Okay, these aren’t exactly things I know for sure. But “Things I have a pretty good feeling are true” didn’t have the same ring to it. Plus, it gives me a chance to plug a CD that I like. So, here are some things I know for sure:
The Avalanche are a different team with Peter Forsberg.
It’s amazing how much of a dynamic one player can add to the team. With Foppa in the lineup, the Avalanche suddenly became a much more creative team offensively. Instead of relying on the down-low cycle, the Avalanche were using aggressive outlet passes from the blueliners and focused on moving the puck around in front of the net instead of behind it. Strangely, the Avalanche had some success with this even when Forsberg wasn’t on the ice (the Cody McLeod breakaway goal against Vancouver). And yet, with Forsberg out yesterday, it was right back to the old ways. He’s just one guy, right?
The Avalanche hate Avalanche fans.
Adrian Dater has a long rant on the recent episode of Forsberg Follies. Short version: Forsberg plays (brilliantly) Friday, misses overtime, the shootout and the stars-of-the-game acknowledgment due to being “out of gas”. He must have been really out of gas, because he still wasn’t able to play last night. The iron-curtain secrecy of this franchise is legendary, and it drives me crazy. Injured players aren’t allowed to talk to the media and injuries are often either not reported (Joe Sakic) or are misrepresented (too numerous to list). Can’t this team just go with the “upper / lower body injury” like normal teams do? I won’t even mention raising ticket prices at a time when the on-ice product was not very good or the ridiculous way that broadcasters are prevented from making critical statements. Oops, I guess I did mention it. Well, at least I didn’t slam them for the disgustingly awful hockey jerseys. Damn, there I go again…
Something is wrong with Joe Sakic.
Not officially, of course, because he’s been allowed to speak to the media. But, Friday’s heroics aside, that’s not the same Joe Sakic out there. I’ve talked about his poor skating off and on this season - both before and after the injury. There’s been a lot of plays in the other direction where, if the defensemen are back, he gives up the pursuit. That’s not Joe Sakic, a guy who’s normally the first forward back on such a play. Yesterday was the topper, though. At one point in the 2nd period, he lost a foot race to…Keith Carney! Whether it’s conditioning, age or injury (smart money’s on the last item), there sure seems to be something up.
Ryan Smyth has been better than people think.
Yes, 37 points is not exactly what we were expecting when Smyth was signed to the big contract this summer. I’ve seen a lot of criticism aimed at Smyth lately and I think it’s a little unfair. While he doesn’t have a ton of points to show for it, he’s been doing a lot of those “little things” expected of him. He’s been fighting the battles down low and in front of the net. He’s been in the face of the opposing goalies (he certainly has been under the screen of Dwayne roloson). And, he’s been consistently been one of the most emotional players on the ice - a key on a team that, frankly, could stand to play with a bit more “oomph” at times. I do wish he was scoring more. But at least when he isn’t, he helps out his team in other ways. You can’t say that about all of his teammates.
David Jones is ready to bust out.
He’s already the best player EVER to wear a #54 Avalanche uniform (okay, he’s also the only #54). Still, his combination of size, toughness and skill is encouraging. He’s got some things to work on, though. His positioning needs some polish -at least twice yesterday he missed a scoring opportunity by not being in the right spot. On one play, he followed the play to the opposite side of the net, only to see the puck find it’s way to a wide open net, right next to where he should have been. With a bit more experience under his belt, he’s going to find pucks on his stuck much more often. The good news is, he’s probably got another 30 games or so before coach Quenneville starts benching him to send him a message.
I couldn’t agree more. Joey shouldn’t be losing races to the puck to guys who I thought retired already.
And yes it is only a matter of time before someone comes up with some creative “Davey Jones’s locker” jokes.
Bottom line: Forsberg plays, Avs win. Forsberg sits, start drinking.
Been done already
But that’s not going to stop me from using it until I can’t type the words anymore
Shane called it on Friday before Forsberg sat out (see here)
I have no idea how to blockquote or any of that stuff so here’s a quote from his site:
Mar 4, 6, 8 - plays around 20 minutes per game
Mar 9, 11, 13, 15 - sits out with sore groin
Mar 17 - plays 20 minutes
Mar 20, 22 - sits out with sore groin/foot
Mar 24, 26 - plays 15 minutes per game
Mar 28 - plays 22 minutes
Mar 30 - sits out with a scurvy (ok, I’m just guessing)
Does the coaching staff not see the damn pattern here?
To answer Shane’s question, No sir, Jack Adams does not see the pattern.
Just a side question, has Arnason played in the last 10 games? Wait, let me look this up… 5 points in the last 20 games. Richardson had a hatrick for the God awful Monsters? You don’t say. How does Arny get in this doghouse? Let’s take a close look here… Wow, of those five points, four of them were on the powerplay. This offensive powerhouse has only produced on the man advantage. Don’t even ask how he gets PP time when Finger has to look like Bourque playing 5v5 to get a sniff. Don’t even ask why Hensick is sitting in Lake Erie if Arnason has only become a specialty team player. Why couldn’t Hensick be that guy? Richardson takes faceoffs and kills penalties too? He could be a better fit for a physical playoff run than poke-check Arnason?
Too negative? Yeah, probably but Arnason is driving me to distraction because Smyth and Jones are playing circles around him. That line could put a ton of pressure on teams if it weren’t for Arnason in my opinion.
I’m with Dario in my continued amazement that Tyler Arnason is still playing every single game. Why? What has he contributed against a team that isn’t from Edmonton?
And as for Ryan Smyth, what scenario does he play best in? The one in which he shovels point-shot rebounds into the net from directly in front of the goalie. But what if his team doesn’t take shots from the point? The Avs don’t. Maybe that’s why Smyth’s numbers have been junk this season. It’s not his fault he’s got little or nothing to work with. The guy’s over 30—his game isn’t going to change much. For him to contribute, the team has to play to his strengths, and that’s something the Avs are either incapable of or not allowed to do.
