Alex Bader
The year 2021 was not a great year for anyone, especially if you were a fan of Minnesota sports. The Twins were just downright bad after they had promising years in 2019 and 2020. The Loons continued to struggle once they got into the post-season and the Vikings were just horrifyingly bad this year. The Timberwolves and Wild had good starts to the season, but both teams have had to deal with injuries early. They have seemingly hit a winter wall that has fans worried that this is the start of another disappointing season for both teams.
The drought for a championship title among the NBA, NHL, MLS, MLB, and NFL teams continues into the new year. Will 2022 be the year Minnesota celebrates a major championship?
I will go over the past 2021 season or the current 2021/22 season of each major sports team in Minnesota and give an in-depth look at the team, what needs to be done to win a championship and how long it will take.
I put them in order from the team that had the worst season to the best team at the end.
VIKINGS
The Vikings should not have missed the playoffs with a team this talented. They have Jefferson and Thielen who are incredible receivers. Jefferson who is one of the best young receivers in the game has 1,509 receiving yards on 103 receptions with nine touchdowns in his second year as a pro. Thielen has 726 yards receiving on 67 receptions and 10 touchdowns. Dalvin Cook has 1,080 yards rushing on 235 attempts and is now over a thousand yards rushing the ball for the last three years. Cousins has had an impressive season as well, he has 30 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. He has thrown for nearly four thousand yards and will most likely overcome that on Sunday.
They have the playmakers on the offensive side of the ball to win games, however, they lost several one-score games this season. I believe that those games would've gone a different way if the team was being led by someone else.
It is time that the Vikings move on from Zimmer and clean house. They need a whole new coaching staff and a whole new GM. I would like to see them completely rebuild the franchise with Justin Jefferson as the face of the Franchise.
They should trade Cousins for picks since teams would be willing to pick him up since his numbers are not bad at all. They need to get rid of Cook and either pick up another back or go with Mattison who has shown that he can lead the ball on the ground. He has 473 yards rushing on just 129 attempts this season. Cook is constantly injured and does no good being sidelined for half the season.
If they rebuild and clean house, I could see a Super Bowl appearance in their future within the next 5-8 years. I will tell you one thing I am certain of, they will never win with Zimmer. He has had his time, he has had his chance, and he has done very little to show for it. It is time the Vikings fans deserve a winning culture.
Under Zimmer, the Vikings will always be an average football team, they may make a run or two in the post-season, but will never go far. They will always be right around .500 and that is why it is time to move on from the mindset that being average is okay. It isn't.
Any other coach would have been fired in the NFL or any other league, and it truly has shocked me that he is still the coach of the team, hopefully, that changes after Sunday. The stupidity by the ownership to not recognize what needs to be done is why this franchise is the worst in the state of Minnesota.
TWINS
They were so disappointing to me because they went 101-61 and finished first in the AL Central in 2019, but were swept in the playoffs and then went 36-24 in the covid season in 2020, but then lost in the playoffs. They were at least having good regular seasons and there was a lot of buzz around them going into the 2021 season.
However, they followed up those two promising seasons with a season that was more like what the Twins fans are used to. They went 73-89 and finished 5th in the AL Central and missed the playoffs altogether. They have some promising young guys coming up from their farm system, but only time will tell what kind of season 2022 will be for the Twins.
As far as winning a championship, they need to prove themselves in the post-season first. They have had great seasons recently, but then they fall apart in the post-season. For that reason, I do not think the Twins will win a championship in the next 10 years. Hopefully, I am wrong.
LOONS
They had a bad start to the 2021 season, but they finished strong and managed to make it to the playoffs for their third consecutive time since entering the league back in 2017. This is still a very young team in the MLS and they deserve the benefit of the doubt. They have lost some good players throughout the years, but the club still manages to be competitive.
They are such a fun team to watch and the stadium in St. Paul is an amazing atmosphere.
I have nothing terrible to say except that they did not show up for their playoff game against Portland. They got the very early goal and then stopped playing which allowed Portland to just take over the game and complete the comeback.
They have made the playoffs now three times in a row and they have proved that they can go far, they went to the conference finals the year prior. With only half a decade of experience in the league, their fans do not expect them to win the championship, however with continued success comes more expectation down the road.
I think that the Loons have the talent and the youth guys coming up to be a strong force in the Western Conference in the MLS and they should challenge for the playoffs every year. I think they can win the MLS in the next five years. I think they will be the team to end the championship drought in Minnesota - if it isn't done this year by their neighbors, the Wild.
TIMBERWOLVES
Supporting the Timberwolves is like being on the Wild Thing at Valleyfair and never getting off. The Wolves are so inconsistent that they will be on a three-game win streak, then lose seven, then they win eight, then they lose five and it is like when will it end!
I have the Timberwolves as a more successful team because they have come a long way and I believe they have some of the most 'promise' among Minnesota teams. They have gone through the rebuilding process ( something the Vikings don't want to do ) and have come out of it a better organization and team.
They have an extremely young group of guys that haven't played a lot together. They have a young talented, yet inexperienced bench that can help them win, but can hurt them too.
ANT, DLO, KAT are the big three Wolves fans have been waiting for and they have produced when they all play together.
Vanderbilt and Reid have shown that they belong in the show and they could be argued to be more important to the team's success than even ANT and DLO.
They have had issues with injuries and recently got stung by the Covid bug that has prevented them from really getting in any sort of groove.
The good news is that majority of the team is now healthy or returning to health soon and the hope is that they can remain healthy down the stretch of the season and make a push for the playoffs.
