Photo: Kerri Nicole/Flickr.

Before I review Zanon, some WCs updates. Team USA (Palushaj, Johnson, Stastny, Hunwick) beat Team Russia (Varlamov) to advance to the semifinals. Team Sweden (Landeskog) beat Team Canada (Duchene, O’Reilly) to advance to the semifinals as well. Team Czech Republic (Hejda) fell to team Switzerland.

Statistics: GP 44 G 0 A 6 P 6 +/- -16 PIM 28 Hits 65 BS 124 Giveaway/Takeaway Differential -2 Avg TOI 19:19

» Continue reading “Player Review: Greg Zanon”

Cody McLeod and Patrick Bordeleau each got into a fight tonight. Photo: Bridget Samuels/Flickr.

Holy mother of hockey baby. The Avs are just killing me. The epidemic of first periods continued tonight, when the Avs allowed two goals and shot the puck only twice on net. The team did manage to keep the score tied at zero for the first eight minutes (that’s the first time that’s happened in the past five or so games). Then, the penalty kill had a little breakdown, and the puck trickled behind Varlamov. If there’s someone out there who can explain how a team can fail to play competent hockey in the first period 25 games out of 32 (did I mention these are professionals?), your advice would be greatly appreciated by anyone who is still able to watch this team.

The team sort of woke up in the second period, with a goal by Jamie McGinn off P.A. Parenteau’s rebound. Then, 12 seconds later, they allowed a goal, and Calgary retained their two goal lead. Gabriel Landeskog scored another goal for the Avs off a bizarre shot from the goal line. The Flames would score again though. In the third, the Avs had a good effort, but they were only able to score one goal, during a five on three opportunity, from Ryan O’Reilly. Once again, the Avs found themselves behind, and once again, they were unable to win a game of “catch-up hockey.”

Tomorrow night the Avs are back at it against Vancouver. It might be kinda, sorta nice, if the Avs could get a win. I don’t care how they get it (even if it’s after a 30 round shootout), they just need to get it.

Other Thoughts

-Matt Duchene won 24 faceoffs tonight, a new personal record for faceoffs won in a single game.

-Erik Johnson took a heavy hit from Blake Comeau in the first, and from there on out he just looked dazed. His skating wasn’t smooth anymore, and he just seemed to be making things harder on himself.

-Greg Zanon had the best game of his Avalanche career tonight. He was hitting people at the right time, making some nice plays… kudos Zanon.

PLEASE STOP LOSING AVS I AM NOT COPING.

I’m sure you’re exhausted when you read it: the Avs have to win the game tomorrow. You’re exhausted because after the first 10 games, I think I’ve said it in every single preview (plus, I probably said it a couple of times in those first 10). The fact of the matter is though, that the team is a failing failure cascading down in a failure avalanche towards failure valley where the failure inhabitants mumble inspiring words that they fail to come through on. You could say I’m feeling a bit bitter about the past couple of losses. I just don’t understand how a team with their talent, a team with so many young players supposedly eager to win, can continue to perform at such a subpar level. I can speculate that Sacco’s message is no longer getting through, or that they are the ultimate procrastinators, thinking that “there’s plenty of time to turn this thing around”, but at the end of the day I don’t understand it.  I can’t threaten to walk away, or say that I’ll choose another team, because the I’ve been cheering for this team for 17 years. I’m in this thing for life, even though the Avs seem determined to make it a pretty miserable next 70 or 80 years. I’m sure after their next win (so long as it comes within five games), I’ll go back to a sunny attitude and start saying that there’s a chance, because I’ve seen what this team is capable of when they work hard for sixty minutes. For now, though, I’m going to a miserable old bat.

The Wild will come into the Pepsi Center with a ridiculously good record against the Avs there. Then we will all here about how the Wild like to clog up the neutral zone so we won’t see any goals. Then the Wild will proceed to have an outburst of goals (shocking everyone, even though they’ve scored three or more goals against the Avs in eight of the last nine games between the clubs) while the Avs are having their defensive failures of the night. Then the Avs will mount a comeback, which may or may not work. J.S. Giguere will be in net for the Avs, earning his fourth start this season. If I was Sacco, I’d move Palushaj in (probably for Jones, give the kid a chance on the Landeskog-O’Reilly line that’s staying together), maybe switch Bordeleau with Olver, and replace Zanon with O’Byrne. However, I’m not Sacco, and Sacco never seems to consult me for these things, so we’ll probably see the same lineup. Or O’Byrne will replace Johnson because Sacco had the nerve to blame Johnson when Zanon fell on his butt and Cullen skated around him and scored.

I’m predicting the Wild score four goals. The Avs will either score three or six. See you fellow sufferers tomorrow.

Photo: Bridget Samuels/Flickr

The Avs will remain in 15th place in the Western Conference, for another couple days at least. The Minnesota Wild continue to have the Avs number, as they earned their second win over the vs this season, and fifth point.

