On the second day of Christmas the Avalanche gave to me…  

Two shootout goals

And a pain in my head and tummy.

Wins via the shootout are becoming a staple around the Pepsi Center. I’m starting to wonder if the Colorado Avalanche are capable of winning in regulation.

It’s confounding, really. Clearly the Avs can score goals. Not only can they best goalies one-on-one in the shootout, but they have nights where it seems any given player can light the lamp. The problem is that they haven’t been able to score consistently. This season the Avs have had to score (on average) at least 3 goals to win games – a task to which the boys have not been equal most of the time.

Since January/February of this year wins have been tough to come by for the Avalanche. Anyone who doubts the rarity of a win merely needs to observe the standing ovation home wins continue to receive. As a fan I will never disparage anything that leads to a W, and the shootout goals by Milan Hejduk and Gabriel Landeskog against the Sharks certainly fall into this category. I’m thrilled the Avs played well enough to keep themselves in it until the end and even more thrilled that they came out on top.

I wouldn’t have complained, however, if they had managed to hold onto a lead and put the game away in regulation.

On the first day of Christmas, the Avalanche gave to me…

A pain in my head and tummy.

The Colorado Avalanche are, without a doubt, an erratic team. Tuesday night they won their fourth home game in a row by once more relying on the shootout. In the three road games last week, however, they looked like boys playing in their big brother’s hockey league. Those games were humiliating and painful to watch. Literally painful – I had a migraine following Tuesday’s 6 – 0 loss to Vancouver.

While this Tuesday’s game had a much happier ending it still managed to give me a slight case of nausea (which had nothing to do with an undigested bit of beef or blot of mustard). The Avs seem well nigh incapable of winning in regulation. Each win also seems to come against teams having an off-night. There have been precious few games this season in which the Colorado Avalanche have bested a good team playing up to their potential. The only one I’ve seen was the December 4 match against the Detroit Red Wings…and the Wings weren’t exactly themselves that night.

I say again: prolonged consideration of this Avalanche team leads to pain in the head and tummy.

The game against the Sharks definitely had it’s bright spots. Stefan Elliott is learning rapidly while playing up with the Avs, and it’s always fun to see a young kid celebrate early career goals. Daniel Winnik’s wraparound goal was a beauty. Milan Hejduk was money in the shootout, as (almost) always. And Gabriel Landeskog netting the game-winning shootout goal was terrific. The fact that the Avs gave up the lead TWICE and had to play overtime as well as a shootout to get the two points was somewhat less than terrific.

The Avs get another chance to best the Sharks on Thursday night in San Jose. It will be interesting to see which Sharks team – and which Avs team – shows up to play.

The Christmas season is in full swing. Look for the full 12 Days of Christmas, Avalanche style, coming at you between now and Christmas Day. If you have any suggestions please share them below or on Twitter!

This is how I feel when the Avs win.

Winning at home in front of a great crowd is even better. Friday night the Colorado Avalanche opened a record-setting 8 game home stand with a 3 – 0 win over the Dallas Stars. Given their rocky record on home ice, this shutout win was especially impressive.

Oh, and it was goalie J.S. Giguere’s 35th shutout. Congratulations, #35, the win was both meaningful and numerically amusing.

The goals came from Chuck Kobasew (yeah, I was surprised, too…but he tipped in a shot by Ryan Wilson), Paul Stastny, and Matt Duchene, who added insult to injury with an empty netter at the tail end of the game. Shots on goal were plentiful during this game, with 24 coming from the Stars and a whopping 45 from the Avs.

Dallas played a very physical game and out-hit the Avs 23 – 13. The leaders of the Dallas Hit Squad were forward Jamie Benn and defenseman Mark Fistric with four hits each. The Avs retaliated as necessary (no need to risk penalties when you have the lead throughout the game, after all) as “led” by Gabriel Landeskog, TJ Galiardi, Chuck Kobasew, and Shane O’Brien with two hits apiece.

