I have to be honest, I’m not even really sure what I’m going to be writing about today. I have such a wide array of thoughts and emotions about the team right now that I think my brain may be overloaded. I don’t know if I should be angry or sorry, hopeful or resigned to failure.
In case you’ve been away from the internet lately, the Avalanche are in the midst of a meltdown. After winning 8 out of 9 following the trade deadline, the Avalanche have fallen. Hard. They’ve lost 4 straight games and have looked increasingly bad in doing so. While they looked competitive against the Devils and the Wild, they looked like zombies dressed in ugly uniforms against the Flames and the Oilers. Listless, unemotional zombies.
The Calgary game, the 75th of the season, is the first time the team has fallen behind the pace they set last year. Suddenly, the Avs need 11 points in their final 6 games just to match the 95 mark again…a 95-point mark that wasn’t good enough to make the playoffs, I might add. While the team is still holding on to the final playoff spot, that hold is tenuous at best. Nashville is just 2 points behind Colorado, while Edmonton is just 3 (and could close that gap to 1 tonight). Just two weeks ago, this team looked unstoppable. Now they just look uninterested. And, of course, I think we all know what’s in store for us if we do hold on to 8th spot - a first round embarrassment at the hands of the Red Wings. Oh, joy.
I know that a lot of people are trying to point fingers. It’s the coach. It’s the injuries. It’s the lineup changes. It’s Forsberg. It’s Sakic. It’s Theodore. It’s the absence of Scott Parker.
Honestly, I don’t care.
It’s still my team, warts and all. I’m a hockey fan, not Dr Phil. I don’t know why this team is so screwed up at the moment, and, really, I don’t want to know. What I do know is that I’ll be watching tonight, cheering on whatever 20 players are healthy enough to don the garish uniprons this evening. From the look of things on the ice, I’m not sure if many of the Avalanche players want to make the playoffs, but, as George Thorogood sang, ‘that don’t confront me just as long as I get my rent money by next Friday.’
Of course, you all know what happens on Friday when we don’t have the rent money…
The cracks are really starting to show at this point. While I don’t hold out much hope for this year, I try to stay “philosophical” and keep watching out of love of the game and the Avs. I really think there are a lot of things under the surface that we aren’t privy to, such as the team maybe starting to hate the coaching staff, or maybe even each other. I think some players may even be playing injured. I think Finger, for one, isn’t himself. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about surgery after the season is over for him. Maybe others. Not much else could go wrong for this team.
I agree with RJ about his idea that numerous players are currently injured and still playing. I think this season’s Avalanche team might start showing up in sports medicine text books in the coming years.
I couldn’t agree more DD, I just want to root for the Avs and not worry about stuff like bonehead coaching decisions, so I’ll be cheering this all the way through.
God I don’t want a 1st round matchup with the wings though. I’d rather take the Sharks. If the Avs are going to get crushed out of the playoffs, It would be nice If I were in attendance for it.
“I think some players may even be playing injured.”
Joe (Sakic, not MHH) looked very, very slow on one of those EDM breakaways in the 3rd period and also was sluggish on the ice late in the game. He’s had some flashes of greatness, but he’s definitely not skating like he used to. And I thought he was slowing down BEFORE the injury.
I think I’m in about the same emotional state as you as a fan. I’m resigned to this team being mediocre and chemistry-less despite the tease after the deadline, and I’m sick of it. I feel sort of detached from the team these days, it’s like watching a self-destructive celebrity doom themselves. Britney, is that you?
The only thing that could drive me further into frustration would be FG preserving the status-quo completely as a coaching staff. Someone, if not everyone, needs to go.
But they’re still my team, so I’ll still watch, and I’ll still cheer for them, even if it would preserve Q’s job.
Pretty much me too on all of this. I think what we have here is a major letdown after a real story book kind of season started to unfold. Team besieged by injuries finds new life, and a whole new identity, with the additions at the deadline. Foppa lovers like me truly start believing that he’s still the same player of old, and not just an injured, fragile, shell of his old self. Foote shows us, just for a glimpse, what a real solid 2-way defenseman should be. Salei also adds toughness, as do the Codys and Jones for a while. The team goes on a tear, winning with hard-nosed hockey we hadn’t seen all year. Against good teams. Then boom. It all goes away. Like a big fricken mirage. We were dying of thirst for the Avs to be what they once were. We were teased into thinking that it was happening. Over the past 4 games, they’ve gone back to being what they’ve been for the better part of the last several seasons. Mediocre at best.
Whatever, lets just finish this season and say the hell with it all. If the coaching staff doesn’t get their walking papers then we can burn down the Can over the summer. I have enough added stress to deal with right now without worrying about which team is going to show up on a nightly basis any more.
“It’s still my team, warts and all. I’m a hockey fan, not Dr Phil. I don’t know why this team is so screwed up at the moment, and, really, I don’t want to know. What I do know is that I’ll be watching tonight, cheering on whatever 20 players are healthy enough to don the garish uniprons this evening.”
Those are great words right there man, way to go. And they won. It’s as if Q listened to Dater and all the bloggers and decided to stick with the lines. He stuck with them all game long and it payed off. It was amazing :O
Disregard my previous…. Stupid weird commenting system *grumblegrumble*…..[I zapped the other one for you. DD]
While most of the coaching staff needs to go Hackett needs to stay, he’s the only one who seems to know what coaching is, just look at Theo’s play lately. Admittedly he’s in the 2nd half of a contract year but he’s still playing well and Hackett needs some of the credit.