VANCOUVER, British Columbia — During their four-game winning streak, all under new head coach John Hynes, the Wild had started strong in each game. Their start on Thursday, though, might have surpassed all of them.

For the first 15 minutes, the Wild completely dominated a Vancouver team that was 8-3-1 at Rogers Arena, keeping the Canucks pinned in their own zone with the kind of quick, relentless attack that has been the norm since the team ended a seven-game losing streak that cost Dean Evason his job on Nov. 27.

And then suddenly, they weren’t.

Nils Hogerson and Teddy Blueger scored goals, and Casey DeSmith weathered an early storm and stopped 24 shots as the Canucks beat the Wild 2-0 late Thursday, the Wild’s first loss in five games since Hynes made his Minnesota debut on Nov. 28.

The Wild outshot the Canucks 10-0 over the first 13:18 of the game and held Vancouver to a single shot, period, over that time. Minnesota goaltender Filip Gustavsson didn’t have to make a stop until there was 6:42 in the frame.

But Hogerson broke a scoreless tie with 1:54 left in the first period, sending a wrist shot cleanly into the net from the high post to change the narrative of a game that had been going Minnesota’s way. During its win streak, Minnesota outscored its opponents 9-1 in the first period, and 18-5 overall.

Thursday was the Wild’s first shutout loss of the season. Gustavsson finished with 15 saves. DeSmith improved to 5-0-0 in his career against the Wild.

After a scoreless second period, during which the Wild were outshot 10-4, Blueger gave the Canucks a 2-0 lead when he took a pass between the circles and skated unmolested at Gustavsson, who guessed left and was beaten right two minutes into the third period.

Minnesota kept Vancouver pinned in its own zone early, and the Canucks had one shot attempt, period, at 10:51. Their first official shot on goal came with 6:42 left in the period. But in all that time, the Wild never got one past DeSmith, even during a strong power play that netted three shots on goal. And when Vancouver finally woke up and started playing in Minnesota’s end, Hogland sent a wrist shot in from the high slot that beat Gustavsson cleanly for a 1-0 lead at 18:06.

The Wild never recovered. They’ll try to regroup in an 8 p.m. puck drop Friday in Edmonton.

The NFL Black Monday countdown was at five weeks when Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus welcomed his players back to Halas Hall after their bye week.

Five weeks for Eberflus to convince team leadership his 4-8 Bears have made enough progress that he shouldn’t be a part of the annual league tradition of firings the day after the regular season ends.

Perhaps only Chairman George McCaskey, President Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles know if Eberflus, now 7-22 as the Bears coach, can do anything to sway the decision over the winnable final slate of games against the Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers.

When the topic came up a few times with reporters Monday, Eberflus — who has been around enough football teams over 32 seasons to be familiar with this ticking clock — stuck to his talking points about focusing on his daily work.

He didn’t bite on a question about whether he thinks his job is safe, given past team support. Poles, after all, publicly offered support Nov. 1 when he called Eberflus “a grown man that has leadership skills to get this thing out of the hole and into where it needs to be.”

“What you can focus on is leadership, and the first rule of leadership is leading yourself,” Eberflus replied. “Come to work every day. Put the plans together — offense, defense, special teams. Lead the football team. Help the leadership council.

“Because true leadership comes from within. That’s really what you focus on, and that’s put your best foot forward every single day.”

Bears players are, of course, aware of the fates that hang in the balance — not just Eberflus’ but those of the entire coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, and quarterback Justin Fields. Those decisions are likely intertwined, with the Bears undoubtedly taking into consideration their 2024 quarterback-coach pairing.

With such decisions looming, Eberflus said he tries to strike a balance between being positive but also real with players and coaches, so they know where they need to improve.

“That is the business we’re in,” linebacker T.J. Edwards said. “No matter what, it’s always there. But at the end of the day, we’re here to win games and we’re here to be the best football players we can be. That is our job. That is what we’re here for.

“Our team is understanding that these are important games and we know … we’ve got to win them. And we’re excited about that. We have the right people in here, the right leaders who understand that and to keep the main thing the main thing.”

The main thing this week is a rematch with the Lions, who came back from 12 points down Nov. 19 to win 31-26. The Bears preached finishing after that deflation, and they did it — albeit in ugly fashion — in a 12-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 27.

“You can’t really mark it as full change until you do it consistently,” tight end Cole Kmet said.

So that’s a mission this week: show the consistency that has not been a hallmark of this Bears regime. They haven’t won back-to-back games since the end of the 2021 season under previous coach Matt Nagy.

Despite that, Eberflus, Edwards and Kmet asserted that progress is being made and is showing up on film.

“You see all the plays that are being made,” Edwards said of a defense that has seven interceptions in the last two games. “You see the effort that’s there, and that’s one thing that’s not looked on as much is just the tenacity that we’re playing with. That’s hard to do every single play, where someone’s giving it their all. You see that on film with our team.

“It is the league in terms of ‘You are what your record shows.’ But I don’t think we necessarily believe that. We know we’re a good football team and have got to go out there and finish. We’ve got to make those plays at the end of the game to seal those victories.”

And if they do, would that be enough to keep the Bears out of the Black Monday news cycle? They have five weeks to try.

