Avalanche at the Ducks tonight. I’ve got the Anaheim feed. I like Brian Hayward, so no complaints from me tonight.
Budaj in net for the 4th consecutive time (a first for Avs goalies this year). He’s up against Jonas Hiller tonight.
First Period
20:00 Guite, McCormick and Laperriere start the game as they did in LA.
18:49 The next line is Brunette, Stastny and Hejduk. Interesting.
17:53 Woslki, Hlinka and Svatos are the next line. Is Smyth hurt? Cumiskey draws a penalty – Perry trips him up behind the Colorado net.
17:31 Cumiskey and Clark on the point on this PP. Smyth is nowhere to be found. He must be out. I fast forwarded through the pregame, so perhaps that’s my bad.
16:26 Clark doubleshifts at the point, with Liles joining him on the 2nd unit (Hlinka, Wolski and Svatos).
15:14 Bobby Ryan gets the puck in a perfect spot in the slot, but he fans. No wonder Pittsburgh took Crosby one slot ahead of him.
14:04 Hannan stands up Perry along the boards, and then carries the puck up ice.
13:41 Cody McCleod is out for his first shift (#55). Hensick is out there with him. I didn’t catch who the other winger was. If Smyth is out, it must be Parker, right?
11:50 Beuachemin fires a big shot from the point. Budaj looks behind him, but it goes up into the netting.
11:00 Ryan Smyth out with a sore neck. Now I don’t have to rewind to find out what’s up.
10:06 A chance by Perry. Budaj makes the save. A big hit on Perry with the favor returned by a duck (I think Bertuzzi)
9:37 McCormick says hello to Bertuzzi. I can blame the cold medicine for not being clear, but this is the first game against Bertuzzi, right?
8:32 McCormick dumps Moen.
8:31 Bodies are flying over – Stastny gets sandwiched by Moen and Pahlsson
8:10 Neidermeyer on the left wing hits Budaj in the head. The rebound goes right to Beauchemin, and somehow he misses a wide open net.
5:25 The Avs were going to win the race to beat an icing call, so Hiller has to play the puck. This essentially is the Avalanche’s big offensive moment of the game so far (hint – much of the game has been played in their end)
4:10 Budaj gets a blocker on a puck that was deflected in front of him. No question in my mind that Theodore wouldn’t have even moved on that one.
2:46 I don’t pay attention to this stuff like Dario…is it new that Finger is playing on the left?
2:10 Hannan interferes with Ryan Carter as Carter tried to beat out an icing call. Skrastins was going to get to the puck easily, so there was really no reason for Hannan to take that penalty.
:05 Getzlaf has a chance to score – he gets a rebound and has a wide open net. He sends it across the crease instead of into the net.
0:00 Ducks outshoot the Avs 13-3. But, for the 4th straight game, Budaj does not allow a first period goal.
2nd Period
20:00 You know, I still haven’t seen the 12th forward. It has to be Parker, but I wonder if he even got a shift. Or maybe he’s so low on Quenneville’s depth chart that the Avs just dressed 19 guys.
17:08 There he is! He flattens Ryan Carter in the neutral zone. Welcome back, Mr Parker.
13:45 Finger’s on the right side now, so I must have been wrong above. I swear I saw him on the left on two separate occasions though.
12:44 Hlinka hits Bertuzzi…and bounces back. Slight size advantage to the meathead on that one.
12:18 Colorado seems to be closing the momentum gap a bit.
11:27 You could see that one coming. (I did 45 seconds ago). The Guite line gets a good cycle going down low. Guite was tied up in front of the net with Beauchemin. Meanwhile, Lappy grabs the puck behind the net and centers it perfectly to Cody McCormick. McCormick beats Hiller for his first goal of the season. First of two seasons, right? The Avs are up 1-0 despite being heavily outshot by the Ducks. Once again, Peter Budaj has kept the other team off the board long enough to give his team the lead.
9:46 And, not surprisingly, the team has picked up the pace.
9:21 Parros and Parker square off. Mustache vs Goatee. It’s a long fight, with both monsters working to free up their right hands. I think Parker got more punches in (at one point, he was able to get Parros’ jersey up over his head), but it was a pretty even fight. Both guys did what they were in the lineup to do.
