Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

The game started off great. By the end of it, I was "giving advice" to my TV screen. So much for proving something to the old coach, eh?

Call me a negative Nancy but I'm going to cover a few bad things before I ram my head into a wall to try and forget the last couple games.

Salei light
Ruslan Salei has been brutal the last couple games. Tonight, the second goal was all on him. It was Salei vs Brouwer in front of the net and Brouwer shrugged off Salei so easily it was like a baby kitten was trying to stop him from scoring. Unacceptable.

What happened to the beast we got at the trade deadline? He was great in the playoffs leading me to proclaim he would be one of the Avs best defenders. He's turned into their worst. He needs to shape up or be shipped out.

PK like it's 1895
Ok, if you have 5 defenders on the ice and the opposing team has 5 defenders on the ice, it seems logical that you should be able to clog up a lane if only by accident at some point.

However there were long stretches in the third period where you could have sworn the Hawks had a 5-on-3 advantage the way the Avs were attacking the puck.

When you have 4 guys behind you, you can take the extra stride to attack the puck carrier. It's ok. You don't have to stay a stick blade away, scared they'll pass the puck behind you. Your teammates are supposed to take care of that. You trust them, right? Right?

I'm sure my blood pressure rose to unsafe levels during those stretches. Utterly, utterly awful.

Clear it...please...just once
Once again, the Avalanche were weak on clears. Adam friggin' Foote, the toughest badass this team has, couldn't even muster up a backhanded clear if his life depended on it.

When you're trapped in your zone for 3 straight minutes, fire that flippin' puck out like it's a live grenade that had it's pin pulled three seconds ago. Who cares about icing it at that point? That's the least of your damn worries.

Bear down and clear the puck out of your zone!

I'm bleeding!?
The delay after the icing call that happened right after Brouwer hurt himself checking Jordan Leopold? That was complete and utter <insert favorite phrase>.

If Brouwer was hurt, then he should have gotten the hell off the ice. If he wasn't hurt, he should have been lined up for the faceoff right away.

Instead, he slowly made his way to to the bench, stood on the bench for a while to see if he was bleeding and then slowly made his way back out.

All the while, the linesmen were right there holding his panties for him while he checked his lipstick.

Tired?
Was the team tired? Obviously based on the way their play deteriorated as the game wore on.

Does that evoke any sympathy from me? Not much. And the players better not fall behind that safe haven in trying to explain how this one got away.

But hey, I got tired too. Of watching. I got so tired I didn't even watch the final two goals.

Actually, that's not true. I caught the highlight of the sixth goal.

Clark slowly backed towards Budaj leaving Patrick Sharp completely free to wind up like Kathy Bates with a sledgehammer before blasting home a pass from Patrick Kane.

Close the gap! What in the name of holy hell was he thinking there? Sharp winds up and he backs away to further screen Budaj? Amazing.

I might put up some of my game notes tomorrow but I don't have the energy to filter out all the profanities and I do want to keep this blog rated PG-13 as best I can.

Related Links
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