Hopefully this is the beginning of a good offseason

Not long after the clock struck midnight and the free agent period began, the Minnesota Vikings, true to their word, went out and wrapped up a player well worth the 6 year, $33 million contract they gave him. 26 year-old safety Madieu Williams agreed in principle this morning to sign with the Vikings after jetting from the Cincinnati Bengals following a year where he had 2 interceptions and 2 sacks. Williams, known more for his exceptional coverage skills, immediately upgrades the Vikings secondary, a major concern for the last couple of seasons.

It was refreshing to see the Vikings spend some of their money on a position that needed help desperately. After releasing Dwight Smith earlier in the offseason and thinning out the secondary even more, it became critical for them to find a guy that can compliment Antoine Winfield. Williams has 4 years service in the National Football League all with the Cincinnati Bengals. Drafted in the second round (24th pick) in 2004, Williams started all 16 games for the Bengals in his rookie season. Williams played only 4 games his sophomore year in the league after being put on Injured Reserve due to a bum shoulder. He recovered for the 2006 campaign and again played all 16 games, compiling 90 tackles and 3 interceptions. Last season Williams started the first 13 games of the season before being put back onto IR with a bad quad. I assume that Williams is all set to go and has fully recovered from his quad injury.

The Vikings, who are $35 million under the salary cap, have vowed to be aggressive in this years free agent pool in order to better a team who has many good parts, but fell just short of the postseason last year. With a scheduled visit from Bernard Berrian this afternoon, it seems as though the Vikings are really committed to making this team a playoff team.

Wild run out of gas, fall to the Red Wings

The curse of the Red Wings hits the Wild again.

After flying out of the gate Tuesday versus Detroit, the Wild looked like they were on their way to a rare victory over the conference leading Red Wings, but it seems fate was working against them yet again. After jumping out to a 2-1 lead, the Wild gave up the tying goal with less than 2 minutes to play, and eventually fell in overtime. After getting blown out by the Red Wings in their two meetings earlier this season, the Wild finally stole a shootout victory over them back on January 10th, and they were hoping to shift some of that momentum to this game. The Wild played what turned out to be their best two periods of the season until ultimately running out of gas in the third. Niklas Backstrom played a strong game between the pipes, and Brent Burns handled the puck well at the blueline, but at the end of the night, it wasn't enough to take down the goliath that is Detroit.

The first period started out very promising as the Wild promptly took control of the game and fired shot after shot on Dominik Hasek, but Hasek held strong until his team caught the Wild offguard when Johan Franzen fired home a wristshot at the 9:58 mark of the first to put the Red Wings ahead 1-0. The Wild were playing strong, though, and it didn't take long for them to respond with a goal of their own. Brian Rolston took the puck behind Hasek and, without anybody challenging him, walked up in front of the net and danced around Hasek and banked a shot behind the goalie to tie the game. The Wild continued to play a strong period and ended up out-shooting the Red Wings 13-6.

After the break, the Wild remained the dominant team and once again was outplaying Detroit in every aspect of the game. The normal finesse game of the Red Wings was being broken up by good defensive plays and hard hits. The Wild finally pulled ahead when Pavol Demitra got behind the Detroit blue-liners and fired a slapshot from just outside the left faceoff circle 5:30 into the period. Things got a little testy in the second when at the 9:48 mark Aaron Voros got clocked into the Detroit bench and quickly retaliated with a punch that resulted in two roughing calls. The Wild promptly went to work with a brilliant penalty kill that gave them all the confidence they needed heading into the locker room after the second.

All season the Wild had been lights-out heading into the third with a lead, but when it's a one goal lead versus the best team in the NHL, nothing is a gurantee. The third started out completely different from the first two periods; the Wild were on the defense most of the period right from the get-go. After getting lucky on numerous occasions, the Wild finally let their lead slip with just 1:20 left in the game. Daniel Cleary crashed the Wild net and threw the puck at Backstrom, who blocked the puck easily but then made the mistake of pushing the puck into the corner. Cleary again took control of the puck and took a bad-angle shot that just slipped through the outstretched Backstrom. That quickly took the energy out of the Xcel as well as out of the Wild. The home team limped through the remaining minute and took the game into overtime where they were guranteed at least one point. It didn't take long for the Red Wings to take advantage of the depleted Wild, and Brent Lebda connected on a beautiful pass from Henrik Zetterberg just 1:37 into the fourth frame to give the extra point to Detroit.

