We did a great episode of Minnesota Foul Play-by-play on Monday that was interrupted by a “low disk space” message. Naturally, I started deleting things to make room for the recording, and after I thought the recording was successfully transferred to my external hard drive, where I store all our previous recordings, I deleted the Zoom files saved to my computer. Well, apparently the recording was never transferred to my external hard drive, and there’s no way to recover the lost recording. This is why the Foul Play-by-play podcasts will now be performed live on YouTube.

We’re in the process of developing graphics to accompany the live productions of the Foul Play-by-play YouTube episodes. We’re also producing a library of show sounds to serve as a soundtrack for the shows. We’re upping our game at Foul Play-by-play, and will be back better than ever.

On the lost episode of Minnesota Foul Play-by-play, we discussed the NBA All-Star Weekend that was saved by Sabrina Ionescu, once again reviewed PWHL Minnesota’s Elaine Chuli problem, explained why the Wild are hot, and argued about what we can expect from the Minnesota Twins. 

They shoulda made Steph shoot from the @WNBA three-point line.

— Anthony Varriano (@GoGonzoJournal) February 18, 2024

Chuli, You Can’t Be Serious

There was a controversial finish to today’s game between PWHL Minnesota and PWHL Montreal in Montreal, but there’s nothing controversial about this take: the State of Hockey has a problem, and that problem is Elaine Chuli.

• After its win today, Montreal has won two of the four games it’ll play against Minnesota in the PWHL regular season, and both in regulation, which is worth three points in the PWHL.
  • While Minnesota leads the standings by one d, Montreal has played one less game, and a tie would almost certainly go Montreal’s way unless Minnesota can sweep the next two games.
  • Elaine Chuli has held Minnesota to just two goals despite 65 shots faced, and it’s looking like all roads to the inaugural PWHL Championship go through Montreal. 

Why the Wild are Wild Hot

The Minnesota Wild have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL the past 10 games, picking up 15 points, and sitting just five points out of the second Wild Card spot in the West with a game in hand. But how?

• They’ve figured out the penalty kill…for now.
  • They know what they can give up without Jared Spurgeon and with their goaltending.
    • Electing to allow the goalie defend  the player on the red line one-on-one.
    • Difficult area to elevate the puck, so it makes sense, especially without Spurgeon’s shot blocking.
  • Killed over 90 percent of penalties the last nine games or so. 
• The top line has possessed the fuck outta the puck and shot it a ton.
  • Their numbers are frankly insane: 18 goals, 23 assists over the last 10 games
• Joel Erikkson Ek is a dog, and he’s getting real good on the faceoff dot.
  • Winning 49.3 percent of faceoffs this season, which is down slightly from last year, but his scoring is way up, and effort is never changing.

DeSclafani and the ’pen, the Player Formerly Known as Sonny Gray

The Minnesota Twins are cutting payroll, but at least if you live in Twins Territory, you won’t have to watch them, because they’ll be blacked out.

• They re-upped with Bally Sports in order to determine what they could spend, per David Samson of the “Nothing Personal” podcast.
  • It’s a one-year deal they felt they had to take, which is another bad look for the league after the low price paid for the Orioles.
• Now, for some good news…

A team built of “ifs” that could be amazing, “if” they stay healthy, and play to their potential [we lost Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda and Jorge Polanco]

• Buxton (top 3 centerfielder, I’d argue #1) if healthy
• Correa (can he have a bounce back year, especially with his offense)
• The future (and the backbone of the team)
  • Royce Lewis (if healthy his offense is out of this world)
  • Julien (hope there’s no sophomore slump)
  • Walner (same as Julien)
  • Kiriloff (this is likely his last chance)–got to stay healthy and hit line drives
• The “old men”
  • Kepler (which Kepler do we get…I’m guessing he’ll be good this year…his confidence has to be up being that he didn’t get dumped like Polanco)
  • Kyle Farmer (simply need his right-handed bat)–he’s making more than all the young bucks combined, but provides nice injury insurance
  • Thielbar (please don’t regress any)
  • Carlos Santana (please don’t regress too much this year)
  • Vasquez (he can’t be any worse than last year, so I think Twins fan will be pleasantly surprised with any production)
• The swiss army knife
  • Willy Castro (I’m scared b/c he was the biggest surprise last year out of spring training….a poor man’s gamble that paid off….) hopefully he maintains similar production
• Rotation (on paper Twins top 3 are pretty good, but can they keep going in the right direction?)
  • Lopez (stud—but he may come back to earth a little bit…..I hope not
  • Joe Ryan (hopefully he continues to move in the right direction (however he was streaky last year)
  • Bailey Ober (I think he’ll be fine and on my list…which shows why I believe we should have purchased another starter….I’d actually pencil him in at #2
  • Paddack (it’s time to see what we got for Taylor Rogers)
  • Anthony DeSclafani (number 5….doesn’t really matter, hopefully he can eat innings and surprise us all)
• Bullpen (number 1 ranked bullpen in baseball…but bullpens can be a fickle mistress)