On the ninth day of Christmas the Avalanche gave to me 

Nine combined points

Eight career wins

Seven new opponents

Six face offs won

Five Cody fights

Four little Monsters

Three hits from Malone

Two shootout goals

And a pain in my head and tummy.

The Avs won again!!! It’s always great to beat the Blues. It’s even more fun to beat them in spite of some scoring by Chris Stewart or Kevin Shattenkirk. And it’s most fun to beat them as the result of a balanced offensive display. On Wednesday night the Avs beat the Blues, Chris Stewart scored one of St. Louis’ two goals, and nine different Avalanche players had one point each.

If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is.

Jay McClement, Cody McLeod, and Paul Stastny all put up goals while Stefan Elliott, Brad Malone, Matt Hunwick, Kevin Porter, Jan Hejda, and Shane O’Brien all put up assists. 12 of the 18 Avs on the ice at least had shots on the goal. I love that so many of the players were present offensively in this game. In spite of the fact that the Blues outshot them 39 – 22, the Avs managed to hold on to a 3 – 2 win in regulation.

And there was much rejoicing. Yay!

Hopefully the Avalanche will continue the offensive production and defensive prowess on Friday night, when the Lightning come to town. Until then, bask in the glow of yet another home win, Denver.

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

Five Cody fights

Four little Monsters

Three hits from Malone

Two shootout goals

And a pain in my head and tummy.

As dangerous as they are (perhaps because of this), I am a huge fan of hockey fights. Very few things get the players’ and fans’ blood pumping more effectively than a good fight. I know there are many who feel that, given the likelihood of injury and emotional byproducts, fighting should be removed from the game. While those arguments are certainly valid, as a fan I really enjoy watching them. The fighting was the third thing to attract me to the sport, behind the skating skills and hits.

What can I say? I appreciate the dual nature of the game. Knowing that an effortlessly elegant skater can get smooshed against the boards at any moment just enhances my enjoyment of each separate element.

Cody McLeod has a little bit of a reputation as a fighter. Thus far this season he has put up five fights. While I am ecstatic that he is willing to step up when necessary, I would be even happier if he could win them consistently. According to the fine people at hockeyfights.com, he has been the clear victor in only one of the five bouts.

Ouch.

McLeod’s first fight was a draw against Columbus Blue Jacket Derek Dorsett on October 12, 2011. Cody then took a few weeks off, allowing Ryan Wilson and Shane O’Brien do the fighting for him. On November 6 Cody decided to go against Tim Jackman of the Calgary Flames. He took another couple of weeks off, but David Jones’ willingness to fight seemed to propel him back into the festivities. On November 15 he lost to Arron Asham of the Penguins. On November 28 he finally won a fight when he went toe-to-toe with Krys Barch. Last but not least he took on San Jose Shark Brad Winchester on December 15.

I was fully planning to insert video into this post, but since the DIA free wifi sucks that will not be happening. Follow this link to see Cody’s fight card this season and click on the tiny TVs next to each entry to see video.

Thanks for your hard work, Cody. Keep it up. Just be happy you can’t be in the press box every night.

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 Avs could stand to learn a few lessons from the Broncos. (Sketch by Katie Martinez)

In other news, the world is ending. Prepare accordingly.

Tuesday night the Avs lost in excruciating fashion to the Pittsburgh Penguins. In my opinion any loss to a Pittsburgh team is excruciating, but Tuesday really was special. The Avs had a 3 – 1 lead going into the second period and still managed to lose 3 – 6. I was lucky enough not to be watching this debacle as I was tutoring kids instead, but just checking my text messages was enough to send me on an emotional rollercoaster.

