Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

Nothing left to do tonight but cry into my pillow. Ok, I won't do that but it was certainly a disappointing loss to the Blues tonight. Especially since the Wild beat the Jackets in OT and the Flames beat the Kings. What is it about this team that makes them lose to lesser teams? It's an odd effect where you play down to the team you're playing against but it seems to happen to the Avs very frequently. If any players, coaches, waterboys, equipment managers, zamboni drivers, etc are reading this...STOP DOING THAT!

Can any good be pulled out of a loss like this? Sure, there were some good things that occured. Down by one goal twice and came back to tie it up twice. That's some good battling there. Unfortunately three times was the charm for the Blues tonight. You can only fight from behind the lead for so long until you actually lose the game. Go ahead and quote me on that if you'd like. Very deep.

Wolski was still a beast out there. Well, at least from the one replay I saw that involved him and the times I heard his name mentioned on the radio. His goal was the result of sticking it out in front of the net and using his body to protect the puck in tight. That's the kind of goals he needs to get and it warms the cockles of my heart to see him getting in there and getting it done. His confidence is growing by leaps and bounds as he plays alongside Sakic and Brunette. Let's just hope he's got the legs to keep up with those old-timers as they're out there for 20 minutes a game.

*Warning: Side Rant* Have I ever mentioned how The NHL Network annoys me? How they tune in to Avs game way too few times and to Flames games way too many times? Oh, and I don't care about Paul Maurice's post-game comments so quit replaying them. The people that do care have Leafs TV and are watching it on that channel. The NHL Network should have neutral coverage, not favoring one team or the other in either highlights or live look-ins but I see too much Canadian team coverage. And I'm a Canadian! Oh, my kingdom for Center Ice. Wait...I don't have a kingdom...

Sauer stepped in today in place of Patrice Brisebois and Kyle Cumiskey took Sauer's spot in the press box. I was hoping Cumiskey would get some ice-time during his call up but tonight wasn't that night. Sauer got significant minutes in the first half of the game but his numbers really tailed off towards the end. Some of his missing minutes went to Ossi Vaananen who ended up with 15 minutes of ice-time which is about 3 minutes more than average I believe. Klee and Clark both ended up with 22 minutes of ice-time and were the primary D on the PK along with Skrastins.

Speaking of penalty kill, have I ever mentioned that it's not so good? Well, the streak continued tonight. 3 goals on 4 chances. Sure, the last one was an empty net goal but I'm cutting no slack. I'm not going to claim to be a coach who can step in and wave a magic want and fix it...but it really seems to me that they need to be more aggressive. They've got a "Wait and See" attitude about it but the "See" part is usually them "seeing" the puck in the back of the net. The 2nd PP goal was a nice, subtle tip in by Rucinsky who was just standing in front of the net. I think a priority should be to tie up the stick of the guy in front of the net. Just my opinion.

Svatos was back in the lineup tonight but didn't get a lot of ice-time. Rycroft and Richardson were the only forwards with less time...and it wasn't a lot less. It would make sense though to limit his time in his first game back after resting a sore groin. He even came away with 2 hits on the score sheet tonight which is good to see. Seems like he's getting more comfortable with the health of his shoulders. Let's hope the rest of his body follows suit and we finally see a 100% Svatos in the near future.

Looking at the NHL super stats, the Avs got beat in near every category. Blocked shots - 20 to 10 for St. Louis, Giveaways - 13 to 8, Hits - 26 to 14, Faceoffs - 55% to 45%, all favoring the Blues. One of the few numbers that didn't favor the Blues was Shots on Goal. The Avs pounded off 32 shots and the Blues got off 20. So Legace continues to be an Av killer for whatever reason. Budaj played well and got beat on some quality shots/tips by the Blues. Let's see who's in net tomorrow night if the teams can get out of the city!

The Good
- rallying from behind twice
- Wolski continues to improve
- remembering that we're only 2pts out of top spot in the division

The Bad
- losing to the worst team in the West
- 25% PK tonight

The Ugly
- Blues radio announcer calling the Avalanche divers