One week ago, when times were good, I tweeted about the state of Minnesota sports:
Vikings signed 2 tackles. Twins 7 wins in a row. Gophers beat Michigan State. Wild gunning for a Cup. Wolves streaking. United home opener.
And as so often happens when everything seems too good to be true in local sports, they were. This isn't because of some jinx, I would say, but rather the law of averages. When you notice an extreme trend in one direction, a regression to the mean is likely.
One week after that tweet, we have regressed. Oh, we have regressed.
The Vikings did, indeed, sign two tackles. We'll always have that. They've also lost a bunch of free agents of their own and had the father of one of the departed rip them on the way out.
Any enthusiasm over how the Twins have looked in practice games was muted at least somewhat by the news that Trevor May has a torn ligament in his elbow and is likely lost for the season.
The Gophers men's basketball team? They lost their next game to Michigan and then lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday, 81-72 to 12th-seeded Middle Tennessee.
The Wild? Three losses in a row, including an ugly 3-1 loss to Carolina on Thursday, finished off a 1-4 road trip. Minnesota has lost six of its last eight games and has given up the lead in the division to Chicago.
The Wolves? They've lost two of their last three to pretty much finish off any realistic chances of a late playoff push. Overall they're still playing much better than they were at the start of the season, they also learned Thursday they'll be without injured forward Nemanja Bjelica for the rest of the year.
United? Lost 6-1 in that home opener to fellow expansion side Atlanta.
All of this bad news, of course, shouldn't get us too down. It probably just means more good news is around the corner.
