Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

What a game! It was a goalfest but what a huge, huge comeback by the Avs. I thank the Edmonton announcers who, as soon the Oil went up 2-0, announced that the Avalanche had not come back from a 2 goal deficit yet this season. The best thing about having something yet to happen in a season is that the longer it doesn't happen, the likelier it is to happen in the future. Logic. It's what's for dinner.

The Avs still got pushed around a lot in this game. I'm not sure what it's going to take to get them to actually follow up on a check. Maybe things are done differently now but I was always taught to follow up on your check. If you didn't, the coach would knock your ass down. Ok, he wouldn't but he would threaten to. It was enough to make me finish my checks. Maybe my old coach needs to help out the Avs coaching team.

One good note on hitting, towards the end of the game Skrastins laid out Hemsky and took him out for the rest of the game. That's what you've gotta do! Hemsky has been the recipient of a lot of highlight reel hits and the way he moves he is vulnerable if you catch him properly.

Ken Klee had a night off tonight. The only problem with that is that he was still on the ice! Boy, he was just standing around a lot tonight, most noticeably on the sixth goal. It could very well be that he's getting worn out after putting up a few 20+ minute games lately. Either way, Q did take note and significantly cut his ice-time tonight. He was on the ice for the last minute of the game though which I thought odd.

Ok, here's where I might tick some people off but it has to be said...Joe Sakic had a terrible night in the faceoff circle. He ended up with only 3 wins on 13 tries. Usually he's a solid 50% face-off man but tonight was not his night. Stastny, on the other hand, came away with 13 wins on 20 tries which is more than acceptable. I'm not a "Win faceoffs and you'll win the game" guy because the stats just don't back that up, but you do have to win close to half your draws for the stats to not back it up.

Peter Budaj did not have his best game tonight. 6 goals against speaks for itself. I count one weak one (3rd goal) and 2 soft ones (1st and 6th). Granted, he came out strong in the second and gave the team the momentum to come back but you can't be letting in six goals unless they were all as pretty as the 2 Hemsky set up. I'm guessing we'll see Theodore in net Thursday.

Paul Stastny had a huge game tonight. 1 goal and 4 assists moves him one point behind Anze Kopitar for 3rd in rookie scoring. He has been a great story so far this year. Not the whole "I'm Peter Stastny's kid" thing, it's that his actual play has been outstanding. He puts up points, he's a very reliable backchecker, and a pretty good penalty killer as well. Even with his missing teeth, he could very well be the face of the Avs in the future.

And of course Brunette was on fire! 3 PP goals for his 1st ever career hat-trick. His first goal was a banger goal, his second was a great setup by Stastny and his third was good, hard-working goal out in front. Do you know who assisted on all of Brunette's goals? Yep, Paul Stastny. Could Brunette and Stastny be a good combination? I think they certainly could be, if only on the PP.

Oh, and a final comment...I hate Raffi Torres. He annoys me.

The Good
- 3 PP goals
- 1st hat trick for Brunette
- great comeback

The Bad
- giving up the first 2 goals
- terrible, terrible start
- some weak goals on Budaj

The Ugly
- Ryan Smyth (it's the mullet)

The Beautiful
- Hemsky's moves (yep, I gave him his own one-time category)