This loss was especially hard to swallow considering how well the Wild played the first 40 minutes. This was easily the best I've seen the Wild play Detroit for many years, and I hope they can look at this game and take a little bit of confidence out of it. They played well, and this loss was nobody's fault in particular, the team just collectively ran out of gas. The Wild have a tough stretch coming up next, so let's hope they can continue to build on their success they've had the last handful of games. The Wild will be taking on the Dallas Stars and the New York Islanders at home and then going on the road for the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks. Hopefully the Wild can take some positive out of this game against Detroit and continue on their road to the playoffs.

It had to happen at some point....

As I sit here writing this blog, I still can't believe what transpired last night. I watched it with my own eyes, yet for the first time in my life, I doubt what I saw. New York Giants-17 New England Patriots-14. The New York Giants, who had lost 6 games this season, beat the New England Patriots, who, coming into this game, hadn't lost. Period. But this was the Superbowl, the epitome of championships, so there is never a gurantee. I had the Patriots winning 35-17, because I didn't foresee Tom Brady's offensive line absolutely fall apart, nor did I see Eli Manning having the game of his life. I guess I was wrong. I will dole out credit where credit is due, no matter how hard it is. Congratulations Giants, you played a heck of a game, and you deserve the Lombardi trophy. With that being said, I'm going to go over a few points of the game that either a) baffled me or b) amazed me.

1) The Patriots O-Line: What surprises me here is that the guys up front (Matt Light, Logan Mankins, and Dan Koppen) had been absolutely lights out all season, giving Brady plenty of time to drop back, step forward, and get the pass off. Yet we get to the Superbowl, and they couldn't block anything. Brady got sacked 5 times and didn't have time to look downfield very often. With that being said....

2) Tom Brady: I don't even know what to say about him. Brady, who's statistics ( 29/48 266 yards 1 TD) show he played a decent game, actually had an absolute atrocity of a game. The aspect of his game that got to me the most was his inability to get the ball to Randy Moss. Moss was in position the whole game, running his routes and waiting for Brady to throw. Yet when Brady threw the ball in Randy's direction downfield, it was nowhere near Moss. Overthrown, underthrown, too far right, too far left; it was crazy how Brady couldn't find Moss for a big play. Moss was constantly open, blowing by the Giants secondary, but Randy could never capitalize because of Brady.

3) Wes Welker: Welker is a class act and without a doubt deserves everything he got this year. It's too bad he couldn't come away with a ring, but he had a great year nonetheless. Welker got open all night in Arizona, and he put on a show. It seems like every catch Welker makes is for a first down. Welker caught 11 passes for 103 yards, and all of those yards were important. If the Patriots had come away with a victory, Welker would have been my choice for MVP.

4) Eli Manning: I can personally say I will no longer refer to Eli as "Peytons little brother." Eli lit up the field last night and deserved to walk away with that MVP trophy. Manning (19/34 255 yards and 2 TD) looked brilliant on his way to winning his first world championship. With his brother Peyton there to watch him, he definitely showed why someday there could be a Manning v. Manning Superbowl.

5) The Giants Defense: Keeping my dignity intact, I will now admit that the Giants defense is for real. Don't get me wrong, after riding them my whole fantasy season I knew there was something right with them, but I really thought the Patriots would find a way to get around them. That wasn't the case. The front seven of the Giants pressured Brady all night and rattled him around until he couldn't even concentrate. For this Giant defense to come to Arizona, on the biggest stage they will ever be on, and hold the best offense to ever play football to 14 points is pretty amazing in my book.

6) Tiki Barber: The fact that the Giants won this game the year after Tiki retired is one of the few bright spots I found in this victory.

Going into this game, I had no doubt in my mind that the Giants could pull this victory from the Patriots. But just because I knew they could does not mean I saw this coming. Even when the Patriots got the ball back with 30 seconds left, I thought they were going to march downfield and kick a field goal to tie the game. As much as I would have loved to see history being made with the Patriots going undefeated, I guess it's not the end of the world. Playing a whole season without losing a single game is definitely a hard thing to do, and I give credit to the 1972 Miami Dolphins for remaining the only undefeated team in NFL history. And I give credit to the Giants for pulling out this improbable win when not many thought it would happen. I just still can't believe that the team that just won the Superbowl was beaten by my Vikings 41-17 just a mere 10 weeks ago....