I’m not doing notes tonight, but I thought I’d jump on and list the lines that are together at the start of the game. You might say there’s been some changes:
- Arnason, Brunette, Svatos
- Guite, Smyth, Laperriere
- Hensick, McLeod, Hejduk
- Wolski, Jones, Parker
- Hannan, Liles
- Sauer, Finger
- Cumiskey, Leopold
No Skrastins, no Hlinka. Every single line and pairing has changed…
Wow. Wolski’s Shootout attempt was just plain ugly.
All those line changes worked like a charm. Instead of losing 4-0, the Avs lost 3-2 in a shootout. See? That’s improvement!
I was at the game last night (San Diego Avs fan, drove up for the evening) and let me tell you, that is one sad Avalanche team. They just had no jump in them at all. They were clumsy with the puck, ignorant and sometimes just wrong on where their teammates were, and lazy when they didn’t have the puck. Boots stole a point for us last night. This team needs a serious change, and soon…
Oh, and that was the worst game I’ve ever seen Smyth play, including time on the Oilers and Isles. His passes didn’t hit tape (except when they were picked off) and he had no clue where his linemates were. He was totally lost and served only to generate a few second reprieve for a line change by taking the puck into the corner before getting pushed off of it.
[...] will, however, probably do a little post like this at the start of the game showing the lines. As I mentioned last night, every single line and [...]
Hlinka more than earned his scratch, imo.