I totally agree Dario, I’d be shouting the same thing if I wasn’t so tired of saying it. Why the hell isn’t Hlinka or Richie or Hensick playing there?! Especially with the Monsters playing out the string like they are?
Look at that line and throw Hlinka in for Arnason, it suddenly becomes a force.
Oh and Dario,
is the command (minus the .’s)
Damint it took the command anyways, the command for blockquote is {blockquote}{/blockquote} with ’s in place of {}’s
On the Avs hating Avs fans…Does anybody else miss the games being shown on Fox Sport Rocky Mountain? They still had some homer tendancies but were more open to criticize.
that’s before my time, unfortunately. heck, I can barely remember John Kelly.
@inyoface…
That was really before my family had cable TV so I missed a lot of it (even though The Avs were the reason my family finally sprung for cable TV)
The guy they had on for the pre- and post-games was great. (I think he does it for the Rockies now, Drew Goodman maybe)? He was a homer but at least he would not sugar coat things. I remember him talking to McNabb after a loss in which McNabb claimed the Avs played a pretty good game but he just replied with, “That was a terrible performance! What game were you watching?”
going back to Arnason…
Anyone notice that along with his CONTINUED point production (4pts in last 4 games), Wolski has also been climbing up the stats sheets with hits. He lead the team in hits against Calgary (4) and has had a total of 5 others in the other three games. He also continues to play well with the puck and go to the corner to fight for it if he doesn’t have it. Despite the Q-doghouse benchings he is still 4th on the team in points and only 3 behind Hejduk.Good thing Hejduk has bee re-united with Foppa or Wolski might be 3rd. If Woslki’s passing hadn’t been wasted on Arnason half the season he might have had a much better point total.
*raises hand*
I have!
Do I miss FSRM? No. True, Tim Ring and Drew Goodman were better than Peter Rutgazer (sp?) and maybe Sandy the human bobblehead, but John Kelley would sometimes make me wonder if he was reading off an old 1920’s tickertape machine, his calls were so slow. My friends would always joke that he was on his third or fourth Dewars by the end of the game. But, I guess trying to get unbiased reporting from Altitude is about as likely as seeing union news on Walmart TV.
This last sunday, during my rec league game, I told one of my defensemen to NEVER pass to a certian forward ever again. Said forward spent the entire game WAITING for the puck to get to him, fumbling passes on his tape, or just plain coasting. I’m pretty sure he didn’t spend any time in the defensive zone except on faceoffs. He has no hustle, no desire to generate ANYTHING except frustration for his teammates and has a negative impact on his linemates.
I guess my point is, Arnason plays for the Screaming Pylons, and is as bad as everybody says he is…
The nice thing about FSRM was that before/after and during intermissions there was some back and forth on hockey. Now, everyone agrees with everyone on Altitude. Tim Ring would make a statement and during the playoffs Gwozdecky would come on from the Pioneers and correct him. Everyone at Altitude gets on the same page before a broadcast.
Unfortunately, that page has a ‘From the Desk of F. Giguere’ letterhead at the top.
Yeah, that didn’t format for crap…
I think I fixed it, Mike
Much thanks, DD.
Tyler ‘Tits on a Hog’ Arnason is there simply to spite us. The more we all want him benched the more Q is going to play him
Oh and just for fun. Anybody other me notice that Smyth has an uncanny resemblance to Alice the Goon from Popeye? http://www.mezcotoyz.com/store/detail.aspx?ID=124
I think Joe’s problem is he’s 38, plain and simple. They say (who’s “they”?) that the legs are the first thing to go, and Joe’s laser shot was driven by his legs. He doesn’t shoot as often as he used to, and with less success. I think the injury really took it’s toll on him, too.
Interesting comments about Smyth, but I’ve got to disagree. At $7.5 million, he’s been a huge disappointment. I don’t care how much you talk about emotion or doing the little things - 37 points is pathetic. His season so far has been downright Kariya-esque in its crappiness. The two big free agents haven’t done what we expected them to do, that’s for sure.
John Kelly is one of my favorite announcers of all time, in any sport. Completely disagree with the criticism, but that’s what makes the world go around. Haynes is OK, not great, and he really, really needs to learn how to pronounce the word “strength.” There’s a “g” in there. Learn it.
What can we expect from Altitude? Kroenke owns it, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were “suggested” talking points coming down from on high from time-to-time.
You need <<<’s (The pointy parenthesis) in place of apostrophe’s
I’m sorry to say I never noticed the Smyth - Alice connection, but I can totally see that now (I’m a big Popeye fan).
in other news, I find it very distracting playing Final Fantasy 12 and seeing Tyler Arnason aka Balthier in the game: http://www.ffinsider.net/final-fantasy-12/pix/balthier.jpg
Not bad DD, but a true Arnason clone will always look suprised, yet totally unemotional at the same time. A very difficult look to replicate. The Tyler Arnason face is truely one of a kind.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/players/profile?playerId=1395
Seriously, he POSED for that picture. That is totally intentional.
He actually seems like a pretty nice guy if a bit laissez faire on the off ice stuff I’ve seen on “Avalanche Alert!” (Kyle Keefe has range people. Actually, that’s his better work).
Completely agree on announcer beefs. How do you all feel about brian engbloom, and does anyone know what his contractual situation with altitude is? It seems that earlier in the year he was more apt to be a little more critical of the avs (he disagreed with their handling of john michael liles) but I haven’t heard anything like that lately. And he’s WAY better than sandy “the human bobblehead” clough. LOL I loved that…