Photo: Bridget Samuels/Flickr.

O’Byrne played 172 games in the Colorado Avalanche uniform over the course of three seasons. He scored two goals and 19 assists, while leading the team in hits last season, along with blocked shots.

I’m not hugely surprised that the Avs moved him, considering the number of defensemen that the team has, and the fact that he is in the last year of his contract. He hasn’t had a great season this year (in fact, he’s been pretty awful some nights), so perhaps a change of scenery, and heading to a team in the midst of the playoff push will help him reboot.

Anyone who watched the dismal 2010-2011 season remembers that Ryan O’Byrne’s best friend and defensive partner that year was John-Michael Liles (they lived together, and O’Byrne said, in response to some ribbing about living together in a one room apartment,”he is a great man and I love him.”) Hopefully those two will be reunited as a pairing.

I’m more frustrated over how little Greg Sherman managed to obtain in exchange for O’Byrne. The Avs now have an extra fourth round pick. Because a fourth round pick is equal to a verified NHL player, right? I mean if Toronto was only willing to give a pick, couldn’t the Avs have wrangled a second rounder (someone more likely to make the team, and make it soonish?)

It appears that the Avs made only two trades before the deadline. Both players dealt were defensemen (Gaunce and O’Byrne) and in return the Avs earned a 4th round pick and Tomas Vincour (a power forward with 15 points in 86 games).

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 lost their second game in a row, 2-1, with an own goal. At least tonight though, the Avs played well. It was a really strong game from the Avs, and at the end of the night, they were beaten by two bad bounces and Jimmy Howard’s spectacular goaltending.

Things stayed even at zero throughout the first, and seven minutes of the second. Unfortunately, a Stefan Elliott slapshot was blocked, and the puck was sent to a streaking Johan Franzen. He scored a beautiful goal as the puck just clipped the crossbar. Seven minutes later, Kronwall shot the puck intentionally wide when the Wings were in the zone. The puck bounced back, hit J.S. Giguere’s stick, and slid into the Avs net.

Colorado continued to work hard, they killed off over a minute of 5 on 3 time, and they had a couple of beautiful shots on Howard that he stopped up. With two minutes left in the game, Coach Sacco pulled Giguere. Paul Stastny broke Howard’s shutout 30 seconds later after picking up his own rebound. The game was nearly tied in the final six seconds by Matt Duchene, but the puck bounced on him, and he shot it just wide.

This is a frustrating loss, just from the fact that the Avs played so well. I can’t really critisize them, but I can’t sit here and act like everything is hunky dory. The team is sitting at 20 points in 21 games. We’re looking at going 18-9 in these final games.

The Blackhawks are the opponent tomorrow night. Everyone knows they’re awesome and killing it. It’s good that the Hawks played tonight too, so that they won’t be totally fresh. It’s going to take a hell of an effort to beat the Hawks tomorrow night. I hope the boys, and Varlamov especially, are ready.

Other Thoughts

-J.S. Giguere had 31 saves in tonight’s game. Shockingly, the Avs shot the puck more than the other team, as Howard made 36 saves.

-Aaron Palushaj didn’t look the same after he took a hard hit to the head in the second. He took a second hit in the head from Jordin Tootoo in the third. Hopefully he’s okay.

-Milan Hejduk has a torso injury. I hope that he’s not out too long, but I don’t know how severe it is.

-Shane O’Brien was really active offensively tonight. Sacco is nuts if he takes him out of the lineup again.

-O’Byrne had a really good game. He’s been looking better lately, and I think he looked really strong tonight.

-David Jones had another pretty brutal night.

-The power play is so embarrassing right now.

O’Byrne scored his first goal this season.Photo: Bridget Samuels/Flickr.

The Avs rebounded from a terrible first period to earn a much needed win on home ice.

» Continue reading “Avs Knock Down Flames”

Bringing out the awkward cat. By my calculations, Avs have to go 20-11 to make the playoffs.

Well, it was better than yesterday. Still, the Avalanche found themselves on the losing side of the game.

» Continue reading “OT Loss In Anaheim Gives Avs Point”

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?”

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”

Duchene has certainly been the most productive Av during the last week. Photo: Bridget Samuels/flickr.

