Phoenix against Colorado tonight. I’ve got the Altitude feed. Same goalies as on Monday – Bryzgalov vs Budaj.
First Period
20:00 The Guite line starts, with Cody McLeod on the left wing instead of McCormick. McCormick apparently is hurt. No Smyth, of course. Looks like no Skrastins either.
19:33 The Avs go on the PP right off the bat. Sjostrom to the box for elbowing.
18:48 Liles creeps into the slot, but his shot goes wide of the net.
15:34 The first line gets out at even strength for the first time – Wolski is playing in Smyth’s spot.
15:07 Now we’ve got Hlinka, Svatos and Brunette. The 4th line is Hensick, Richardson and Scott Parker.
14:23 Guite and McLeod attempt a repeat of McLeod’s goal on Monday, but McLeod sends it wide.
14:01 Lappy breaks Hensick with a  beauty of a head-man pass. Hensick is behind both Coyote defensemen, but can’t beat Bryzgalov.
10:56 I was about to mention the Coyote’s jerseys (I really like the red added to the shoulders this year), when it dawned on me that the two teams wore the wrong jerseys on Monday. Even though they were in Phoenix, the Coyotes wore white and the Avs wore the darks. I wonder why?
8:26 Gretzky looks barely awake on the Coyote bench.
7:33 Penalty on the Avs. Hlinka for cross checking.
6:46 Reinprecht scores. There’s a scramble for the puck to the left of Budaj. Reinprecht grabs it and banks it in off of Budaj’s pad. Gretzky still looks barely awake on the Coyote bench. 1-0 Phoenix.
5:43 Hey look, Steve Reinprecht scores! Someone shoots it from the slot. Budaj makes the save, but gives up a meaty rebound. Reinprecht is the only guy there, and he has an easy backhand to score his 3rd goal in 2 games. Man, why can’t we get players like that?
4:41 Oh joy – Tyler Arnason is due back soon. Hurray!
4:21 Did that come across as sarcasm? It should have.
3:23 McLoed drops the gloves against Winnik. Must have been fired up by hearing Kashmir at the last stoppage. Winnik tags McLeod with a big right to start things off. McLeod gets a few punches in, but I have to give this one to Winnik. I noticed that Reinprecht headed off to the Coyote locker room ahead of Winnik.
2:20 Fun goal for Svatos. Cumiskey tries to spring Hlinka like Lappy did with Hensick earlier. He misses, but Hlinka is the first to the puck in the corner and dishes to Svatos in front. Bryzgalov makes the first save on Svatos, but can’t do anything about the rebound. 2-1 Phoenix. They give the 2nd assist to Leopold, but he was the guy on the left boards who moved it to Cumiskey. That scoring should get changed.
2-1 Phoenix after 20.
2nd Period
20:00 Altitude has finally caught up with me – they showed a replay of Cumiskey’s pass to Hlinka.
19:43 Reinprecht is back on the bench to start the 2nd.
17:09 Big save by Budaj. Reinprecht had a sneaky attempt at a hat trick, but Budaj wasn’t fooled.
13:00 We’re in the middle of a long stretch without a whistle. Well, technically, I don’t know if it’s the middle or not. You get the idea.
11:58 Svatos ties Reinprecht. Bruno does what he does well – feeds a guy in front with a gorgeous pass from behind the net. Svatos beats Bryzgalov over his glove to tie the game.
11:46 Parker, um, tries to put some Coyote in a head lock…while they are skating. Not sure what to call that.
9:24 Svatos’ hat trick bid is turned aside by Bryzgalov.
0:00 The period ends 2-2. Colorado was the better team for most of the 2nd period.
3rd Period
17:44 Guite gets his stick up on York, and Phoenix is going on the PP.
15:40 Good, solid kill for the Avs.
14:03 Not much to write about here – really tight play all around right now.
13:21 The Avs laughable PP is making an appearance. Sjostrom for hooking.
13:06 Clark and Liles on the point. Bruno is on the wing instead of Wolski.
12:03 Brunette was inches away from the Avs taking the lead.
11:13 A big chance by the Avs, but it turns into a 3 on 1 for Phoenix. Budaj makes a terrific save to keep the game tied.
8:59 Things have opened up a tad.
4:32 Uh oh. Svatos goes off for tripping Winnik. I have a feeling this doesn’t end well.
3:11 I hate myself for being right. Reinprecht finds Doan alone in front, and the Coyotoes go up 3-2. What a crappy turn of events.
2:16 Sjostrom gets his 3rd penalty of the night with a high stick on Brunette. Gretzky wakes up on the bench. This would be awesome if the Avs had any sort of a PP.
1:57 Budaj is out, giving the Avs a 6 on 4.