Speaking of Shane O’Brien…this guy is on his way to becoming one of my new favorites. I love that he is willing to be physical when necessary, including defending his goaltender and getting a little nasty in the crease. He also has found his scoring touch as he already has 7 points on the season. Basically, O’Brien is on his way to fulfilling the expectations everyone has of Erik Johnson.

The Avs will be back in action on Sunday night against the visiting San Jose Sharks. The Sharks will certainly represent a challenge, as they are playing well and always seem to have the Avs’ number. Hopefully the boys in burgundy and blue will be able to build on Friday’s success and send the Sharks out of town sad and depressed.

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.

This terrible image represents the Red Wings rolling over the poor and slightly girly Avalanche. (Original photo by Uniroyal via Wikimedia Commons)

And when I say destroyed, I mean destroyed. It was like the Chicago scene from Transformers 3. The Detroit Red Wings made the Colorado Avalanche look like tiny, tiny girls. The Red Wings seemed to literally skate circles around the Avs, working their will at every turn.

Needless to say, it was a tad frustrating.

In true masochistic form, allow me to summarize the awful pile of fail that was last night’s game.

1. Nicklas Lidstrom looked like Nicklas Lidstrom and put an early unassisted goal up for Detroit. No cause for panic, the man is good at his job. The Avs can do this.
2. Johan Franzen scores on a power play goal early in the second. I’m starting to feel uncomfortable. The Avs aren’t moving well and don’t seem to be clicking at all. Uh oh.
3. Jay McClement goes to the box for boarding and Johan Franzen gets yet another power play goal (a tip-in, really). Now I have a feeling in my stomach like I’ve been riding in a stagecoach over a washboard dirt road. To top it all off, I have a sneaking suspicion the wheels are coming off. Sacco pulls Varlamov, which only serves to reinforce the panic.
4. DETROIT PENALTY! Ok, the Avs have a decent power play, maybe this will help. Sure enough, Gabriel Landeskog steps up and makes his presence known. 3 – 1 Wings. Things still look hazy, but I am no longer looking for a cliff.
5. Danny Cleary puts in an easy wrister at the beginning of the third. Sigh.
6. Pavel Datsyuk is called for holding and Milan Hejduk puts a beauty past Jimmy Howard. Avs cut the lead to two goals: 4 – 2 Wings. Do you believe in miracles?
7. Giguere is pulled. There is nothing scarier than an empty net behind lackluster forwards and a hole-y defense. Yup, there he goes, Franzen gets the empty netter and therefore the hat trick. Avs are definitely losing this one. There’s the buzzer.
8. 5 – 2 Red Wings, and the only conclusion to make about this Avs team is that the early road win streak was a fluke. This team, the less-than-mediocre, less-than-the-sum-of-its-parts group of players, is the true Avalanche identity. Ok, now I’m angry.

The Exes: There weren’t any ex-Avs on the Detroit roster and Todd Bertuzzi was out sick. Pretty quiet on the exes front.

Make My Night: It is safe to say that the Avs did not even come close to making my night. In 6 of the 7 Detroit games leading up to last night the Red Wings scored at most two goals. One of my wishes was that Detroit would experience a resurrection of their offensive struggles against the Avs. Clearly, that was not to be. The Avs did manage to overcome their inconsistent play…but they accomplished this by proving that they are consistently slow, timid, and simply sub-par. They put up 26 shots to Detroit’s 30, but rebounds were pretty tough to come by and the Avs were just completely outplayed at every turn.

My Predictions: As usual, these were completely incorrect. Oddly the total goals was correct (I predicted 4 – 3 and the final was 2 – 5), but that isn’t exactly earth-shattering. It’s just strange.

The boys need to pull their heads and hearts out of whatever small, dark place they currently occupy and remember how to play hockey. Sooner would be better. Poor performance creates all sorts of talk about coaching and personnel changes, which just make me uncomfortable. I dislike discussing them because a) I have absolutely no more information than any other fan, and b) my opinion matters exactly zero to anyone in charge. I would much rather the team just start winning and negate the chatter.

