TIPSHEET

KNOW THIS

Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, the Wild's two highest-­paid players and guys who take up a combined 20 percent of the team's salary cap, are both injured. That's a tough way to win a playoff series.

WATCH THIS

The optimist would say the Wolves didn't play their best in Game 1 and still had a chance to knock off the Rockets. The pessimist would say Minnesota missed a golden opportunity that it might not get again in this series. We'll see which sentiment plays out in Game 2 in Houston (8:30 p.m., FSN and TNT).

RANDOM FANDOM

"The Wolves played one of their better games and may pick it up a bit more if they get Towns involved, but the Rockets didn't play well and have a lot more in the tank and they still won. Houston missed several open threes I assume will start dropping."

"1paper" commenting on startribune.com.

TWEETED

"I want to write a story about Joe Mauer and Eddie Guardado as aging down-on-their-luck Con Men trying to pull one last score."

@TawnyFroggy