David Jones is hurt. Again. (Photo by @JessicaAvsFan.)

The 2010-11 Colorado Avalanche are certainly no strangers to pain. Not a single player on the team has appeared in every game due to injuries. Starting back in the preseason with the loss of Peter Mueller and continuing all the way through the loss of Paul Stastny and John Michael Liles last weekend, this team has been beat up like they stole something.

If the guilty party would raise his hand and return whatever it is they stole, that would be terrific. This team needs no more bad karma.

The latest players to hurt themselves (to see if they still feel, perhaps?) are David Jones and Matt Hunwick, according to Adrian Dater of the Denver Post. Apparently sometime during the very physical game in St. Louis Tuesday night Jones hurt his leg and Hunwick suffered a head injury.

Le Sigh.

Shawn Belle and Ray Macias have been recalled from the playoff-bound (for the first time ever!) Lake Erie Monsters to fill in, as it is likely neither Hunwick or Jones will play Thursday night against the Dallas Stars.

This season has long since left the realm of disappointing bad luck and entered into that of humorless parody. At the rate they are going the Colorado Avalanche will lose both games to Dallas and have 5 or 6 more starters injured. Maybe Sacco should just fly the entire Lake Erie team to Denver prior to Sunday’s home closer just to be sure the club can dress a full roster for the game.

When the Colorado Avalanche show up in St. Louis to take on the Blues, it will mean absolutely nothing. Both teams have already been eliminated from playoff contention. Every man on the ice is now solely playing to save face. And possibly their jobs.

Series Record: Avalanche 3, Blues 0.

That’s right, sports fans: the Avalanche are actually winning a series this season. And not just winning, but winning handily. Dominating, even. It’s a nice feeling.

Over the three games the Avs have outscored the Blues 14 – 9. In case you forgot, “outscored” means that the Avalanche have scored more goals than the Blues. Weird, I know. » Continue reading “No One Cares, But The Avs May Just Beat The Blues”

John Michael Liles is the Avs' latest casualty. (Photo by CM Sonka.)

Yesterday the Avalanche announced that Paul Stastny would miss the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his leg.

Today the Avs announced that John Michael Liles will stay home when the team departs for St. Louis and Dallas, missing the last road trip of the season. He apparently suffered a concussion in Sunday night’s game against the Flames.

While the eternal optimist in me says “oh no big deal, he’ll be back to finish out the season,” the realist in me questions why the club would do that. The Avs are not competing for a playoff berth, they do not have to keep their edge or hoard points. There is literally no reason to push a valuable player to come back quickly from a head injury to play in two games.

In fact, this entire season is starting to feel like a farce. Now that the games don’t count and the guys are exhausted and mentally beat up they are even more likely to get hurt. Luckily Stastny will likely recover quickly (albeit in the off season) and Liles hasn’t had a bad concussion history like Cumiskey or Mueller, so neither of these situations is panic-inducing. But they are disconcerting at least.

It’s almost enough to make me wish they would just forfeit the rest of the games and preserve the bodies of the players.

And I’m fairly positive I’ve never even begun to have a more depressing Avalanche-related thought than that one.

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”

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.

» Continue reading “Selanne Leads Ducks’ Domination Of Avs”

Ryan Smyth ran a scoring clinic on his old team in the 4 - 1 domination of the Avalanche Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Bridget Samuels.)

Well, one of my teams won today. It just wasn’t the Avalanche. The L.A. Kings looked like the big brother allowing the Avalanche to play just well enough to feel like they were keeping up, but before the end of the game affirmed their true dominance and put it out of reach. The Kings won by a final score of 4 – 1 and now have 92 points on the season.

First Period:

Even though the Avalanche didn’t come out with spectacular speed or effort or energy, they managed to keep it scoreless for almost ten minutes. Then in a goal initially credited to Willie Mitchell, Anze Kopitar squeaked it past Budaj to open the LA floodgates. A few minutes later Ryan O’Byrne went to the box for high sticking and Michal Handzus put a wrister into the Avalanche net with assists from Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown. The period would end 2 – 0 in favor of the Kings, and honestly the Avalanche were lucky to only be down by two. » Continue reading “Avalanche Outclassed And Outworked By Kings In Matinee”

Saturday afternoon the L.A. Kings will look to complete their 2010-11 domination of the Colorado Avalanche at the Staples Center.

