Hello to Vikings draft picks, goodbye to Timberwolves season: get the latest Minnesota sports news
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This month has been packed with news to keep fans of the Wild, ‘Wolves and Twins on their toes. And the Vikings are preparing for the NFL Draft.
Sports experts Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined MPR News Host Emily Bright with all the latest.
Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and the cohost of “Ten-Thousand Takes” sports talk show. Eric is the other host of “Ten-Thousand Takes” and is also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio “Eye on Football.”
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
EMILY: Well, it's Thursday. That means it's time for sports, so let's hear from our sports experts, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine and the co-host of 10,000 Takes sports talk show.
Eric is the other host of 10,000 Takes and is the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio, Eye on Football. Wally and Eric, welcome. It's good to talk with you.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Hi, Emily. How are you?
EMILY: I'm good. So I want to talk first about the NFL draft. I understand the Vikings have five picks this time around.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: They do. They have the 23rd pick in the first round of the draft. Now, last year, the Vikings picked second, which was last in the first round after a trade, and that's so typical. I mean, everybody gets all worked up about where they're drafting and who they might draft.
Well, the Vikings might make some trades, and they could end up picking anywhere from two to 32. I doubt that they'll get the number one pick. I think that that's pretty well solidified. They do have some needs, though, and they hope to fill some needs in the draft that will help them immediately.
Now, last year, they took Lewis Cine in the first round. He was a defensive back safety, but he broke his leg in week four in that game against the Saints in London. So they have to-- they're hoping that he'll come back. Eric Kendricks is now gone. He's been a kind of a staple on their defense since being drafted back in 2015. He's with the Chargers now.
Patrick Peterson was a defensive back, also, gone via free agency. He's going to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers this coming season, so it looks like defense is where they're going to go with this draft. But again, the key for them is to get guys that can help them as soon as possible, and we shall see. It really is a crapshoot.
EMILY: Eric, your take? Or Wally, sorry.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Eric must have disappeared.
EMILY: Oh dear, we lost.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: And again, yeah, I know one of the things that Eric wanted to talk about, and we talk about this all the time on our talk show. You can't take this draft too seriously, because no one knows how things are going to pan out. The Vikings got Jon Randall and Adam Thielen. They were never drafted. They picked him up via free agency, so they weren't even in the first seven rounds.
And a guy by the name of Tom Brady, he was drafted in the sixth round by New England. So the draft really is, as I said, a crapshoot, and it's all over television for the next three days and nights. So buckle up if you're a fan of the NFL draft, because you've got three days of this fun coming, I guess, you could call it.
EMILY: Yes, indeed, and I hear Eric is back. But let's move on to the Minnesota Wild. What's new?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, they'll play tomorrow night in Saint Paul. They've got the Dallas Stars in game six. Now, they trail three games to two. They lost 4-0 the other night.
Jake Oettinger, who is from Lakeville, ironically, he played at Lakeville North, his high school hockey. He's been in goal for the Stars, and he has been really good. They have had a really tough time trying to solve Jake Oettinger, but you're not-- if they lost 4-0, think about it. You're not going to win, if you don't score, so they have to figure out ways to beat Jake Oettinger. You can't win, if you don't score, and they have had trouble putting the puck in the net. And Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, those guys, they're going to need them to come through.
EMILY: Eric, are you back with us?
ERIC NELSON: I am, Emily, and Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, they've been on a milk carton in this series. So they've been no shows. Combined in five games, they have four points. Kirill The Thrill, who is, clearly, Minnesota's top player, the face of the team, has one goal.
Boldy has just three assists. And if this doesn't change, the Wild could be on vacation very soon. So they have to win the next two games, including tomorrow night in Saint Paul. And if you look at the Wild the last few seasons, Emily, they're on a playoff treadmill.
They've gone one and done in their last six postseason appearances. They haven't gotten out of the first round since 2015. So here in the state of hockey, the Wild fandom is hungry to see this team have some postseason success, but they have not been able to do that. And there will be a lot of frustration if this team loses either Friday or in game seven down in Dallas that they did not get out of round one yet again.
EMILY: Yeah, now, let's switch to the Timberwolves. Their season is wrapped up and not without a fair amount of drama. What's the scoop?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, where do we start?
EMILY: I'll leave that to you.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh Lord, it's kind of been a trainwreck in many ways this year, I mean, from Rudy Gobert punching Kyle Anderson, and then Jaden McDaniels punching a wall and breaking his hand, and then Kyle Anderson being injured for the final game of the series against Denver earlier this week. And then to cap it all off, apparently, Anthony Edwards is being charged with third degree assault for-- and I saw the video. I guess you should go online, and look at the video, and judge it yourself.
