In spite of an early look of dominance, the Colorado Avalanche ultimately fell to the Anaheim Ducks and the greatness of Teemu Selanne 5 – 4.
First Period:
At 3:34, the unthinkable happened. Milan Hejduk sent a beauty of a pass to Ryan O’Reilly on an Avalanche power play and O’Reilly put it in the back of the Ducks’ net. The Avs opened the game with a 1 – 0 lead.
Not even two minutes later Hejduk made another brilliant pass, but this time Matt Duchene was the recipient. He made an absolutely gorgeous move to get around Ryan Getzlaf and made the score 2 -0. The Avalanche managed to keep the Ducks scoreless through the first.
Let me say that again: the Avs led 2 – 0 at the end of the first period.
Cameron Gaunce in a last-minute call up defended teammate Mark Olver against Mike Komisarek in Thursday night's game. (Photo by JessicaAvsFan.)
After winning their previous two games in a shootout, the Colorado Avalanche lost in regulation to the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs 4 – 3. But the story of the game was the first period hit by Mike Komisarek on teeny tiny Mark Olver, and call up Cameron Gaunce taking on the slightly grumpy Komisarek immediately afterward. The secondary story was the Avs playing better than I anticipated.
First Period:
There has been much hand-wringing in Colorado this season because the generally terrible defense allows so many short handed goals (11, according to hockey-reference.com). Well finally during a Cody McLeod roughing penalty Daniel Winnik added a SHG tally to the Avalanche “for” column. He had help from EJ and McClement, and for a brief shining 4.5 minutes the Avs led the Maple Leafs 1 – 0.
About three minutes after the goal Jonas Holos made a pass up ice to Mark Olver in spite of Mike Komisarek being lined up on Olver about 8 steps away. Olver turned and ducked a bit to get the pass and Komisarek lined him up. Olver literally bounced off Komisarek like a rag doll and crawled off the ice but didn’t make it to the bench. Cameron Gaunce, who was just called up from Lake Erie, stood up for his teammate and took on Komisarek. For more on my opinions on the matter, skip ahead to the analysis section. » Continue reading “Wow What A Hit…Oh There Was A Game, Too”
Friday night the Anaheim Ducks come to the Pepsi Center looking to continue their domination of the Colorado Avalanche. Meawhile, the Avs will be looking to make something of a statement about their skill as players, cohesiveness as a unit, and dedication to each other.
…outlook hazy. It all depends on which version of the team shows up. The Avalanche are in Minnesota Tuesday night to take on the Wild for the sixth and last time of the 2010 – 11 season.
One word comes to mind: finally.
Series Record: Avalanche 2, Minnesota 3
November 27 at the Pepsi Center was one of the more surprisingly pleasant games of the Avalanche season. Paul Stasny got an early goal and Antti Miettinen and Matt Cullen turned the momentum toward Minnesota at the end of the first. Then in the second the Avs went wild (heh, heh). By the end of the game Milan Hejduk, Kevin Shattenkirk, David Jones and Matt Duchene had scored for the Avs; Greg Mauldin did so twice (and racked up two assists). Kyle Brodziak added two for the Wild to make the final score 7 – 4 in favor of the Avs. Interestingly this game of domination also was involved in a turning point of the season: in the second period, Chris Stewart broke his hand when pounding on Brodziak. Stewart went on to miss about seven weeks and failed to return to his former glory until being traded to the St. Louis Blues. » Continue reading “Can the Avs go wild in Minnesota? Magic 8-ball says…”
Kevin Porter scored the Avs' first goal in the 3-2 loss to the Ducks Sunday night. (Photo by CM Sonka.)
In spite of coming out strong and dominating a big, physical team early, Colorado allowed old habits come back to bite them in a 3-2 loss to Anaheim Sunday night.
First Period:
The Avs finally started the game on time…fans were happy, and I’m sure Coach Sacco was thrilled (though sad he had to find a new line for the post game press conference). The energetic first shift even generated a shot on goal for the Avs. In the first half of the period David Koci fought George Parros to a draw, Cody McLeod fought Sheldon Brookbank (advantage Brookbank), Cameron Gaunce and Jarko Ruutu tussled behind the net, and Gaunce fought Luca Sbisa after Sbisa’s hit on Milan Hejduk. 36 minutes of penalties were called in the first 20 minutes of play.
Today the Avs announced that Adam Foote will miss at least another week with his leg issue.
Matt Duchene is listed as day to day with a hand injury sustained during the second period of Monday night’s game against Calgary.
Cameron Gaunce is ok after leaving the ice with assistance on Monday. Apparently he was only bruised by the puck that hit him.
No additional penalties have yet been assessed to Philippe Dupuis as a result of his hit on Olli Jokinen, but this certainly could (and probably should) change.
At this point, it’s hard to be upset with losing individual players. When they’re all playing so poorly it’s easy to just hope that injuries/suspensions will mix up the lines a bit more and maybe positively influence chemistry. It’s not like any of these four have been the absolute difference maker in games lately.
We all are looking for positives in this chain of events. Tomorrow night will begin tell if there are is actually any good left in these Avs players.
UPDATE: Mark Olver has been recalled from the Lake Erie Monsters to the Avs. He will play tomorrow night. Olver has been exceptionally solid over the past several weeks, and was named to the AHL All Star Game. It will be nice to see a new face in the mix tomorrow night at the Pepsi Center.
I know you are hurting right now. So many of your pieces are injured. One of your extremities, long since dead, showed some life and even worked for a few days. This rejuvenated you briefly, but alas it was not enough. To make matters worse, it quit working for good with precious little notice.
You are in shock. Reeling, even. I get it. But there is simply no excuse for what happened at the Pepsi Center against the Calgary Flames. After the second Flames’ goal went in against starting goalie Budaj, you all watched him skate back to the bench in favor of Anderson with a vague sense of indifference. When the third Flames’ goal went in I could almost hear each of you saying “here we go again.”
Kevin Porter had the Avs' first goal in Nashville on Saturday night. (Photo by Christina Sonka)
In spite of putting together a little bit of offense and scoring more than two goals, the Colorado Avalanche still found a way to lose in Nashville. They have now lost seven in a row, which is a franchise record. That means they haven’t lost this many games since becoming the Avalanche back in 1995. Their record is 25-25-6, have 170 goals for and 186 goals against.
Well, that explains why fans are so frustrated.
First Period:
The Avalanche were pretty roundly owned by the Predators during the first several minutes of this game. They looked somewhat like baby brother on the JV team trying to play Varsity with big brother; not as big, not as fast, and just a little dominated. There were some good things happening (a lot of them from Forsberg, who continues to give clinics on passing and winning battles), but just not enough of them.
Eleven minutes into the first, Kevin Porter and Paul Stastny did some sweet puck exchanges and Porter went five hole to beat Pekka Rinne. Avs’ fans hadn’t even sat back down from their celebrating when Shea Weber fired a laser at Budaj from the point eleven seconds later to tie the game at one goal apiece. » Continue reading “Avs smashed 5-3 in Nashville”
Dear Avs,
