Souhan; Benching of Parise Likely a One-Time Thing [PODCAST]

The Minnesota Wild lost 5-1 at Las Vegas against the Knights Wednesday night. Star Tribune Sports Columnist Jim Souhan joined me on WJON today. He says the Wild decision to make Zach Parise a healthy scratch was intended to send a message and will likely be a one-time thing. Jim says Parise hasn't been contributing on the level the Wild had hoped that he would. Souhan says Parise's decline is more evident as opposed to defenseman Ryan Suter. Both Parise and Suter each had 4 years left on their 13-year contracts.

The Timberwolves were beaten badly at home by the Charlotte Hornets Wednesday night. Jim says the Timberwolves weren't expected to get a bump with the hiring of long-time assistant coach Chris Finch. Jim says sometimes a team can show improvement for a short period of time after the hiring of a new head coach but with D'Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley out of the lineup the Wolves have had turn to other players who aren't on the same level as those two.

The Gopher men's basketball team lost 84-65 at Penn State Wednesday night for their 6th straight loss and this drops their record to 13-13 overall and 6-13 in the Big Ten. Jim says it's seeming more and more likely that Richard Pitino will not be back as the head coach.

The Twins lost 14-6 against the Red Sox in spring training baseball Wednesday. Jim says he's not going to overreact to a spring training game. He says it was a good sign to see home runs from Nelson Cruz and Mitch Garver and two solid innings from Jose Berrios. Jim says the bad outing by relief pitcher Alex Colome isn't a concern right now.