Seriously, can the Avs just be done with losing to these teams? (Original image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The quick three-game tour of Western Canada was pretty much a bust for the Colorado Avalanche. And by “bust” I mean gut-wrenching disappointment accompanied possibly by tears and probably by copious amounts of alcohol.

The Avs were outscored 13 – 3 by Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary. Poor performance like this is always embarrassing, but it’s made downright humiliating by the fact that all three of those teams are in the Northwest Division and currently ahead of the Avs in the standings. Colorado has only managed to collect 27 points thus far. In the West, only Columbus (20) and Anaheim (21) are in worse shape.

Say it with me: “thank God for that early winning streak on the road through the East.”

Here are a few items of note from the road trip:

• Good Lord the Sedins are fun to watch. Even when they’re forcing a puck down your throat so you choke on it, their game is so effortless and beautiful that you can’t help but admire it.
• Matt Duchene, T.J. Galiardi, and Jay McClement were the only Avs to score over the three games. Nice job, guys.
• Holy penalties, Batman! In the game against the Canucks the teams combined for 81 penalty minutes. 42 of them were served by the Avalanche. This was also the game in which Kevin Porter made a poor decision prior to a hit on David Booth and was later suspended for four games by Shanahan.
• Why, oh why, do the Avs insist on losing to Kiprusoff? He’s now beaten them 10 times in a row! How do they not see him in net and just want to punch him square in the face? Or, you know, at least shoot pucks at it?
• The Calgary Flames are not a good team. They’re ok, they have their strengths, but they aren’t going to be challenging anyone for the Cup this season. That being said, the fact that the Avalanche haven’t been able to manage to beat them in their last 9 tilts is just sad. The Flames’ longest win streak is against the Colorado Avalanche. Let that soak in.
• Brad Malone got his first start with the Avs in Friday’s game against Edmonton. The center managed to get one shot on net and to stay even in +/- during his 10 minutes of ice time. Considering the final score of 4 – 1 Oilers, that’s not a bad debut.
• Stefan Elliott still has some learnin’ to do, but boy do I like his game. I’m glad the club is keeping him around and letting him get some NHL experience under his belt.

Not their fists, of course. It would be a shame to suffer more penalties and suspensions. But if they could swing their sticks more often and put a few more shots on goal, that would be a terrific start.

Let's face it: the Flames have the Avs' number. Period. (Flames courtesy of Amada44 via Wikimedia Commons)

There’s something not only distasteful, but dispicable about losing so consistently to the Calgary Flames. If the Flames were a team at the top of their game and destined to hoist the Stanley Cup next June maybe I’d feel differently about it.

Nope, I’m pretty sure that’s a lie. I’d still hate watching the Colorado Avalanche lose to the Flames.

Tonight the Avs have a chance to redeem themselves a little against the Edmonton Oilers. It would be nice to see them stay out of the penalty box and maybe even shoot a few pucks in the general direction of the net.

The puck drops in about 45 minutes. Let’s see how this one goes, shall we?

Dear Colorado Avalanche,

Please score a goal or two tonight. Thanks.

Love always,

Katie

The Calgary Flames once again best the Avs Saturday night. (Flames courtesy of Amada44 via Wikimedia Commons)

I swear, the Colorado Avalanche are trying their darndest to kill me. Tonight they played 30 minutes (at least) of incredibly lackluster hockey against the division rival Calgary Flames and entered into the third period down 4 – 1. An early goal by Matt Duchene lit a flame under the Avs and they managed to play one period of impassioned, exciting hockey. Unfortunately the third goal (credited to David Jones) was their last, and they lost the game 4 – 3.

An outcome they richly deserved.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the Avs. My sports teams mean a lot to me and I probably care more than I should about the final score of their games. But usually I don’t get too upset about poor play or a few losses. After all, it’s only sports…there are bigger concerns in this wonderful world of ours. The fastest – and maybe only – way to push my anger button is to fail to play hard from beginning to end. These men are professional athletes. Their job is to be ready for every game, get out on the ice, and do their everything in their power to be the best version of themselves in order to help their team win every night. No, it’s not easy, and it’s understandable that their humanity would get in the way from time to time. But they get paid to play the game. And we the fans part with our precious time and  hard-earned money in order to support them in their endeavor.