So come on, boys…for the sake of all of your jobs, WIN. You can start by defeating the Islanders Thursday night for the first time in quite a while.

I receive many emails from the Colorado Avalanche organization. I’m thrilled about this, since it means I get alerts about in-game specials, ticket packages, etc. Occasionally some of the promotions make me giggle a bit. Tonight, for instance, is the official birthday celebration for Avalanche mascot Bernie the faithful, skating St. Bernard! (Hey, I’m not knocking it…marketing is a job I would not do well, so more power to everyone over on Chopper Circle.)

So, if you are lucky enough to be attending the hockey game tonight at the Pepsi Center, you will be treated to the happy shenanigans of the pup’s birthday party. Between the mouthfuls of cake, be sure you catch the hockey game going on in the background.

The Edmonton Oilers are in town to take on the Avs, who are fresh off their first road loss of the season. We all remember the Oilers being just a tad worse than the Avs at the end of last season; as of right now the two teams are tied for first in the Northwest with 12 points each.

The Avs really need this win. Their first road loss was at the hands of division rival Calgary. A victory would be the first at home (happy birthday indeed, Bernie) and mean pulling ahead of Edmonton for sole possession of the division lead. But it won’t be easy; Edmonton has won three in a row and is benefitting nicely from the addition of #1 draft pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who has 9 points in as many games.

The Exes:

• Ryan Smyth played left wing for the Avs for two seasons (2007 – 2009) before going to the L.A. Kings and then back to the Oilers, the team that drafted him #6 overall back in 1994. He has five points for the Oil so far this season. Smyth seems to take a special thrill from scoring on his old teams (there are several of them), so look for him to be involved tonight.

It Would Make My Night If:

• RNH gets a goal, just because it’s always fun when kids new to the league do well. But I cannot emphasize enough that I’m only ok with him scoring once.
• There really is cake at the Pepsi Center. It can’t be a real birthday party without cake.
• Gabriel Landeskog scores at least twice. It would be awesome if our draft pick could out-perform theirs. (No, I’m not at all competitive, why do you ask?)
• The Avs get over whatever mental block is keeping them from playing a full 60 minutes of good hockey at home. Even more importantly, that they figure out how to win at home.
• The Pepsi Center is full to the brim (it’s Family Night, so you can get four tickets, meals, and drinks for $99) to watch the Avs’ first home victory of the season.
• The St. Louis Cardinals send the Texas Rangers packing in Game 7. Whoops, wrong sport.

My Predictions:

The Avs win 3 – 2 in overtime. Landeskog gets one, as well as Matt Duchene. At least three fans succumb to terminal cuteness of the party festivities, and there is not nearly enough face-cake smooshing to please the likes of me.

The puck drops at 7 pm sharp. Be there. Or, you know, watch from home, like me…I want to catch the World Series at the same time.

Go Cards Avs!

Special Note: I created the birthday card over at PurpleTrail.com. Check them out, they have all kinds of great invitation/card templates.

Gabriel Landeskog (back in his Kitchener Rangers days) scored two of the Avs' five goals in tonight's SO win over Chicago. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

ANOTHER SHOOTOUT?!?!? Come on, cardiac kids Avs, give your fans a break. How about you win a few in regulation?

That being said…I predicted the Colorado Avalanche would beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3 – 2 in a physical game. I was kinda-sorta right. It was a one-goal game and the Avs came out on top. Unfortunately the real score was 5 – 4 and the only three penalties of the game were against the Avs.

Enough about my exceptionally poor powers of prediction. THE AVS WON!

Before the game started, Twitter was afire with opinions on Duchene’s new status as fourth line center. Honestly, I liked the lines tonight. Stasny really stepped up to fill the role. I also thought Winnik was on fire; on top of good offense he had a hit in the second during which he wrapped up his opponent better than most football players would have. I watched Shane O’Brien a little bit, also. I really like his attitude on the ice.

