Post-game vs Vancouver - Apr 5, 2007

Ok, it's been a little while since I updated but let me explain...I ventured into enemy territory and took a trip to Vancouver for the week. Oddly enough, this trip happened to be right around the time that the Avalanche were in town. Weird. So there I was tonight at GM Place in section 120 watching the Avalanche keep their playoff hopes alive. It was a nailbiter of a game, mostly because Luongo was stellar and Budaj less so. Budaj stepped up in the third though and made some key saves and got the win. And since Calgary lost to San Jose tonight, the Avalanche find themselves 3 points back of Calgary with 2 games left to go. Unfortunately, one of the remaining 2 games that the Flames have is against the Oilers. Ouch.

I've got more notes to go with this but I'll hopefully amend it once I'm home on Saturday. For now, I'll do a quick good/bad/ugly and call it a night. I've toured all over Vancouver by foot so I need some beauty sleep. Who knows, one of these days I might wake up beautiful.

The Good
- key win
- Hejduk with the trick
- Stastny playing some hard-nosed hockey
- beating Luongo 3 times

The Bad
- early jitters by the whole team
- terrible powerplay

The Ugly
- Luongo (at the behest of my better-half I had to put him down)

Post-game vs Vancouver - Mar 27, 2007

The playoff picture grows ever dimmer as the Vancouver Canucks put away the Avalanche tonight by a score of 2-0. With a Flames win over the Wild tonight, that puts the Avalanche 6 points out of the final spot with only 6 games left to play. While not mathematically out, the Avalanche's scenario to make it is essentially 4 Avalanche wins and 6 Flames losses. While not out of the realm of possibility, it's extremely unlikely.

The Avalanche started out well, outplaying and outshooting the Canucks in the first period. Unfortunately getting more shots doesn't mean squat if you can't get any of them into the back of the net. The next 40 minutes were controlled mostly by the Canucks and they converted on a 5-on-3 in a penalty filled 3rd period.

Thanks to issues with Centre Ice Online, which as of this moment officially sucks and essentially stole money from me, I couldn't see the game. If I had known that a service I paid for wouldn't even let me log in, I would have made other arrangements to catch the game. Nonetheless, I doubt anyone is waiting for an in-depth analysis on a night like tonight.

The Avalanche went 0 for 5 on the PP which was likely the deciding factor. If the Avs had scored on their 5-on-3 opportunity, as Vancouver did, it would have most certainly been a different outcome tonight. Well, it would obviously be a different outcome as the Avalanche would have scored a goal...but you know what I mean. Although it's not 100% true, if you don't score on a 5-on-3, it's not often that you're going to win the game. It was proved doubly true tonight.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) that's all I have to say tonight. I wish I had been able to follow the game more closely. Blasted Centre Ice!

The Good
- got a decent amount of shots
- team still not being down on playoff chances (based on after-game comments)

The Bad
- missed 5-on-3
- scored on during 5-on-3
- being outplayed with your season on the line

The Ugly
- 0 goals

Pre-game vs Vancouver - Mar 27, 2007

It's an important night in the Western conference tonight. Well, for 4 teams in the Western conference anyways. Colorado is looking to inch closer to Calgary for the final playoff spot in the West while Vancouver looks to retake the undisputed division lead over Minnesota. Some of those items are mutually exclusive though as those 4 teams play amongst themselves tonight. So as much as Vancouver fans want Colorado to knock out Calgary (and it seems most do), they find themselves cheering for the Flames tonight as they'd much rather their team win the division. It's kind of like Sophie's Choice.

The Avalanche will try to edge closer to, or at least keep pace with, the Flames with Jose Theodore in net. After all the speculation after Sunday's game, it's finally official that he will be in goal tonight. That in itself is an interesting dilemma. If the Avs lose, it will be due to Theodore being in goal. If they win, it will be in spite of Theodore being in goal (to many fans). So Q can look either like a lucky man or an idiotic man. Here's to hoping he ends up looking like a lucky man! Theodore does have good stats against Vancouver this year so hopefully he can keep that up. He looked ok in relief Sunday and well enough in the shootout. And if Q feels he's good to start, then I'd like to think that he's looked good in practice as well.

Wojtek Wolski will be back in the lineup tonight after being a healthy scratch on Sunday. The last time he was a healthy scratch, we all know what happened. He came out on fire and I hope that happens again. He's looked absolutely lost on the ice lately and maybe watching from the press box helped him analyze his game a bit. He has still had a very good rookie season though and there's no reason to get down on him for the future. It's just the "now" that hasn't been so hot.

The current reigning ironman makes his return to the ice after missing time with a knee injury. Or did Morrison pass him and he's now the reigning defensive ironman? Either way, you all know I'm talking about Karlis Skrastins. To make room for him, Ossi Vaananen finds himself the healthy scratch. I'm ok with it b/c it keeps Finger in and I've liked the fire he brings to the ice. Vaananen hasn't been too hot lately either so this shouldn't be much of an issue. The only question is if it will disrupt a defensive core that has had a fair bit of success lately.

Joe Sakic will obviously be in the lineup tonight and he enters the lineup tied with Ray Borque for 9th all-time in scoring as well as being tied with Dino Ciccarelli for 15th on all-time goal scoring. So if he scores a goal tonight he takes sole possession of each spot and will even further solidify his hall of fame status. I'm not sure how much more it could be solidified but where's there's a Joe, there's a way. And if he were to score that goal on the powerplay, he becomes only the 14th player to score 200 powerplay goals. Well, I guess that's the way to solidify it even more!