7:36 Guh, Brunette’s too-pretty behind the back pass goes right to the stick of Sammy Pahlsson. I don’t know if it was the flu or losing Sakic, but he hasn’t been the same since those two things happened.
6:46 Schneider stands up McCormick along the boards. You could say he got all of his eyebrow into that hit.
5:05 The Ducks have been in the zone for about two minutes now.
4:50 Finally, Hlinka ices it. The dead tired Avs get a break, as there’s a TV timeout to give them some rest.
4:30 Hayward compares us (in a positive light) to the Wild defensively. My head explodes.
4:00 Meanwhile, his partner keeps saying “Stossny”, which drives me up the wall.
2:45 Good play from Hlinka – the Avs are pressuring. He’s on the board and centers it to Liles pinching in. Knowing Liles is in deep, he gets to the blueline and is there to keep it in a few seconds later when the Ducks try to clear.
:11 I’m not even going to mention Skrastins name here. If you saw it, you know what I’m talking about.
:00 The Avs have a tenuous 1-0 lead, despite having just 9 shots.
3rd Period
19:38 The Guite line starts, and has a great deal of jump. I have a feeling we’ll see a lot of this line in this period.
16:15 Pronger ties it. Carter let a shot go and the rebound goes right to Pronger in the slot. Pronger deflects it 5-hole and we’re looking at a 1-1 game.
14:49 Ryan hits Hlinka and then Kunitz gets a solid check on Clark forcing a turnover.
14:10 Cumiskey and Budaj had a miscommunication. Budaj leaves it for Cumiskey, but he’s not ready for it. The Ducks are able to keep it in and get a scoring chance off of it.
11:04 The Ducks have had a ton of chances to take the lead. Budaj (and some lucky bounces) have kept the Avs in it.
10:07 Parker is out there in a 1-1 game. This is huge. He acquits himself rather well on that shift. I’d like to see more of the Sheriff
9:11 Geez, Rob Niedermeyer has Budaj on the ice and can’t get it in. If we don’t lose, it’ll be a Christmas miracle. Budaj just gets a piece of the puck to deflect it over the net. Save of the game there.
7:36 The Avs have just 11 shots – 5 below their season low. The Ducks have 30. Slight disparity.
5:52 Seems like the refs missed a penalty – I thought “Stossny” was interfered with behind the Ducks’ net.
5:40 How do you know the NHL is not popular? In the DirecTV Center Ice commercials, featuring the most recognizable NHL stars, they have to show the players names.
5:12 I’ll say this: the Avs forwards are doing a much better job of helping out the D. The clearing attempts they’d botch earlier in the season are getting tipped rather consistently out of the zone.
4:00 4 minutes to go in Budaj’s quest to steal a point.
3:32 Two huge saves.
2:14 Seriously, Karlis, cut it out.
1:22 The Avs get lucky. The Hlinka line was going off while Beauchemin was carrying in. They were VERY slow to make a change, and if the play wasn’t whistled down for offsides, we would have been in trouble. That’s a lousy place for a lazy change.
:22 Delay of game coming. McCormick clears it over the glass. Uh-oh.
0:00 Whew, bullet dodged. The game is going to OT. I don’t care what happens at this point – I’m thrilled that Budaj got us a point tonight.
Overtime
5:00 There’s still 1:30 on the McCormick penalty, so we’ll start out 4 on 3.
3:20 McCormick is out.
2:10 Budaj makes his 36th save of the night.
1:38 Hensick has a good chance, drawing a few players with him but he can’t get it to Wolski in front.
Cumiskey tries to keep the play alive along the boards, and that’s a mistake. He can’t get to it, and it leaves Hannan alone to try to stop Kunitz and Schneider going 2 on 1 the other way. Schneider shoots it and beats Budaj to give the Ducks a 2-1 win. I’m still thrilled to get a point. Not very thrilled to be outshot 38-12.
Amazingly, Budaj was not one of the three stars chosen tonight. What moron picked them?
Oh come on,
I’m a pretty anonymous blog watcher, who reads this stuff cus he lives in Holland, and isn’t blessed with money (you know how hard it is to be a student:P).
So of course, I haven’t seen Skrastins (what I think could only be a) blunder.