-Paul Stastny returned only to play one game for EHC Redbull Munchen. He didn’t earn anymore points, and thus finished his career in the DEL with 18 points in 13 games. Stastny was also able to see his brother participate in the German Winter Classic.

-Semyon Varlamov played in another three games since I last reported on him. He lost one and won the other two. I’m not sure if he’ll be playing anymore games before returning to Colorado for training camp, but either way he has had an excellent run for Lokomotiv. (.946 SV %, 1.74 GAA in 16 games.)

-Ryan O’Reilly has played in four more games, and has scored two more goals during that time. Due to the fact the Avs still need to negotiate with him and his agent, I imagine that he will play at least a couple more.

-Matt Duchene is heading back to North America. It appears that his brief stay with Ambri-Piotta is at an end without him playing another game. Duchene also played in the Spengler Cup (one of the oldest tournaments competed in today) and he represented his country, Canada. The Canadians won (a nice reward for Duchene), and Dutchy earned 5 points in 4 games. (There was one especially strong game, during the semifinals, when he earned three points). He was also named to the tournament’s All Star Team. (Looks like Dutchy is rolling, and ready to kill it for the Avs.)

-Ryan O’Byrne has played in three more games since I last posted and earned one more assist.

I just felt like a picture of a cat. And we all need hugs at this time of year, right?

Despite the fact we still don’t have NHL hockey for the holiday season, there are some Avalanche players in action. Paul Stastny has played two more games since I last updated, and he has earned four more points (1g/3a). EHC Redbull Munchen has also announced that both Statsny and Wheeler have extended their contracts to last until the end of the lockout (they had previously expired today). Stastny, the article said, will be heading home to be with his girlfriend and family for Christmas and the New Year. I know that his girlfriend runs a store in Denver (Haley’s Heart, they have some very cool stuff), so there’s a good chance you could spot #26 in the next couple of days if you’re in the Denver area.

Semyon Varlamov has recovered from his leg injury and is back to playing for Lokomotiv of the KHL. He won his first game back, showing that his injury has not slowed him down. In today’s game, he was called in to relieve Curtis Sanford during the third period. (Sanford let in five goals, and Varls let in zero in his brief stint in the net.) His save percentage and goals against average are tops in the KHL currently. Ryan O’Reilly, also in the KHL now, has played three games for his new team. He has scored two goals and two assists in only three games. (For the love of Joe Sakic, please re-sign him when the NHL is back on, Greg Sherman!)

Matt Duchene has five points in three games for Ambri-Piotta (2 goals, 1 primary assist, 2 secondary assists.) It appears the change of scenery has only improved Duchene’s scoring streak. Ryan O’Byrne has not added any points in the past couple of games for the Florida Everblades, but he does have a plus/minus of +4.

The Avs in action (who I know about):

Matt Duchene-Made his debut for Ambri-Piotta. The team lost 4-0, and Dutchy went scoreless. (He started off on the fourth line.)

Semyon Varlamov-Didn’t play in Lokomotiv’s latest game, but he was the backup. It appears that he is all healthy and ready to go.

Ryan O’Reilly-Made his debut for Metallurg. He didn’t earn any points, but he was given a lot of ice time (about 20 minutes), and he won 11 out of 21 faceoffs.

Paul Stastny- His team isn’t back in action yet, and he’ll play his first game after the break tomorrow.

Ryan O’Byrne-The Florida Everblades and Mr. O’Byrne didn’t do very well in their latest effort. They lost 5-1, and O’Byrne went scoreless.

Gabriel Landeskog- He’s been hanging in Kitchener, if the twitter machine is to be believed.

Erik Johnson- He’s making fun of Lando’s socks.

Thank the world for twitter.

Jamie McGinn- I know he worked with a girls’ youth hockey team the other day, due to the wonders of twitter.

Thanks to Ginner’s twitter feed.

David Jones- I’m sure he’s enjoying the time with his wife and their new baby. Also, I saw on his wife’s twitter feed that they just celebrated the fourth birthday of one of their dogs.

John Mitchell- He participated in the RBC Play Hockey Charity Challenge along with a number of other players.