Brett Mclean shared the hero status in yesterday's game with Joe Sakic. He scored a softie goal on Luongo (and you don't get many of those!) and got the shootout winner as well. He has been playing fairly well on the 2nd line with Hejduk and Stastny. He certainly isn't a superstar player by any means but he has 3 points in his last 2 games and has 8 in his last 11. I'm happy with numbers like that from a guy simply playing the complimentary position to the Hejduk-Stastny tandem.

Hot
Sakic has 11 in 5, Brunette has 11 in 6, Hejduk has 16 in 13, Mclean has 3 in 2, Arnason has 5 in 3.

Sedin #1 has 9 in 5, Sedin #2 has 5 in 3, Linden has 5 in 5, Pyatt has 2 in 2.

Cold
Stastny has 0 in 4, Wolski has 1 in 4.

Smolinski has 0 in 3, Cowan has 1 in 5.

Injuries
Brisebois - back, IR
Leopold - wrist, IR
Turgeon - calf, IR

Kesler - hip, IR
Ohlund - elbow, day-to-day
Salo - groin, day-to-day

Goaltenders
Jose Theodore - 12-14-1, 3.35 GAA, .885 save pct
Roberto Luongo - 43-20-6, 2.29 GAA, .921 save pct

Standings
Colorado - 39-29-7, 4th in NW, 9th in West
Vancouver - 45-23-7, 1st in NW, 3rd in West

Post-game vs Vancouver - Feb 18, 2007

Another nail got hammered into the Avs coffin tonight. There are still a few nails left to go in but that lid is sealed fairly tight right now. The game was going all right and was even tied up at 2 heading into the third. That was very short lived. Klee and Theodore had a miscommunication which ended up with one of the Bobbsy twins getting a gift. Then with Tyler Arnason in the box for a hook, Morrison sealed the deal. Oh sure, the Avs came back and made it a 1 goal game but you knew how this one would end after the early third period goal.

Although the Avs called up Jeff Finger, he was resigned to making his debut up in the press box as Q decided to go with 6 defensemen. A dubious choice as 7 D was working fairly well for the team it seemed. I'm not sure why you call up someone to make them sit in the press box. It would seem obvious that he was called up when Leopold was injured again but maybe he was called up because Leopold was injured *and* a deal was almost done for one or our defensemen. Let the speculation begin!

With Wolski being out, it paved the way for Brad Richardson to play on the first line and for Marek Svatos to be re-inserted into the lineup. Richardson made an impact tonight as he scored another shorthanded goal, fired off 4 shots, blocked 2 and was +1 on the night. Marek Svatos managed one shot, took a roughing penalty, and was on the ice for just 9 minutes. Two promising youngsters but it's really tough to see Svatos hit such a rough patch. After a 32 goal performance in an injury shortened season, he looks set to follow that up with a 15 goal performance in a healthy scratch shortened season.

Well, there is a GM meeting tomorrow so who knows what could come of that. Giguere was likely reluctant to make a move when there was still a chance to claw back in. Now, the chance is pretty slim and he just might pull out a deal or two before the deadline. I don't expect any blockbusters but some of our UFAs could be on the way out (Arnason? Klee?) in return for picks or some non-UFA depth players.

The Good
- 4 goals for

The Bad
- 5 goals against

The Ugly
- losing to the Canucks

Pre-game vs Vancouver - Feb 18, 2007

Another day, another game against a divisional rival. This time the Avs are rolling into Vancouver to see if they can solve the riddle that is Roberto Luongo. They haven't had much trouble solving him in the past but lately he's playing like a man possessed. If not for him, and the Sedins, Vancouver would likely be battling with Colorado and Edmonton to not end up last in the division.

Jose Theodore should get the start in goal tonight. Not because Peter Budaj was shaky against Calgary, which he was a bit, but because it's a back-to-back game and Theodore has a good record against Vancouver. Budaj didn't get pulled last night and if Theodore manages that feat tonight, then my dream of two straight games with no goalie being pulled will become reality. Isn't it sad that that is my hope this late into the season? Maybe it's just me.

Wojtek Wolski is not going to play tonight after getting rattled by Craig Conroy late in Saturday's game. He'll be evaluated once he's in Denver and I'd say they'll tell him "You got clocked in the head" or something along those lines. If it's his first time getting his bell rung, it likely looked worse than it was. Hopefully he's not out for a signifant amount of time.

Jordan Leopold, our anti-ironman, is out with a wrist injury and is day-to-day. It appears he took an awkward fall into the boards on Thursday. If he was anything like a certain ironman, he'd strap a cast on and get his ass back on the ice. Jeff Finger will be in the lineup tonight so there should be enough d-men, but it's about quality, not quantity. We'll see how the blue line holds up, especially if Vaananen ends up with a suspension. If it hasn't happened by now though, I don't see it happening.

Injuries
Brisebois - back, LTI
Leopold - wrist, day-to-day
Wolski - head, day-to-day
Turgeon - calf, IR

Kesler - hip

Hot
Sakic has 6 in 2, Hejduk has 8 in 4, Brunette has 4 in 2, Stastny has 8 in 6.

Naslund has 10 in 9, Morrison has 4 in 3, Salo has 3 in 2, Cooke has 3 in 3.

Cold
Laperriere, Arnason, Mclean, and Wolsi have 0 in 3.

The Sedins have 1 in 4, Bieksa has 0 in 8.

Goaltenders
Jose Theodore - 11-12-1, 3.28 GAA, .892 save pct
Roberto Luongo - 33-18-3, 2.32 GAA, .922 save pct

Standings
Colorado - 28-26-4, 5th in NW, 10th in West
Vancouver - 33-21-4, 1st in NW, 3rd in West