wild last year and made huge waves in his rookie season. He’s easily the favorite player of myself and my college roommates, and he has been prolific in providing dozens of goals and assists to the team. Along with him are other exciting players like Kevin Fiala, Jared Spurgeon, Joel Eriksson Ek, just to name a few. The Wild came heartbreakingly close to advancing in the playoffs last year, losing in Game 7 to Vegas in the first round, and I think they have a real shot of going farther this year.
The Vikings, after being eliminated from the playoffs by Green Bay, have some serious reflection to do. This season really felt like a rollercoaster ride. Almost every single game, even ones that we should have won easily, ended up in an anxiety-inducing one-score situation near the end. Many games coming down to the very last play didn’t help. This was confusing considering how potent the offense looks on paper and how well our defense usually does under Coach Mike Zimmer. We have exceptional players like Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook who put in stellar performances all season long only for the team often to end up losing.
While the Vikings may beat the Bears next week to get to a slightly better record to end the season, this team hasn’t been winning big games when it matters. Looking back, under Zimmer’s tenure we’ve had so many critical playoff losses. Even in successful years, the best we could manage was going to the NFC Championship game in 2017-2018, and then losing 38-7 to the Eagles. After almost 10 years of Zimmer, I think it’s great the Vikings have had winning records and made it to the playoffs for so many of those years. But if you don’t win a championship, how long until something needs to change? I think if we can get a new coach and a new approach, the Vikings should have more than enough good players and determination to play much better and maybe even get further into the playoffs in the next few years.
While I know optimism always has a way of coming back to bite us as Minnesota sports fans, I think in light of some tough seasons in the past few years, including the Twins this past year, and the Timberwolves’ constant troubles, we should take good developments where we can. And after all, the success of the Lynx proves we can keep winning championships in Minnesota. Looking at the Wild and the Vikings in particular, I think there are signs of more success ahead. So while we don’t want to jinx it, let’s keep our heads up high and see what this next year could have in store.
Connor Kockler is a student at St. John’s University. He enjoys writing, politics and news, among other interests.