He ran out of the arena. So here, set the stage for it. He misses the final shot of the game that would have tied the game on Tuesday night and sent it into overtime. He runs-- immediately after the buzzer goes off, he runs up the runway towards the locker room, and there were chairs in the way, and he tossed them aside.
I mean, he probably should have stopped and not-- but he tossed him aside. And it looked like it might have brushed somebody's leg. Well, now, he's being charged with third degree assault. I looked at the video many times. I think it's, really, a load of you know what. It's just-- it's nonsense. But when you're a star and you're making a lot of money, things like this are going to be happening to you, and he was upset.
I liked the passion that he showed. I liked the fact that he's mad that they lost. Enough with this glad handing, oh, we lost, it's over. You're trying to win championships. That's what this is all about.
So yes, the season is over. They've got a lot of things to think about in the off season. That's for sure, but this one is another one in the book for what has been a very dysfunctional season for the Wolves.
EMILY: Eric?
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, and the sad part, if you're a Timberwolves fan, is there were high hopes coming into the beginning of the season, because they were in the playoffs a year ago. They got bounced in round one against Memphis, but they were very competitive in that series. And a lot of people thought, OK, they are ready with a tweak here and a tweak there to take the next step and maybe win a playoff series, or two, or three. Who knows?
Well, what happens is, in the off season, they hire a new General Manager Tim Conley from Denver, and they pay him $44 million, a multi-year deal to come in here and take the T Wolves to the next level, while he made this trade for Rudy Gobert, giving up five players and four number one picks for Rudy G, who came from Utah. And from the get go, people were saying, what? I mean, Rudy Gobert is a good player, but he's probably not even a top 20 guy in the NBA.
So you mortgage the farm for Rudy Gobert, who's come in, and it was very choppy to have him integrate with Cat. They called him the Twin Towers, a couple of seven foot players, and then Cat got injured. And this trade, if the Timberwolves don't get some clear benefits from it down the road, that would be winning a championship, or at least, going to the NBA Finals is going to be lumped together with the infamous Herschel Walker deal that Mike Lynn and the Minnesota Vikings made back in the 1980s with Dallas that might be the worst trade in the history of North American professional sports. Dallas parlayed it into three Super Bowls. Minnesota got nothing, because Herschel Walker did not take the Vikings to a Super Bowl.
EMILY: Well, Eric and Wally, that is about all the time we have for today. Thank you for your time.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: All right, thanks, Emily.
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, thanks a lot, Emily.
EMILY: That was Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine and the co-host of 10,000 Takes sports talk show. Eric is the other host of 10,000 Takes, and also, the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Radio Eye on Football.
Eric is the other host of 10,000 Takes and is the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio, Eye on Football. Wally and Eric, welcome. It's good to talk with you.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Hi, Emily. How are you?
EMILY: I'm good. So I want to talk first about the NFL draft. I understand the Vikings have five picks this time around.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: They do. They have the 23rd pick in the first round of the draft. Now, last year, the Vikings picked second, which was last in the first round after a trade, and that's so typical. I mean, everybody gets all worked up about where they're drafting and who they might draft.
Well, the Vikings might make some trades, and they could end up picking anywhere from two to 32. I doubt that they'll get the number one pick. I think that that's pretty well solidified. They do have some needs, though, and they hope to fill some needs in the draft that will help them immediately.
Now, last year, they took Lewis Cine in the first round. He was a defensive back safety, but he broke his leg in week four in that game against the Saints in London. So they have to-- they're hoping that he'll come back. Eric Kendricks is now gone. He's been a kind of a staple on their defense since being drafted back in 2015. He's with the Chargers now.
Patrick Peterson was a defensive back, also, gone via free agency. He's going to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers this coming season, so it looks like defense is where they're going to go with this draft. But again, the key for them is to get guys that can help them as soon as possible, and we shall see. It really is a crapshoot.
EMILY: Eric, your take? Or Wally, sorry.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Eric must have disappeared.
EMILY: Oh dear, we lost.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: And again, yeah, I know one of the things that Eric wanted to talk about, and we talk about this all the time on our talk show. You can't take this draft too seriously, because no one knows how things are going to pan out. The Vikings got Jon Randall and Adam Thielen. They were never drafted. They picked him up via free agency, so they weren't even in the first seven rounds.
And a guy by the name of Tom Brady, he was drafted in the sixth round by New England. So the draft really is, as I said, a crapshoot, and it's all over television for the next three days and nights. So buckle up if you're a fan of the NFL draft, because you've got three days of this fun coming, I guess, you could call it.