In the interest of full disclosure, I really like the Kings. I will also readily admit that I have been heavily influenced by friends of mine, who drew my attention to Jack Johnson and Drew Doughty. Maybe they were smart enough to take advantage of my weakness for USA boys and defensemen…then again the friends are hockey players themselves, so maybe it was an accident.

I kid, I kid.

Regardless, I am excited to see this game. The Avalanche have been looking a little more lively lately, winning two of their last three and giving the Maple Leafs a decent run for the game. The Kings are 5th in the West with 90 points, but need to solidly put Colorado in their place to put some distance between them and the teams nipping at their heels. It could be a fun game. » Continue reading “An Ode To Two Teams I Love As Kings Welcome Avs”

Thursday night the Colorado Avalanche will face the Toronto Maple Leafs on the ice at the Pepsi Center. This game preview is going to be a little bit different for a few reasons. First, these two teams only see each other once a year, so there is precious little past to summarize. Second, the Leafs only come to Denver every other year, so this game provides a rare opportunity to see the dynasty team. Third, I’m bored and want to try something new. Fourth and most importantly, I’m on Spring Break and was able to attend both the Avalanche and Maple Leaf team practices on Wednesday and have pictures and videos to share.

So, let’s get to it, shall we? First, the necessities.

Keep an eye on goalie James Reimer, forward Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak, and defenseman Luke Schenn.

Yes, I’m aware that the list above is entirely composed of Toronto players. I see it like this: as much as I love the Avalanche, I’m thrilled to death to get to watch Toronto. It’s always fun to see an eastern team; the different style, new faces, new names. Especially during a year when the Avs often lack inspiration, the opportunity to see the Leafs play is exciting. Almost as exciting as watching the Bruins a few months back.

So, I could tell you to watch Duchene try to keep his streak alive, or Hejduk weave the kind of magic he always does when on the ice. I could say to watch for Dupuis since he’s no longer sick and hopefully will get to play. But realistically, I’m going to be watching the Leafs unless the Avs light the lamp so often I can’t help but watch them. » Continue reading “But…They’re So BIG…Maple Leafs Visit Avalanche”

Milan Hejduk gets the shootout winner for the Avs in his 900th game. (Photo by @JessicaAvsFan.)

Two wins in a row. Two. That makes a streak, correct? So the Colorado Avalanche are on a two game winning streak after Milan Hejduk’s shootout goal and Brian Elliott’s superb late play led them to a 5 – 4 victory over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.

There are many adjectives to describe this. I’ll go with the one the Pepsi Center audio team played following Mark Olver Matt Duchene’s goal: “Sweet.”

First Period:

Honestly, the Avs weren’t particularly impressive at the beginning of the first. There wasn’t a lot of pep in their step and they looked a little…wait for it…lethargic. Two minutes in Rick Nash was allowed to skate unchallenged wherever he desired, which happened to be right in front of the net. He put an easy one on a nice little backhand past Elliott to give the Blue Jackets the early lead. Luckily for the Avs Ryan O’Reilly doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit and put a wrister past Steve Mason off a Matt Hunwick disruption, Kevin Porter pass and his own rebound six minutes into the period. The rest of the period was pretty uneventful, except for Columbus’ Antoine Vermette being penalized for “playing with a broken stick,” which amused me to no end. Sadly the Avs didn’t do anything on the power play and the period ended at a 1 – 1 tie. » Continue reading “Avalanche Refuse To Fall Apart, Best CBJ In Shootout”

The Colorado Avalanche go into Edmonton with 60 points in 70 games. The Oilers meet them with 55 points in 71 games. The difference? Since February 1 the Avs have gained 4 points, whereas the Oilers have gained 17. The Avs are also on a 10 game slide, while the Oilers have *only* lost their last five. Oh, and the Oil’s last win came against the Avs on March 5.

Well this should be a fun game. (Note: I first typed that as “gun game.” Freudian slip of the fingers?)

Series Record: Avalanche 1, Oilers 3.

In the four games to date, Edmonton has outscored Colorado 16 – 8 in spite of being outshot 137 to 121. The two most recent games have ended with a final score of 5 – 1, both in favor of the Oilers. Avalanche goalie Brian Elliott took the loss on both games, though he was pulled after allowing four goals in the second. » Continue reading “Battle For the Basement: Avs Take On Oilers Saturday Night”