If they remain healthy they should be able to grab a playoff spot or get the play-in-tournament. Currently, they sit in 9th at 17-20 which is good enough for the play-in-tournament. The Kings are in 10th at 16-23.
The good news for the Wolves is that outside of the top four spots, the West seems to be wide open. The Nuggets are 18-17 and in 5th, the Mavericks are 19-18 and in 6th, the Lakers are 20-19 and in 7th, and the Clippers are 19-19 and in 8th.
The Wolves will not win the championship this year and probably not within the next couple of years, but they should be good enough to get in the playoffs to give themselves a chance. Who knows maybe they will win because anything can happen in the postseason, but you have to get there first.
I predict they will win the championship in the next 6-8 years. My reasoning for this is that the core will be more experienced with ANT, DLO, and KAT in their prime, and hopefully the rest of West will get a little easier with guys like Curry, Thompson, and Lebron maybe retiring by then.
They won't win when they have to beat the teams like the Warriors and Suns who cannot be stopped this year. The Suns and Warriors are on a path towards the conference final and not many other teams in the West have shown they can contend with them thus far.
They play the Thunder tonight, Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Target Center.
WILD
They say to save the best for last, and that is exactly what I wanted to do.
The Wild are the best team in the state and they currently have the best chance at winning a championship the soonest.
They rebuilt and completely cleaned the house. The roster is practically brand new, the Coaching staff is new, the GM is new, and the success and buzz around this team is certainly new.
Before I get into my recap and analysis I wanted to share pieces of news from the Wild camp on a crazy Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the Wild recalled Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy and they will be making their NHL debuts on Thursday night in Boston against the Bruins. They will also see time on the power play units if the Wild are given a chance.
Boldy will be making his debut in his home state and has many friends and family excepted to be in attendance.
Rossi's parents who just left town on New Years Day will fly back to the U.S. so that they can see their son play in his first game.
The two prime prospects who are highly anticipated to be stars for the Wild in the future will make their debuts together.
The Wild put Victor Rask on Waivers, if he is cleared Wednesday he will be sent to Iowa or placed in the Taxi squad.
It was announced that Talbot will be out for the foreseeable future which meant the Wild recalled Andrew Hammond to serve and Kahkonen's backup. Last year when Talbot went down, Kahkonen was tremendous in the crease and went on that great win streak as a rookie.
Bjugstad was injured in practice on Tuesday after Zuccarello accidentally slashed him in the arm. He will not travel to Boston and Evason said it does not look good.
With Ek, Spurgeon, Greenway, and now Talbot and Bjugstad all injured, the Wild certainly have some adversity to face.
Just like many fans, I am very excited to see Boldy and Rossi, but the injuries we have mounting up are not good.
Let's hope that after this mountain of injuries, our guys can stay healthy down the stretch.
The Wild no longer sit in first in the Central, but that is mainly due to not playing games and the good news is that they have games in hand on every team above them.
The stretch of not playing games could be nice for a team that is hurting in multiple areas of the ice.
The Wild have been surprisingly good at the beginning of the season and they have looked like real strong contenders. They have fallen off of the bike a little, but all it will take is a couple of good games and some wins to get them back on track.
However, they have to get back on track without key guys and it will be a challenge. It gives guys like Rossi and Boldy a great opportunity to go out and show what they can do on the big stage.
This team has the best shot at winning the Cup over any other Wild team in history. They have the skill, the drive, the leadership, and the camaraderie to make a deep run.
After this year, I am unsure how far this team can go with their current cap situation and free agents. They have guys like Fiala, Greenway, Kahkonen, and others who need to be resigned before next season, but they have very little room to make it all happen. In reality, one or two of those guys will not be here next year. It is most likely Fiala and Greenway will be gone unless greenway is willing to take less to stay in Minnesota. Fiala will almost definitely be on a different team next year.
They have a tight cap for the next four years because of the buyouts to Parise and Suter.
Side note, Parise has one goal and five assists in 28 games played. Suter has 14 points and a pause minus of -5 in 29 games played. Looking like a good decision made by Billy G.
That means this year is looking like the year to go all in. If it isn't this year, it will most likely be in 4-7 years when our rookies like Rossi, Boldy, Duhaime, Kaprizov, Addison, and Kahkonen are all in their prime.
The Wild need to dig deep and find ways to get points even though they are missing important guys. They need to go all-in this year, because they may not have a better shot than this year for the foreseeable future.
They need to start playing better though and it has to happen tomorrow in Boston because the other teams like the Blues, Avalanche, and Predators have been playing incredibly lately and suddenly the Central is extremely tight again.
If they win the cup or if they flame out and lose in the playoffs, I expect this team to compete and be fun to watch down the stretch.
They play Thursday at 6 p.m. central time in Boston.
Out of all the Minnesota sports teams, the Wild is the closest to winning the championship.
In other notes, the NHL generated $10M in Winter Classic merchandise sales with the top-sellers being Jerseys, blankets, and gloves. TNT's first time presenting the Winter Classic was tied with the most-watched NHL regular-season game on cable all-time averaging 1.4 million viewers. It was the most-watched NHL game on any network for the season thus far.
One thing I found brainless was that the league had several other games on the same day and some at the same time as the Winter Classic. It doesn't make sense to invest millions into the Winter Classic and then have other games going on, it just seems counterproductive. It used to always be the only game on New Years Day was the Winter Classic.
I hope you enjoyed this take on the fate of the franchises.
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