In their not-so-illustrious history, combined and separate, the Timberwolves and Wild have had stretches where they were at least consistent playoff participants.
A singular moment in Wolves + Wild history was 19 years ago this week
Both teams have had stretches of successful years. But what about the Wolves and Wild having good seasons at the same time? Here's an indication of how rare that's been.
April 19, 2022 at 7:55PM
The Wolves made it eight straight years from 1997-2004. The Wild made the playoffs in six straight years from 2013-18.
Both teams being good at the same time? It's exceedingly rare. The easiest way to define that is with this fact: This year is just the third time in their combined history that both the Wild and Wolves have qualified for the playoffs in the same season.
The other two playoff seasons: 2003 and 2018. That's it for the 21 seasons during which both teams have played.
Not great. Not even bad. Awful.
But I'm not here specifically to bring up the past. The set-up here is two-fold:
One, to remember how much fun 2003 was, albeit for a brief amount of time.
Two, as La Velle E. Neal III and I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast, we should also take note of how much fun 2022 has been so far for the Wolves and Wild — with the potential to get even better in May and beyond.
First, the history: If you are looking for the one shining moment in the combined playoff history of the two franchises it comes down to one date: April 22, 2003.
On that date, the Timberwolves defeated the Lakers 119-91 to even their Western Conference playoff first round series at 1-1. And the Wild one-upped them, stunning the Avalanche on Andrew Brunette's Game 7 overtime goal to win that series.
I was at Target Center that night for the Wolves game, and I remember watching the Wild finish on a tiny TV near the press room.
Two days later, the Wolves won again. But they lost the next three and fell in six games in the series. The Wild embarked on a playoff run to the conference finals.
But April 22, 2003 is the only time both teams won a playoff game on the same day.
If that streak is going to end this year, the Wolves will need to advance to the second round. Game 7, if necessary, in their series with Memphis would be May 1. The NHL playoffs will begin a day later.
A while back, I set the over-under for combined postseason wins between the Wolves and Wild at nine.
It's been a fun regular season regardless, but if the "over" hits, and by a lot, it would go from fun to historic for these parts.
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