The Minnesota Vikings, Wild and Timberwolves all play in Arizona on Thursday, Friday and Sunday nights respectively.
It’s not for any championships, just three regular season games between the states in as many days.
Since that doesn’t happen very often, the governors of Minnesota and Arizona have placed a wager on the three contests. While Dayton is still recovering from a procedure on his back, he had time to respond to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s challenge.
.@govmarkdayton – Friendly wager? Loser of 2/3 games wears a jersey from the other governor's state. @AZCardinals @ArizonaCoyotes @Suns
— Doug Ducey (@DougDucey) December 10, 2015
Challenge accepted, @dougducey! Cheering on the @Vikings @Timberwolves and @mnwild this weekend! #MNvsAZ
— Governor Mark Dayton (@GovMarkDayton) December 10, 2015
The Vikings and Cardinals kick off the triple-header Thursday night at University of Phoenix Stadium. Minnesota is a little short-handed – they’ll be playing without four starters on the defensive side of the ball. Linval Joseph, Anthony Barr, Harrison Smith and Andrew Sendejo are all out.
The Wild play in Arizona on Friday. They too are missing a big piece. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk stayed in Minnesota, he’s recovering from a strained groin.
For once, the Timberwolves might be the healthiest of the Minnesota teams – as long as they get through Friday night’s game in Denver. They’ll head to Phoenix on Sunday.
Then again, Kevin Garnett doesn’t normally play on the second day of back-to-backs.
