Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

I've got the Blues-Flames game on while the Avs-Stars are in intermission and something just happened which pissed me off to no end.

Mark Giordano was heading in to touch the puck for icing and he had David Backes a good step or two behind him.

Giordano touched the puck, hugging himself against the glass and that should have been the end of the play.

Instead, Backes kept on going and tossed a check which connected with Giordano squarely in the numbers.

Giordano was a bit shaken up but all right and the refs correctly sent Backes to the penalty box.

No problem, right? Bad behavior was punished and everybody learned a lesson. Wrong.

The camera cuts over to Andy Murray who is beside himself on the Blues bench calling it a bull$&^! call among other things.

And that's exactly the kind of response from coaches that will keep those kind of "Play hard and finish your check" plays in the game.

Murray should have shut the f@#$ up or, alternatively, told his players "See the numbers and you let up or you get a penalty."

Instead, in arguing the call he's given his players the impression that what Backes did was perfectly acceptable.

And it was not.

I don't know how people can make it more clear but I'll try the all caps + bolding + multiple exclamation points method.

IF YOU SEE THE NUMBERS, LET UP!!!

It's really that simple. And don't let your coach tell you otherwise.

UPDATE: And the Flames just scored to tie the game. Poetic justic.