ESPN NHL – COL Goal COL 1 PIT 0 – Goal scored by Jay McClement
ESPN NHL – COL Goal COL 2 PIT 0 – Goal scored by Matt Duchene
ESPN NHL – PIT Goal COL 2 PIT 1 – Goal scored by Jordan Staal
ESPN NHL – COL Goal COL 3 PIT 1 – Goal scored by David Jones
ESPN NHL – PIT Goal COL 3 PIT 2 – Goal scored by Pascal Dupuis
ESPN NHL – PIT Goal COL3 PIT 3 – Goal scored by Brooks Orpik
ESPN NHL – PIT Goal PIT 4 COL 3 – Goal scored by Evgeni Malkin
ESPN NHL – PIT Goal PIT 5 COL 3 – Goal scored by James Neal
ESPN NHL – PIT Goal PIT 6 COL 3 – Goal scored by Kris Letang

See? It’s soul crushing to see the goals laid out like that. I’m sure it was even worse to watch. On the bright side, the team showed up to play the first period. On the less bright side, they neglected to play the third period.

At the end of October the Avs were 7 – 4. They had gone on a rampage through the Northeast, sweeping 5 teams on the road and starting out with 6 wins in 8 games. While some underlying fundamental issues were clear (offense wasn’t really clicking, big holes on defense), good goaltending and luck were enough to help the Avs find success. They were even somewhat entertaining.

So far in November the Avs have lost 6 of their last 7. “We need to play a full 60 minutes” is heard every night from fans on Twitter and message boards as well as from the coaches and players in postgame interviews. Goaltending has pretty much fallen apart, as Semyon Varlamov has started in the lion’s share of the games and has a 5 – 8 – 1 record. J.S. Giguere is 3 – 1. The defense has gotten lackadaisical in front of the goalie (seriously, only three players have non-negative plus/minus stats: Gabriel Landeskog, Shane O’Brien, and Ryan Wilson). The offense has been inconsistent to say the least, and though the movement of Matt Duchene to the wing seems to have mostly solved the first line scoring problems, there are three other offensive lines that still need some tweaking.

The Avs have become downright depressing to watch. Maybe it’s because we are fresh off of the 2010 – 11 season, but every time they have a lead (which is rare) I find myself wondering how they will manage to blow it. I take games far more seriously than I should, and as a result, each game is an emotional rollercoaster. It is not good for my psyche.

By way of contrast, the Denver Broncos have become a source of (dare I say) joy. Love him or hate him, Tim Tebow and the goofy offensive scheme have managed to do what neither Kyle Orton’s Broncos nor the Avs have been able to do: win. The whole team looks energized. The offensive line is playing like a group of studs, protecting their QB and opening up running lanes seemingly at will. The defense is playing well enough to limit their opponents’ ability to score. And Tebow has been able to lead a team to victory in spite of completing only 2 of 8 passes in an entire game.

Now that’s leadership. True leaders make everyone around them better, playing and standing up for the team first and foremost. They lead by example in the locker room and on the field/ice. Tim Tebow has leadership skills in spades. I can only hope newly crowned Milan Hejduk can be a fraction as effective in his captainship as Tebow has been as starting QB.

At the beginning of the fall I never would have imagined that the Broncos would be the more uplifting team to watch this season. I completely believed that the Avs would pull together and play as more than the sum of their parts, getting a few more wins than losses in spite of persisting issues and holes. I also completely believed that the Broncos would be a royal mess all season long, that they would be incapable of finding a workable solution to the quarterback controversy or overcoming their positional difficulties. Clearly I was wrong on both counts. The Broncos are actually a terrific example of a team that has come together and through effort, scheme, and play calling become better than the talent of individual players should dictate.

As a Denver native I am a Denver Broncos fan and I am thrilled that they are no longer the laughingstock of the NFL. They have been an exciting team to watch over the past few weeks. As a relatively recent hockey convert, however, I really would like the Avs to stop delivering gut-wrenchingly lame performances and (gulp) learn something from the Broncos:

• Never quit. Never, ever, ever. A game is 60 minutes long. If you give 100% in every second of that 60 minutes, miracles can happen.
• Play to cover each other’s weaknesses and exploit each other’s strengths.
• Find what works and stick with it until it stops working.
• If players refuse to buy into the scheme or are cancerous, get rid of them.
• If accepted methods aren’t working, try something unorthodox. Worst case scenario, you continue to lose. Best case scenario, you get some wins, look like a genius, and lessen the blow of trading the first round draft pick to Washington..