1:22 6 guys and Wolski is still playing the point.
:57 Phoenix seals it when Vrbata scores on the empty net. It’s Vrbata’s 17th goal of the year. Yikes. Gretzky seems almost happy on the bench. For some reason, Quenneville calls a timeout, as if the team had any sort of a chance.
:36 Reinprecht gets his hat trick. What a treat.
And that’s it. Pheonix wins 5-2. The Avs atrocious power play is really causing damage in the standings.
Anyone still think Q deserves his job?
“Anyone still think Q deserves his job?”
Yep. At Arby’s.
Why actually I do, but as I have said before coaches get waaay too much credit for wins, and too much blame for losses. 85% of coaches are pretty much the same and only a few coaches are able to really elevate their teams more than any other, and only a few are able to really hold their teams back. None of those top 15% are on the market right now.
Q has actually done, recently, what everyone wanted. He’s picked a starting goalie (Budaj), he’s playing consistent lines, as much as possible for all the injuries. Wasn’t that the biggest two complaints about him?
The only way I’d be in favor of firing Q right now is if there were chemistry issues between him and the team. If he is grating on them too much and it is bringing them down. I don’t think that’s the case, but then again I think only a person on the inside would know if that’s the case.
Our Powerplay SUCKS. Stastny isn’t finding the back of the net.Budaj isn’t solid anymore. And I am pissed off.
Q cannot get his players to put forth any sort of consistent effort. He never has, and he’s not showing any signs of improvement in that area either.
We’ve got the talent to contend for the Cup this year, but we can’t even get the team to play well for an entire period, much less a game or a season.
At this point, if you still think that Q deserves to keep his job, you either aren’t an Avs fan, or you’re just a contrarian. There is no logically sound argument for keeping him.
And by the way, Pat Burns *is* on the market.
As I have pointed out before, only the all-time great teams have put forth a “consistent effort”. 99.5% of all teams go through losing streaks and winning streaks over the course of a season. Even the very best teams, and the very best coached teams, go through points of the season where they don’t give a consistent effort.
And let’s look at the effort over this recent losing streak, Detroit could hardly be called a poor effort. LA was a poor effort. The back-to-back games against the Coyotes? I certainly thought they played fairly well New Year’s eve, and were really stopped by Bryzgolov. Last night wasn’t the best effort.
Good coaching isn’t winning every game, good coaching is handling adversity and how does a team respond to adversity. Every time the Avs have had a stretch of adversity this season, they have followed it up with a winning streak filled with impressive hockey.
And if contrarian is not falling into the “firing the head coach will fix what ails this team” trap that many fans fall into, then yes I am contrarian. I don’t think the problem is effort, or lack-thereof which is quite possibly the most unquantifiable measurement possibly made. To me the “lack of effort: argument is akin to saying “There’s something wrong, but I don’t know what it is. They must not be trying hard enough”
I think a better solution would be to bring in an assistant that has a fresh look at power-play strategy along with FG acquiring a better power-play QB. I think the problem with the team is the power-play. Before Sakic officially went down, I think it was clear that he wasn’t himself, my guess is that he was playing through hernia pain. Before the Avs can really contend for the cup they need someone who can play better at the point and draw opposing penalty killers (and even at ES) to the point to create more room for the Hejduks, Stastny’s and Smyths of the world to grab rebounds and create Havoc. Right now opposing teams know they can collapse all 4 in front of the net, let the Avs pass on the point and block any shots that come in.
Q has actually done the right thing, it’s obvious he has encouraged his D-men and point men to shoot more, and the Avs have had a ton more one-timers, but that’s just not their skillset. The Avs “offensive D-men” like Clark, Cumisky, and Liles excel at carrying the puck in the zone and creating chances off the rush. They aren’t the typical playmaking passer, like a Zubov or Lidstrom, or a cannon shot like a Blake or Souray. I don’t see anything Q can do to fix that, that’s either trade for one of those types, or wait until Sakic returns healthy to man the point. (You might be able to get away with putting Statsny out on the point, but I think that may be a waste of his talent too).
If the Avs could improve their dismal powerplay to even around 18% they would easily move back to top of the Northwest. I’m just not sure there’s much coaching can do with the current healthy players.
And Pat Burns? The same Pat Burns who underachieved with multiple Maple Leafs teams and defended his lone Stanley cup by being knocked out of the playoffs in the first round? Sounds a lot like Marc Crawford’s resumé to me
Svatos givith and Svatos taketh away.
I was happy with Budaj in net and Skrastins getting the, er scratch. Not happy with the Stastny line though. Our best line continues to be the Guite line which is great because we finally got an energy line. However, Hejduk and Stastny are just not getting any pressure.