EMILY: Yes, indeed, and I hear Eric is back. But let's move on to the Minnesota Wild. What's new?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, they'll play tomorrow night in Saint Paul. They've got the Dallas Stars in game six. Now, they trail three games to two. They lost 4-0 the other night.
Jake Oettinger, who is from Lakeville, ironically, he played at Lakeville North, his high school hockey. He's been in goal for the Stars, and he has been really good. They have had a really tough time trying to solve Jake Oettinger, but you're not-- if they lost 4-0, think about it. You're not going to win, if you don't score, so they have to figure out ways to beat Jake Oettinger. You can't win, if you don't score, and they have had trouble putting the puck in the net. And Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, those guys, they're going to need them to come through.
EMILY: Eric, are you back with us?
ERIC NELSON: I am, Emily, and Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, they've been on a milk carton in this series. So they've been no shows. Combined in five games, they have four points. Kirill The Thrill, who is, clearly, Minnesota's top player, the face of the team, has one goal.
Boldy has just three assists. And if this doesn't change, the Wild could be on vacation very soon. So they have to win the next two games, including tomorrow night in Saint Paul. And if you look at the Wild the last few seasons, Emily, they're on a playoff treadmill.
They've gone one and done in their last six postseason appearances. They haven't gotten out of the first round since 2015. So here in the state of hockey, the Wild fandom is hungry to see this team have some postseason success, but they have not been able to do that. And there will be a lot of frustration if this team loses either Friday or in game seven down in Dallas that they did not get out of round one yet again.
EMILY: Yeah, now, let's switch to the Timberwolves. Their season is wrapped up and not without a fair amount of drama. What's the scoop?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, where do we start?
EMILY: I'll leave that to you.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh Lord, it's kind of been a trainwreck in many ways this year, I mean, from Rudy Gobert punching Kyle Anderson, and then Jaden McDaniels punching a wall and breaking his hand, and then Kyle Anderson being injured for the final game of the series against Denver earlier this week. And then to cap it all off, apparently, Anthony Edwards is being charged with third degree assault for-- and I saw the video. I guess you should go online, and look at the video, and judge it yourself.
He ran out of the arena. So here, set the stage for it. He misses the final shot of the game that would have tied the game on Tuesday night and sent it into overtime. He runs-- immediately after the buzzer goes off, he runs up the runway towards the locker room, and there were chairs in the way, and he tossed them aside.
I mean, he probably should have stopped and not-- but he tossed him aside. And it looked like it might have brushed somebody's leg. Well, now, he's being charged with third degree assault. I looked at the video many times. I think it's, really, a load of you know what. It's just-- it's nonsense. But when you're a star and you're making a lot of money, things like this are going to be happening to you, and he was upset.
I liked the passion that he showed. I liked the fact that he's mad that they lost. Enough with this glad handing, oh, we lost, it's over. You're trying to win championships. That's what this is all about.
So yes, the season is over. They've got a lot of things to think about in the off season. That's for sure, but this one is another one in the book for what has been a very dysfunctional season for the Wolves.
EMILY: Eric?
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, and the sad part, if you're a Timberwolves fan, is there were high hopes coming into the beginning of the season, because they were in the playoffs a year ago. They got bounced in round one against Memphis, but they were very competitive in that series. And a lot of people thought, OK, they are ready with a tweak here and a tweak there to take the next step and maybe win a playoff series, or two, or three. Who knows?
Well, what happens is, in the off season, they hire a new General Manager Tim Conley from Denver, and they pay him $44 million, a multi-year deal to come in here and take the T Wolves to the next level, while he made this trade for Rudy Gobert, giving up five players and four number one picks for Rudy G, who came from Utah. And from the get go, people were saying, what? I mean, Rudy Gobert is a good player, but he's probably not even a top 20 guy in the NBA.
So you mortgage the farm for Rudy Gobert, who's come in, and it was very choppy to have him integrate with Cat. They called him the Twin Towers, a couple of seven foot players, and then Cat got injured. And this trade, if the Timberwolves don't get some clear benefits from it down the road, that would be winning a championship, or at least, going to the NBA Finals is going to be lumped together with the infamous Herschel Walker deal that Mike Lynn and the Minnesota Vikings made back in the 1980s with Dallas that might be the worst trade in the history of North American professional sports. Dallas parlayed it into three Super Bowls. Minnesota got nothing, because Herschel Walker did not take the Vikings to a Super Bowl.
EMILY: Well, Eric and Wally, that is about all the time we have for today. Thank you for your time.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: All right, thanks, Emily.
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, thanks a lot, Emily.
EMILY: That was Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine and the co-host of 10,000 Takes sports talk show. Eric is the other host of 10,000 Takes, and also, the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Radio Eye on Football.
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