So Avs, get it together. Figure out how to put together a team that cares enough to play hard for the entire game. Capture my faith and my trust again as the Broncos have managed to do. I know it’s possible; I see glimmers of it every game. I’m not asking for a serious Cup run this season or anything crazy. All I ask for is hope. I want you to play well enough to renew my hope that all is not lost and that this team will win again in the not-too-distant future.

After all, that’s what each of us wants: a bright spot in a largely mundane existance that serves to remind us that hope and joy still exist. Sports teams hold incredible power over us because they consistently bring hope and joy into our lives. There have been weeks where an Avs or Broncos win is one of the only really good things that happens in my little world. Currently the Avs are using this power for evil while their counterparts across I-25 are using it for good. How cool would it be if the Avs could learn a few lessons from the Broncos and go back to being a beacon of light in our dull little worlds?

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.

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.

That’s right, only 53 days until hockey season. Last night I watched some preseason football to take the edge of my craving for some “bash his head in! HARDER!” sports action. It worked a little bit, but as so often happens in these situations, now I’m jonesing even harder for The Real Thing.

I want to see Erik Johnson put someone on their head. (Cal Clutterbuck makes an excellent someone.)

I want to see newcomer Shane O’Brien fight someone.

Heck, I’d even watch Matt Hunwick LOSE a fight to someone at this point.

Ah, hockey. Gotta love it. Anyway, back to Shane O’Brien. He is one of four players currently on the Avalanche roster without a sweater number. The others are fellow defenseman Jan Hejda and forwards Chuck Kobasew and Joakim Lindstrom.

These poor guys must be feeling just a tad left out, especially since new goalies Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Semyon Varlamov have numbers already. (35 and 1 respectively, just in case you were wondering.) I know goalies tend to be a little bit of a special circumstance in and of themselves, but it’s still sad that the other four are numberless. It’s not quite as bad as homelessness, but it’s close. Plus it forces their teammates to be more creative about nicknames and taunts, which is just inconvenient.

So on this 53rd day until hockey season officially begins, take a moment and mourn the gaps in the Avs’ roster. Let the hole in your heart cry out to the hole in the “#” column of said roster.

And then man up and find something more productive to do with your time. Seriously, people. Remember…there’s no crying in hockey.

Right now, the Baby Avs (by which I mean prospects) are at the practice facility for prospect camp. While the coaches are evaluating and working with the youngest of the group and signing another defenseman, us mere mortals are stuck continuing to count down the days until the hockey season returns.

Today the count is at 86.

If you are looking for a way to pass day 86, which in Denver will likely include a thunderstorm or three, look no further:

If you're looking for something to do in a rain storm while counting down to October, why not try a puzzle? (Photo by Katie Martinez.)

If puzzles aren’t your speed, you could continue to think about the Avs’ latest signing. Shane O’Brien comes to Colorado from Nashville, where he played 80 games last season. At 6’3″ and 230 lbs he is in the top half of Avs defensemen in terms of size. His 83 penalty minutes from 2010 – 11 would’ve put him second on the Avs, right between Cody McLeod (189) and David Koci (80). The Avs definitely need another big, hard-hitting defenseman willing to punish the other team. He signed a 1-year, $1.1m contract with the Avalanche. It will be great to see how he fits in with the rest of the squad this season, though it leaves discussion about Kyle Cumiskey’s place on the team pretty intriguing (in my opinion, he’s out…he’s a great skater and has talent, but I just don’t see where he will fit now).

So, Avalanche fans, the team has changed a lot since Sunday April 10. I think it’s changed for the better, and I’m excited to see how it all comes together on the ice. Here’s to 86 more days…enjoy the sun before it goes and dream sweet hockey dreams.