Leopold shows everyone in the Pepsi Center how a real defenseman handles a puck that comes out to the point. He’s aggressive across the blue line, fakes the shot and gets a good scoring opportunity. I should say everyone in the Pepsi Center but the coaching staff because on the power play he got to ride the pine while the first team PP forwards were out.
I think Budaj has been OK the last couple of games. There are things he can improve and I think he will. I’m very exited to see if he gets the start in the next game. If he does it will be the first time since a regulation loss (I’m pretty sure). If Q starts Theo, then we never graduated to a starting goaltender. It all means we just rode the hot streak.
I agree Sally, err Dario
This next game is really a test, will Buds get the start? I certainly hope he does. I would like to see him getting at least 4 out of every 5 starts, and more like 7 out of every 8.
“Leopold shows everyone in the Pepsi Center how a real defenseman handles a puck that comes out to the point. He’s aggressive across the blue line, fakes the shot and gets a good scoring opportunity.”
I’m still fighting this fucking flu today, so I wasn’t able to do a recap, but I was going to mention Leopold on the point. Whatever we’re doing on the PP is not working. I don’t see where the harm would be in trying some different point men. Leopold was awful at the beginning of the season, but has been very steady since coming back from injury #217. I’d like to see him get some quality minutes on the PP. It certainly can’t get any worse.
If something doesn’t change soon, Giguere HAS to make a move for PP help.
Isn’t Granato in charge of the PP? Like most of you guys, I’m not sure firing Q is the right move now that he SEEMS to have settled on lines and goalies (even with the injuries). He appears to be embracing some consistency, and the early returns looked promising before the rash of injuries to the star power.
I don’t know if a new PP coach or a new quarterback will work, but the current strategy of doing nothing sure as hell isn’t working.
Not sure who the PP coach is, but if anyone deserves firing, it’s that guy.
Frankly I’ve never been really impressed with Granato as a coach. Maybe he’ll develop into a good one someday, but he has always seemed a a bit in over his head. I agree though, the powerplay is the biggest concern right now.
Besides the point man I think there’s several things that can improve with how it’s being run.
First, your point men don’t establish your odd man advantage. Just because they call it “quarterbacking the powerplay” doesn’t mean the point actually sets up the scoring chances. When the puck is at the point they have two forwards up in the box mirroring the puck handler. It really does nothing to hold the puck at the point, looking for an open man. I’ve never understood what Liles or Wolski are looking for when they hold the puck out there. It’s like they are looking for an open man. This has to be one of the worst percentage plays in all of power play hockey. How many scoring chances are made by a pass coming out of the point?
Second, power play goals are power play goals because you have a man advantage. This seems relatively obvious but fundamentally the Avs aren’t finding this 2 on 1 at any part of the ice during the PP. The odd man situations are almost always created from the circles down. Scottie Bowman used to say the most effective power play was one that started from behind the net and moved out wards. He rightly describes the necessity of defensemen to turn their back to their coverages as a huge advantage for the offense. When defensemen turn their backs or have to take the puck carrier behind the net, forwards have to pinch down to cover. Detroit used to run a lot of plays below the goal line and then up to the triangle for tic tac toe scoring chances. If forwards cheated in too much they would get it out to Lidstrom for shots or pinches leading to shots/assists. When forwards didn’t cheat down they would use a triangle to get slap shots in the slot from Shannahan and Hull. Arnott used to always do this with the Power play with NJ.
My armchair coach advise is to start the power play from behind the net. The Avs have some excellent ability in that department with Stastny and Brunette. Set up guys in front of the net and slot who can one time shots like Svatos and Hejduk. Have your defensemen one time slap shots when the puck gets rotated out. Basically, I think the strategy of starting from the point and passing back and forth while it’s looking like your hunting for an open man is foolish. The point can move the play from one side of the ice to the other but it’s not for setting up scoring chances. Your 40 feet from the net and you’re covered. Where did they learn this?
Of course when I say QBing the point, i meant puck movement. The point men QB the point by getting good lateral movement from both the goaltender and the defense. The point man, in my opinion, isn’t there to set up the play but get defenses moving. It’s much easier to defend a player standing still than moving and point men can create this movement with solid passing.
But the Avs DO start their powerplay from behind the net. It’s one of their strengths, but opposing teams have learned that all they have to do is collapse in front of the net. It always seems liek there’s too many men in front of the net for any Av from the slot to receive a pass.
This is where the point-men should come into play, they should really be looking to receive a pass from behind the net and extend that defense. The best play is to take a pass from behind the net and immediately move it to a different spot on the ice to create a new attack point that the defense isn’t set up for. But I agree holding the puck out there may be the worst thing you can do.
Great posts by Jibble and Dario