Call me old fashioned, but I think the least they can do is play hard starting at the first puck drop and continuing straight through to the final horn.

Some of the players appear to give it their all come hell or high water. Shane O’Brien, Ryan O’Reilly, Ryan Wilson, Gabriel Landeskog, Kyle Quincey, and Milan Hejduk are a few of the names that come to mind. (That was not meant to be an exhaustive list…though it may be close.) The majority of the players, however, seem to only show up when the team is so far behind they need a miracle to get the win. There are many who believe this is largely a coaching issue, a perspective which is becoming harder and harder to dismiss. Assigning blame, while somewhat cathartic, does little to address the problem.

The Avs must figure out how to bring effort and passion to every period. As a fan I would be far more comfortable with losing if I could see that the team wanted to win as badly as I want them to win. If fans could look at the ice and see the players working hard it would be so much easier to put wear our hearts on our sleeves and cheer for our team. Until that happens we will always reserve a piece of ourselves, holding it back in case this team turns out to be no better than last seasons’ Avs, the team that broke our hearts month in and month out.

I know this wasn’t much of a recap. If you want the boxscore or stats, check here. Honestly I’m so fed up with this “oh, wait, we’re 18 goals down and it’s the third period? Maybe we should play some hockey now, boys” attitude that I sort of want to scream. Or beat the stuffing out of a punching bag.

This week the Avs go on the road, and could be the first team to play against a Crosby-d Penguins team on Tuesday night. Let’s hope the boys manage to show up for more than one of the periods in Pittsburgh.

Not scary at all. (Photo by TaraO)

On Wednesday night, the perfect road record of the Colorado Avalanche was besmirched by the by the smug Calgary Flames as they lost by two goals in regulation.

Ok, maybe calling them “smug” isn’t exactly fair. I’m just tired of watching the Avs lose to Calgary. Or hearing them lose to Calgary. Or getting the text message updates about them losing to Calgary while I’m stuck at school being the teacher waiting for parents to come in for Parent/Teacher Conferences.

I’m not going to recap a game I didn’t see. Suffice it to say, Ryan Wilson and Kyle Quincey got the tallies for the Avs while Roman Horak and Rene Bourque scored for the Flames. Bourque actually scored twice; once on a very intimidating empty net when Giguere was pulled in an attempt to even up the score before the end of the game. The game ended in regulation (a somewhat foreign concept to the Avs) with a score of 4 – 2 Flames.

The only bright spot in all of this is that I was right about something: the score! Sure, I said that the Avs would win 4 – 2, but at least I had the score correct! That’s better than I usually do. Otherwise, my predictions were pretty much wrong. And by “pretty much” I mean “completely.”

The Avs get to try again on Friday night, when the Edmonton Oilers come to town to celebrate Bernie’s birthday. (No, I’m not kidding…the Avs will be celebrating the birthday of mascot St. Bernard Bernie.) Maybe that will inspire them to get a win at home.

There’s always hope.

Sky rockets in flight and such.

After what has seemed a very long four days, your Colorado Avalanche are back, baby! They take on the Calgary Flames in Calgary tonight at 8 pm MT.

This will be the first meeting of the teams this year. Last season was pretty ugly -Valentine’s Day Massacre, anyone? –  but I’m thinking this game won’t be quite so suicide-inducing. From the net outward the Avs have thus far proven to be much more solid team than last year and enter the contest 6 – 2 – 0. That solidity hasn’t made them any less exciting to watch. They’ve taken four of their eight games into OT and three of those into shoot outs. Luckily they’ve won them all…so far.

The Flames haven’t been quite so successful. They come into tonight’s game 2 – 4 – 1, which is a poor enough start that they are at the bottom of the Northwest Division. (The Avs are in first, in case you hadn’t noticed yet.) Calgary coach Brent Sutter is reportedly reuniting the Moss – Jokinen – Glencross line, which put several nails in the Avs’ coffin last season.

