Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

I tell ya, nothing hurts like a shutout. Ok, maybe a blowout but we'll pretend those never happen. The Avalanche put in a valiant effort tonight but just couldn't do enough against the defence and puck possession of the Detroit Red Wings.

And though the Avalanche-Wings rivalry is non-existent - no matter how hard some people try to keep it going - this was an extremely entertaining hockey game. It was fast-paced and hard hitting all night long and the only thing it lacked was a lot of scoring opportunities. Well, that and a few Avalanche goals I suppose.

The first period had a real good pace to it and the Wings got a few decent scoring chances but Theodore was up to the challenge. This period also set the tone for a few hostilities. Cody McCormick had a sequence where he gave Lidstrom a cross-check and then poked at Hasek after the whistle leading to about a dozen Wings players mobbing him. Of course Chelios was the one who mobbed him from behind and took a stupid penalty for his troubles.

The Wings had the best chance of the game in the second period. Theodore was down and out after over committing on the first shot - which he seems to do a lot - but Holmstrom must not have realized how out Theodore was as he fed a pass back that was easily broken up.

Cody McLeod and Kirk Maltby then had some words during a faceoff. Those two seemed to have a little animosity between them all night long.

The Wings got the first powerplay of the game and Versus took this as an opportunity to show us a special teams comparison. Of course they showed the Avs PP numbers and the Wings PK numbers. Thumbs up, guys!

This was also the PP that led to the game winning goal. With Theodore down after 2 separate blocked shots put him out of position, Tomas Holmstrom shoveled the puck to Pavel Datsyuk and he had nothing to look at but empty net.

The third period was a bit less exciting and unfortunately the Avalanche couldn't get in close enough to get anything past Hasek. Sure they fired off a whole 7 shots but half of them were light wristers from the perimeter.

But hey, there's no shame in being beaten by the best and the Avalanche still put up a valiant effort tonight. It's not a win but I feel it was a decent start to the roadtrip.

Oh, and the Versus feed was absolutely terrible tonight. All night long there was skips and freezes in the audio and video. Maybe it was just my provider having issues but even if that was the case, the quality of the video was still horrendous. They must be using cameras from 1965 over there.

All-Star Studs
The All-Star balloting is over and the results are in. The Wings had 3 players voted in to the All-Star games starting lineup and it's pretty obvious why. Lidstrom was a rock on the blue line again and Zetterberg and Datsyuk are dangerous at both ends of the ice. It amazes me how effortless those 3 make their respective positions look. The announcers mentioned how hard Datsyuk works in practice but it's hard to believe as he looks so natural out there.

The full results won't be announced until Thursday for reasons unknown so we won't know if any Avalanche players got voted in. Stastny better be in or there might be a riot.

Quick Hits
- Svatos laid out Cleary early in the 1st and then got flattened himself in the 2nd
- Wolski is using his body so much more effectively this year
- apparently Sakic is with the team on the roadtrip
- during the 4-on-4, the Avs looked so confused that they had all 4 players stacked on one side of the ice during a "rush"
- Hensick had a solid game tonight
- what's with all the wraparound attempts?
- Q fixed the tie dilemma but had a mismatched suit jacket (I watch a lot of What Not To Wear with the girlfriend)

Lines
Wolski-Stastny-Hejduk
Brunette-Hlinka-Svatos
McLeod-Guite-Laperriere
McCormick-Hensick-Boychuk

Related Links
NHL.com Event Summary
ColoradoAvalanche.com Recap
In the Cheap Seats Recap
Hensick Eagerly Awaiting Wings