Let me take this opportunity to say that I’m aware this post is a little disjointed…I feel like I was hit by a train at some point today and my cold medicine is just now kicking in. So let’s get through this quickly before I start hallucinating rubber duckies or some such nonsense.

Good stuff:

• Ex-Av Andrew Brunette was held to one shot on goal, zero points, and was a -2 for the night.
• Gabriel Landeskog got two goals. TWO. I love this kid.
• David Jones continues to play in beast mode, which is terrific to see.
• Semyon Varlamov is a STUD. No two ways about it, no argument allowed.
• Joakim Lindstrom snuck his shoot out goal past Crawford for the win. After Hejduk and Duchene were denied, it was so amazing to watch Lindstrom get the win.
• Varlamov was a stud during the shoot out, too.

I have to admit, it’s still unspeakably fun to watch the Avs win. Like I said earlier I’d rather they do so in regulation a few times so this old lady can go to bed on time.

The Avs are off until Wednesday, when they will face the Calgary Flames for the first time this season. It will be a terrific test for the new-look Avalanche. With every game they are looking more and more ready to take on big opponents. If they manage to prove that in Calgary on Wednesday then I will be beside myself with joy.

Check out Runs On Duncan, the Aerys Sports home of the Chicago Blackhawks. Hopefully the tears of the beaten will sustain us Avs fans until the next game.

Avs' defenseman Erik Johnson had two assists in the shoot out win over Montreal.

Can you say “spoilers” ladies and gentlemen?

The Colorado Avalanche skated into the Bell Centre in Montreal to face a team aching for a home win with a goalie aching for win #100. But the Avs refused to roll over for the Canadiens. Kyle Quincey managed to tie up the score on a power play goal with a few minutes left in the third, Varlamov kept the Habs out of the net in OT and the shoot out, and Milan Hejduk and Matt Duchene both scored during the shoot out to complete the denial of Carey Price’s 100th win. The Avs won their fourth game in a row 6 – 5.

Since I was at a Colorado College hockey game and didn’t get to watch the Avs’ win, rather than making stuff up (which never happens on the Internet) I will compare my predictions for the game to reality.

My predictions: 4 – 2 Avs, including an empty net goal after Price is pulled in the third. The Habs get a little frustrated and emotional and eventually tally their first fight of the season…and lose. Ryan O’Reilly gets his name on the scoresheet. And the Habs’ announcers mispronounce “Landeskog” at least 8 times.

The score was clearly off, but at least the Avs won. Sweet. Price was never pulled. The Habs got a little testy but largely seem to have been much more controlled (and much less sloppy) than the Avs, making the big plays when they were needed and coming back from deficits to have the lead with 7 minutes left in the game. There was no fight, but there were 9 penalties…5 of them on the Habs. Ryan O’Reilly did not get his name on the scoresheet. I have no way of knowing how the announcers managed to mess up “Landeskog,” but I have faith that they did so many times.

This is why I usually don’t make predictions.

Fun details…

• P.K. Subban, who was so nice as to say the Avs are a “good young team,” lost his cool a tad and was called for kneeing during the game.
• David Jones was in beast mode with two goals and one assist.
• Gabriel Landeskog and Daniel Winnik led the team with four shots on goal, but neither managed to get it past Price.
• Chuck Kobasew scored! Woohoo!
• The Avs didn’t manage to put as many pucks on the net (only 30 compared to the Canadiens’ 43) as they have in recent games. It still worked out ok, clearly, but they need to focus on shooting more in Toronto on Monday.

On Monday night the Avs complete their road trip in Toronto, where they will face ex-teammates John Michael Liles and Philippe Dupuis. For once, I hope JML’s interesting defensive play bites his team in the butt and the Avs dominate him.

Dupuis can score all of the Maple Leaf’s goals. As long as it’s one less than those scored by the Avalanche.

Sky rockets in flight and such.