Why isn’t there an affordable way of just watching avs games when one lives in Europe, without having to stay up untill 4am via sopcast.
I’ll be in anonymous mode again from now on.
Keep up the good work.
Oh yeah, new design isn’t as good as the old one.
The Wild comparison struck me as odd, and I immediately looked out my window to see if a flock of pigs was flying by.
Skratch was wretched in his own end, and seemed to think that he was Hlinka with a couple of the no-look passes. Are they roomies? If so, they need to be broken up before it gets worse.
For a game featuring about half of our AHL club due to injuries, the Avs (Boots specifically) managed to steal a point. Hopefully, Leoprone’s injury woes aren’t rubbing off on the rest of the team and they can get back to full power soon.
So of course, I haven’t seen Skrastins (what I think could only be a) blunder.
I think the first time I was muttering his name was when he tried this ballet move to knock down a puck in the air. If it had worked, it would have allowed the Avs to get back into the zone. Of course, it didn’t, and he ended up chasing a 2 on 1 the other way.
For the life of me, I can’t remember the 2nd episode.
Oh yeah, new design isn’t as good as the old one.
I’ve had a couple of people tell me that. I’m not sure that I’m 100% happy with this one either, but I was having too many issues with the last one. Stick around long enough, and I’m sure I’ll change again. Maybe the next one will be better!
9:37 McCormick says hello to Bertuzzi. I can blame the cold medicine for not being clear, but this is the first game against Bertuzzi, right?
McCormick has played against him before. He had a rather infamous shift where at the end of it he came skating off and Altitude (maybe it was Fox back then) caught him yelling at Bertuzzi going off the ice, “I don’t give a fuck who you are”. If I recall there was some awkward silence by the broadcasters and then an immediate change of subject. Anyway, McCormick has always wanted a piece of Bertuzzi but Bert won’t go.
DD, the defense was a mess. Forwards were helping out so deep and so long that they just dumped the puck and shifted out. You’re right, Finger did play on the left side for a few shifts. I cannot believe that with six defensemen, Q and Co. decide they need to rotate defensemen pairings. I really, really don’t get this. The lines are laid out at the beginning that Hannan will play with Cumiskey. But two shifts in and Hannan is playing back on the left side of Finger. Hannan is getting double shifted with all of the defenensemen. It’s really interesting to me that Q will put Skrastins out on the ice for 21 minutes to lead all defensemen, he will mix and match all the other D to keep Cumiskey limited to 11 minutes of even strength ice time. Then, at critical points in the game he will rely on Cumiskey to be out there. For a young guy trying to get a feel for the NHL game I can’t say that that’s a positive development. Q is always preaching consistency but he can’t even be consistent with his pairings.
Budaj has had to steal three of the last four games because the defense in front of him is just a mess. I think all the players have solid qualities and abilities. I just don’t care for how they are being used.
If anyone is interested, watch Karlis Skrastins closely while he’s on the ice. His act is total Russian Roulette for an NHL defenseman. The most dangerous part of the ice is the back side of the net. It’s where cross ice passes guarantee goals if they are made. It’s where McCormick snuck in for his goal. Anyway, when the puck is on the other side of the ice, it’s in the defenseman’s bible that you stay positioned in front of your net and put your head on a swivel for pinching defensemen that your forwards might miss. Karlis gets mesmerized by the puck and will abandon this duty. The other thing to watch with Karlis on the ice is which side of the ice he’s on and how it effects his defensive partner. He constantly switches up sides of the ice by chasing the puck. Since he doesn’t TALK, his partners have to constantly be vigilant on how they have to reposition themselves. Watch these things and tell me you don’t feel a bit sorry for Clark or whoever else is his partner.
I think everyone played hard for the most part. I was really impressed with Hlinka and his defensive commitment during the game. I was sick to my stomach watching Wolski hover in front of the net while Hensick and Svatos battled in the corner. Really Wolski? Why not just shift off right away instead of waiting for them to lose the puck? Why waste the time?
Budaj is playing like he’s Luango on the 2002 Florida Panthers. Save % near 950 and points earned by his sheer will. He looked exhausted by that last goal. He just put on a goal tending clinic.
[...] My notes on the game are up [...]
so it wasn’t the cold medicine? dayamn.