Minnesota scored first. Matt Hunwick lost the puck to his mark, Paul Stastny failed to pick up his man, and Varlamov let in the shot. I would have liked to see Varls have that one, but if the players in front of him had been better, he wouldn’t have even faced a shot. Late in the first, on a power play, P.A. Parenteau scored with a kind of bizarre shot. In the second, Minnesota scored three quick goals, in the middle of the period, with an Avs goal in the mix from Gabriel Landeskog. More defensive errors led to Minnesota’s goals, and Varlamov just wasn’t able to make that one key save. Parenteau picked up his second goal of the game halfway through the third, but the final goal was an empty netter for the Wild.

The Avs have 22 games left this season. They need 32 more points by my estimation in order to get into the playoffs. 14-4-4 is the worst record they can have to earn that number of points in that number of games. It’s a tall order, and it’s not going to happen if the team keeps winning two and then losing three. The Colorado Avalanche need to put their big boy pants on, suck it up, and get wins. Varlamov hasn’t been his best self the past couple of games, and he needs to pick it up and play to his capabilities. The team needs more dirty goals, more players going to the net, and they need to backcheck as if there’s no tomorrow. If the team didn’t play so poorly in their own zone, they wouldn’t find themselves chasing so much.

Other Thoughts

-Greg Zanon may have had an assist, but he played poorly. Why did we switch him out with O’Byrne? Oh, because O’Byrne’s been taking bad penalties. What did Zanon do tonight? Take two bad penalties, and fall on his butt because he’s a poor skater.

-Erik Johnson had a really good game.

-Ryan O’Reilly and Gabriel Landeskog found themselves back together late in the game, and I imagine that we’ll see them together again next game.

-Chuck Kobasew and Cody McLeod each got into a fight.

I was going to wait until the Avs made an announcement regarding Erik Johnson to post this, but I forgot this is the Avs we’re dealing with. Announcements when it comes to injuries are sketchy at best. We don’t even know if EJ is injured (although I really think he is.)

So let’s just review things thus far about this season:

» Continue reading “Avalanche State Of The Union”

Sorry I didn’t post yesterday-I’m sick and my cat has an ear infection, and so we spent yesterday sleeping and moaning together.

There wasn’t a lot of information to come out of Avs practice today. The team did say that they think Gabriel Landeskog will be able to start skating again soon. Hopefully they’re right, and his return, while not imminent, is forthcoming.

» Continue reading “How Can Avs Create Blueline Offense?”

Varls is expected to start tonight. Photo: Bridget Samuels/Flickr.

Both Shane O’Brien and Chuck Kobasew will be healthy scratches again. Coach Sacco said he will warmup seven defensemen, and make his final decision after that, Let’s be real though-Hunwick is going to be the scratch and Zanon is going to be in again. All I can say is Zanon better have a hell of a game, because I am McKayla-Maroney-Not-Impressed with him thus far.

Here’s Bordeleau, thanks for the picture, Todd!

The Avs sent down forward Michael Sgarbossa and defenseman Stefan Elliott. Forward David van der Gulik has been put on waivers and will be reassigned to Lake Erie if he passes through the waivers unclaimed. This means that Mark Olver, Patrick Bordeleau, and Tyson Barrie will be staying up with the club.

» Continue reading “Avs Trim Roster”

The old saying says “when it rains, it pours.” News from the NHL is pouring in quickly, and I’m starting to get really excited about the NHL season. Here’s everything to do with the Avalanche that mattered to me today (to paraphrase Philip Defranco.)

-Chuck Kobasew and Jamie McGinn both joined practice this morning, bringing the player total up to 19. Varlamov just got in late last night, so he was resting this morning, but is expected to be there tomorrow. If you’re really jonesin’ for some Varly, here is a picture of him with his two dogs:

-Here‘s a good article on Ryan O’Reilly’s value. Apparently, O’Reilly’s agent told Denver Post reporter Mike Chambers that the two sides are “discussing things.” Let’s just hope that the sides can come to an agreement quickly.

-Everyone is saying that the Avalanche are going to open up their season with a home and home against the Minnesota Wild on the 19th and 21st. For now this is just a rumor. If this is indeed the case, I think it’s a good opportunity to start the season off right. The Avs have more returning players and are going to have more chemistry than the Wild on opening night, and they need to take advantage of that fact.

-There are going to be 48 games played this season, which breaks down into: three games against conference opponents, 5 games against two divisional rivals, and 4 games against the other two divisional rivals. I think I speak for everyone in the Avs fanbase when I pray to the hockey gods that the divisional opponents the Avs play only four times are the Flames and the Canucks, given recent history.

-It’s being said that there will be 26 players at the Avalanche camp. There are 21 players on the Avs roster who are not in Erie or named Ryan O’Reilly, which leaves five spots at camp. I’m going to guess that Mark Olver, Michael Sgarbossa, Andrew Agozzino, Brad Malone, and Tyson Barrie get the call, but I could be wrong.

-Chuck Kobasew will be changing his number from 17 to 12 (remember, Kevin Porter is now gone, and thus #12 was available.)

-According to Mike Chambers (Denver Post), Parenteau will wear 15, Zanon 4, and Mitchell 7.

-Coach Joe Sacco will address the media tomorrow morning.

-The Owners board ratified the CBA yesterday morning, which means all that’s left is for the players to ratify it on Saturday, and the lockout will officially be over!