This evening our very own Colorado Avalanche will take on the storied Montreal Canadiens. This is a big game for both clubs; the Avs haven’t started 4 – 0 on the road since – well, ever, as the Avs – and the Habs have only won one game thus far this season. If the latter can’t figure out how to win tonight, they may collectively be tarred and feathered as they leave the Bell Centre. Canadians take their Canadiens hockey seriously.

I bet I’m the very first person EVER to make that joke.

Anyway, back to the game. Per Adrian Dater the Avs will take the ice sans Peter Mueller. In his place will be…wait for it…Kevin Porter. Galiardi will be the healthy scratch.

Hmmm. Well, coach Joe Sacco makes the big bucks to make big decisions, so I guess we just get to trust him on this one.

Sadly the Avs won’t get to continue their Tour of Ex-Avalanche Goalies tonight as Montreal is reportedly starting Carey Price instead of Peter Budaj. Not a big surprise, all in all. Price is also still hunting for his 100th win, a fact that will  likely add a little extra oomph (or desperation) to his play.

It would make my night if…

• Gabriel Landeskog gets a goal in his third straight game.
• The Avs’ Bigger, Better Defense continues to defend the zone.
• Jan Hejda continues to protect his goalie with an excess of bad attitude.
• The Avs play a disciplined game and make Mathieu Darche eat his words.
• The Avs take advantage of power plays as they did in Ottawa.
• P.K. Subban regrets the accuracy of his compliment because the Avs out-perform their “good young team” reputation.
• Carey Price leaves the Bell Centre crying like a tiny, tiny girl after being denied his 100th win.
• Cody McLeod or Erik Johnson or Ryan O’Byrne or Ryan Wilson (or anyone, really) puts Yannick Weber flat on his butt for the insinuation that the Colorado Avalanche are a sub-par team against whom they can put up an easy win to placate the fans.

This image speaks for itself. (Original photo by JessicaAvsFan)

It sure is nice to be on the winning side of a landslide score. It’s been a few games (ok, 40) since the Colorado Avalanche defense was able to shut down their opponent while the offense caught fire. Last night ex-Av Craig Anderson and his Ottawa Senators were on the losing end of the Avs’ 7 – 1 coming out party.

I tried to feel sorry for him, I swear I did…but it just didn’t work. So I settled for dancing a little jig of delight instead.

Milan Michalek gave me a little heart attack when he tipped in a power play goal early in the first. Luckily for the Sens this was the high point of the game. Milan Hejduk tallied a power play goal to tie it up three minutes later and Gabriel Landeskog got his second NHL goal on the heel’s of Hejduk’s. When Zack Smith laid a huge hit on the young Landeskog at the end of the period, Ryan Wilson stepped up and defended his teammate. Awww.

After the penalty- and goal-filled first period the second was relatively quiet. In his first start of the season Joakim Lindstrom made his presence known as he put a wrister past Anderson.

In the third period the wheels really came off for the Senators. The Avs’ Matt Duchene converted on the power play early on, Daniel Winnik put up a short handed goal a few minutes later, and David Jones and Lindstrom converted on separate power plays later in the period. By the time the final horn blew the Avs had amassed seven goals on 39 shots, four of which were power play goals. Every player except T.J. Galiardi (who only had nine minutes of ice time) put the puck on the net. Not a single player had a negative +/-, which is pretty easy to accomplish when an opponent is held to one goal on 16 shots.

This kind of game is exactly what the Avs needed: the defense and offense performed well at the same time. The players needed to remember how fun it is to score (heh heh) and get back a little of the magic they’ve been missing in the past months. Sure, it came against a weak opponent, but that’s how it works sometimes. You destroy a weaker team and it reminds you of forgotten strengths. You embarrass a former teammate and realize you can embarrass other goalies as well.

The next game won’t be quite such a cupcake as the Avs continue their East Coast swing in Montreal. Hopefully the Avs won’t lose their mojo on their day off today, and tomorrow night we will be toasting another glorious victory.

Seriously, I forgot how much fun it is to watch a winning team. I wouldn’t mind at all if this continued.