“The season didn’t start the way everybody wanted, for sure,” Eberflus said of an 0-4 start. “But over the last eight weeks, we’ve put some good things out there. We’re certainly excited about doing that this week. Our focus, as anytime in the NFL, is where your feet are.”

Tyrique Stevenson expected back

Eberflus said it looks like rookie cornerback Tyrique Stevenson could return this week after missing the Vikings game with a foot injury. He said the Bears might consider rotating Stevenson and fellow rookie Terell Smith, who filled in when Stevenson was out.

“Smitty did play well and we want to get our young guys more and more playing time,” Eberflus said. “If they’re effective and produce, we certainly will play them.”’

()

Doja Cat set Minneapolis’ Target Center on fire Thursday night during a tour stop on her first headlining arena tour.

The 28-year-old rapper/vocalist born Amala Dlamini delivered an impressive, highly theatrical and expertly paced show that had the sold-out crowd screaming, swooning and singing along. And it was very much a show, with tight choreography and almost as much fire and pyro as a Kiss concert.

A high school dropout who taught herself to sing, rap and use GarageBand, Doja spent the mid-’10s establishing herself as an extremely online star. After her 2018 major-label debut “Amala” largely flopped, Doja went ahead and recorded a novelty song “Mooo!” and released it via a homemade video that soon went viral.

The success of “Mooo!” — which very pointedly did not make Thursday’s set list — all but forced her label, and soon after audience, to take her seriously. She was set to embark on a major tour in 2020 that was ultimately scrapped due to the pandemic.

But that didn’t stop Doja from continuing to write, record and score a seemingly endless string of hits over the past three years. Due to the pandemic, she doesn’t have the amount of live performance experience someone at this point in her career typically would, but you’d never guess it Thursday night. For 90 minutes, she delivered the sort of show one would expect from Beyonce or Lady Gaga. Save for a pair of snoozy slow songs (“Often,” her cover of Australian neo-soul singer Hiatus Kaiyote’s “Red Room”), she commanded attention throughout.

With her terrific live band perched in the shadows off to the side, Doja spent much of the evening alone on her V-shaped stage, with three large screens behind her. A small troupe of dancers joined her for some numbers, but she always remained the alpha in charge.

Those who fell for Doja’s poppy and fun pandemic singles may have been surprised by the darker tone. She structured the set list around her fourth album “Scarlet,” which delves deeper into hip-hop, with nods to goth rock and a more sophisticated production. Indeed, she has dismissed much of her previous work as “cash grabs” and “digestible pop hits” and kept them largely confined to the third of five acts of the show. (“Kiss Me More” remains a banger, whether it was a cash grab or not.)

Given Thursday’s wildly entertaining show, it’ll be fun to see where Doja Cat goes from here.

Related Articles

Def Leppard and Journey book return trip to Target Field in August

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra wraps 2022-23 season with $77K surplus

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train pulling into the St. Paul’s Union Depot on Sunday for a good cause

Inside the violent threat against the Beatles’ only Colorado concert

Holiday arts guide: Classical music in every taste and tradition

Petrostates could be on a streak for hosting international climate talks.

Oil-rich Azerbaijan got a surprise boost Thursday in its bid to hold next year’s COP29 when Armenia, a country it has warred with on and off for decades, dropped its own aspirations to host the talks — and endorsed its adversary’s candidacy.

The extraordinary turn of events could add to a pattern of oil- and gas-producing nations running the annual talks on how to respond to the Earth’s warming, whose major cause is the burning of fossil fuels. The talks occurring this week are based in the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s largest oil producers, a year after negotiations in Egypt led to a final text favorable to continued gas production.

Brazil, which has South America’s second-largest oil reserves, is favored to host COP30 in 2025.

Azerbaijan and Armenia — which have fought for control of contested territory since the dissolution of the Soviet Union — issued a joint statement Thursday saying Armenia would support Azerbaijan’s bid to host the climate talks.

The announcement also included promises to exchange service members who had been captured by each country in recent fighting.

The deal could break a diplomatic impasse that threatened to throw the international climate negotiations into chaos as nations deadlocked on where to host COP29.

The annual conference was set to return to Eastern Europe next year. But Russia opposed the bids of every European Union candidate because the bloc has backed Ukraine against Moscow’s invasion. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan and Armenia had vowed to block each other’s proposals due to their own protracted hostilities.

Without naming Russia, the joint statement said the countries “do hope” other Eastern European nations “will also support Azerbaijan’s bid to host.”

Armenia and Azerbaijan “will continue their discussions regarding the implementation of more confidence building measures, effective in the near future and call on the international community to support their efforts that will contribute to building mutual trust between two countries and will positively impact the entire South Caucasus region,” the statement said.

The agreement was first reported by Reuters, which separately reported that Moldova and Serbia are also eyeing the influential COP presidency next year. The State Department and the U.S. embassies of Russia, Moldova and Serbia didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The belated jockeying for COP29 comes at the midway point of this year’s talks in the UAE, whose reluctance to embrace calls to phase out fossil fuels has been a major sticking point in the summit.

It could foreshadow future impasses over energy. The economy of Azerbaijan, which is positioned between Iran and Russia, relies on fossil fuels for about 90 percent of its exports. Moldova and Serbia mainly rely on Moscow for their oil and gas supplies.

Brazil, which is expected to host COP30 in two years, moved last week to join the oil cartel OPEC+. That summit will feature the