The Exes:

• Left winger Alex Tanguay played for the Avs from 1999 – 2006. In those six seasons he scored 400 points, served 219 penalty minutes, and played in 83 playoff games. The Avs traded his rights to Calgary in return for defenseman Jordan Leopold (now with the Buffalo Sabres) and draft picks. Tanguay has traveled around a bit, playing in Montreal and Tampa Bay before landing back in Calgary.
• Defenseman Scott Hannan came to the Avs in 2007 and was traded to the Washington Capitals toward the beginning of the 2010 – 11 season for forward Tomas Fleischmann (currently with the Florida Panthers). He arrived in Washington just in time to take part in HBO’s 24/7 The Road To The NHL Winter Classic series following the Capitals and the Penguins, and even got the chance to play the Avs in a game filmed by the HBO crew. At the end of the season Hannan signed with Calgary as a free agent.

It Would Make My Night If:

• The Avs goaltenders continue to stand on their heads.
• The Avs manage not to give up a lead.
• The Avs win in regulation.
• The game is more physical due to the frustration of the Flames and the determination of the Avalanche.
• The Avs return the favor and win 9 – 1.

My Predictions:

Matt Duchene responds well to the recent demotion and continues to play with more heart and more skill. Now that Joakim Lindstrom is getting all nice and comfy, he will continue to contribute. I’d be an idiot not to say David Jones will get a point or two. For the Flames, Mikka Kiprusoff will do well…but the Avs will do better. Final score: 4 – 2 Avs in regulation (obviously).

At 8:00 pm Colorado time the puck will drop at the Saddledome. Here’s to the complete and utter domination of old friends. Go Avs!

This afternoon the Avalanche fueled the free agency debate by signing 29-year-old forward Chuck Kobasew to a 2-year, $2.5m contract after which he will be an unrestricted free agent.

Kobasew was drafted #14 overall by the Calgary Flames back in 2001. He stayed with the Flames organization until the 2006 – 07 season, when he was traded to the Bruins. He stayed in Boston until sent to the Minnesota Wild at the beginning of the 2009 – 10 season.

Most recently his stats have been….meh. Last season in 63 games he scored 16 points, had 19 penalty minutes, and was a -6. His 16 points puts him on par with Ryan Wilson and just behind Philippe Dupuis (who was not extended a qualifying offer). The only Av who played a similar number of games but scored fewer points was Ryan O’Byrne (64 games, 10 points, and a defenseman). In terms of size he’s pretty average for the Avs, at just about 6’0″ and 200 lbs. He’s actually a little on the small side.

So, at face value we gave decent money to a small, older player with little upside. At least he can win fights, I suppose…last season in his one fight he had a decent tussle with Vancouver’s Keith Ballard:

Another interesting step by GM Greg Sherman in a day of interesting steps. And the day is still not over.

Milan Hejduk scored the Avs' only goal in the 3-1 loss to the Flames Sunday night. (Photo by @JessicaAvsFan.)

While the Colorado Avalanche managed to keep the score respectable, they did not play well enough to defeat the Calgary Flames and lost 2 – 1 in regulation Sunday night.

First Period:

Absolutely nothing happened. The only true excitement came when Peter Budaj made a terrific save and robbed Rene Bourque at 18:28. So while the period was a little boring, at least no one scored and the Avs were keeping pace with the Flames in shots on goal (11 – 10 in favor of the Flames). The period ended with the score tied at 0.

Second Period:

It started much the same as the first, with both teams playing just well enough to keep each other scoreless. But about halfway through the period the Avalanche defense took a few shifts off in a row and the result was an Olli Jokinen goal with an assist from Alex Tanguay. The Avalanche outshot the Flames 18 – 12 in the second, but they couldn’t put the puck past Mikka Kiprusoff and the period ended with the score at 1 – 0 Flames. » Continue reading “It’s All About The Small Victories”