Flyers beat Wild 4-3 in OT comeback win in St. Paul

CANAL PARK  – What is the number one question on most Minnesota Vikings fan's minds these days? With little debate needed it would be the Kirk Cousins situation. The fairly durable quarterback had a rather serious Achilles injury right in the middle of the season and it was over rather suddenly for him and the team. They put up a fight for a playoff position without Cousins but it turned out to be futile in the end. Oddly enough, there was still the potential that they could get in on the last day of the season. They didn't and mercifully ended their season with a 7-10 record.  

The team came into Week 8 with a 3-4 record before Cousins was injured and had staked them to a 24-3 lead in a game the Purple would win 24-10 at Lambeau Field versus the Green Bay Packers. So Mr. Cousins was your basic 4-4, .500% win percentage quarterback. And for that the Vikings paid him a pretty big chunk of change.

The reality and "metrics" on Cousins say that he is about a .524% win percentage player during his career. He is 1-3 in postseason appearances.  

He is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet and is well-liked everywhere.  Even if there are some fans who get testy about him during the season, the guy really is as first-class as it gets. And therein lies the dilemma.  

On March 13 the club can void the 2024-2025 parts of his contract and part ways with him. On the downside that maneuver would place $28.5 mil of dead cap space upon the team.

Holy Minnesota Wild, Batman! The Vikes surely must be using GM Bill Guerin as their new Capologist! But hold on Baba Louie! Vikes GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah forgot to stock up the backup quarterback closet with anyone who could play!

After Cousins went down, the team had a fresh rookie Jaren Hall who lasted about one half in his debut tilt. We had the "Pass-tronaut," whose initial play got the Purple Nation all revved up only to watch the retro-rockets go on and flame out.  

Then we had "pullen-Mullen." With his tendency to "pull" passes, Nick eclipsed his TD throws with one more interception than touchdowns. While it brought many Vikes fans a new appreciation for Cousins, the reality is that in his six-season tenure the team never has been a true Super Bowl contender.

And to make matters worse, Adofo-Mensah forgot offense roster rule number one – always be developing a quarterback behind your current starter. Ignore that at your own peril.  

So it is now decision time in Vikings Land. Keep Cousins while team management attempts to figure out what they are doing and develop a plan. (and a quarterback) Or is it time to move forth from the Cousins era? I'll make it easy for you. No emotions involved, pure data and gut feeling all the way. It's time.      

In a true business decision, you've been able to see what he brings and you know how much it has cost you. He is 50-38-1 as a Viking. Thirteen of those 50 wins came in one season courtesy of a sports miracle. He is 1-2 in the playoffs as a Viking.

The team won the North division once in his six seasons. The team has deposited roughly $185 mil in Kirk's savings account. At his current age (turns 36 in August) and coming off of a serious injury, his Super Bowl window is closed if indeed it was ever open.

Adofo-Mensah needs to be decisive here and move quickly. He really can't do anything else until this matter is resolved...  

On the other side of my Mighty Mississippi, Wild GM Bill Guerin might be looking at bigger gale waves than his counterpart in the Mill City. He might want to keep a Beaufort Scale chart with him at all times for the rest of the season.

It's official fans, the Minnesota Wild are a mess. And sadly a lot of it has been self-inflicted. To add insult to injury for next season's final year of "dead cap space purgatory," it could be just as bad or worse.

Tonight the team will play Game 42 and will start the second half of the season. For the first 41 games the team finished at 17-24. (17-19-5) That's good for 39 points placing the team five spots away from a playoff spot and 13th of 16 teams in the Western Conference.

The team still has significant players out on the IRL, (Kaprizov, Spurgeon, Brodin, Gustavsson and Lettieri) but believe me, even if their roster was at full strength and healthy, I felt that the playoffs were still a hard hill to climb for this team.

The "bounce" the team received from the coaching change was positive, 11-3 prior to the New Year's weekend disaster versus the Jets but the team has gone 1-7 since. They will meet the upstart Arizona Coyotes in St. Paul tonight and let's just say I'm not crossing my fingers for a win here.   

With the roster in flux some of the team structure has broken down especially on defense and special teams. In just two losses in three days to Dallas earlier in the week the team gave up 2 shorthanded goals and 1 power-play goal in a 4-0 shutout loss.

In the return match two nights later, the team tightened up on special teams, surrendering no goals, but in Wild rookie netminder of the future Jesper Wallstedt's NHL debut, the team lost 7-2. I don't pin all of that on "Wally," he wasn't getting much help and the Stars thoroughly waxed the Wild in both games.      

For those that don't know Guerin is getting plenty of negative press around the state. Some of it is on the money and as in many cases some of it is just someone writing a hit piece. For myself, I thought for a good 6 to 8 hours last evening about how I might approach a deep dig on Guerin's tenure here without simply being a Dougie downer. His mistakes since arriving in The State of Hockey are well-chronicled. So are the successes he has had ,even if none of them have turned out to be homeruns yet.    

There are some negative issues that have dogged him since his Wilkes-Barre days with the Baby Penguins right up to the most recent front office kerfuffle he was involved in resulting in two important front office employees being gone from the organization. Apparently Guerin was being investigated regarding his role in the matter, but the club has mostly gone radio silent on whatever the issue was, and I guess they are hoping the fans and media will forget all about it.  

If championship teams and organizations are all about integrity and accountability, the media and fans of the team should get an explanation. What happened and who was in the right and who was in the wrong? If the wrong person retained their employment then the media and fans deserve an explanation about that too. Billy G is into his fifth season at the GM spot. It might be a good time to re-examine what the team has here... PEACE