Everybody panic!
Obviously, the Avalanche are on their way to an 0-82 season. Peter Budaj can’t stop a thing. We’re done for. Doomed, I tell you. DOOMED.
Or not. Yes, it has not been fun to see the Avalanche lose two games that they should have won. The Avalanche at least appeared to be heading to overtime against the Oilers, but with 6 seconds left an Ethan Moreau shot deflected off of Dustin Penner’s skate in front of Budaj, and the Avs came up just short. Again.
The Avalanche have outscored their opponent in all 6 periods of the new season. But that 72-39 shot advantage hasn’t shown up on the scoreboard. They’ve also generally outplayed, outhustled and outhit both the Bruins and the Oilers (I loved watching Ryan Smyth and company grab pucks by simply knocking Edmonton puck carriers down). The Avalanche had numerous scoring chances - besides the 33 shots, they rang 3 more off the post and had another die just before crossing the goal line. Things simply haven’t gone their way, but it’s not for lack of effort.
Fingers will point at Peter Budaj, for sure. He misplayed a Penner wraparound attempt in the 3rd and when he opened his pads to slide across for an expected pass, Penner snuck the puck under his skate. While that was certainly a soft one, that was the one bad one in the game. The first goal came when Ales Hemskey found a seem to Shawn Horcoff all alone to the side of the net on a powerplay, and the winning goal redirected off a skate a foot away from Budaj. For most of the night, he was vintage Budaj - square to the shooters and controlled rebounds. Now, if the Avs could just catch a break offensively, we can stop having this conversation.
Tuesday would be a great time to start, which brings us too…
Star Wars Quote of the Game
“Will he finish what he begins?” - Yoda, Empire Strikes Back
The effort’s there; the Avalanche just need to find a way to get that puck across the goal line.
Lines
If you needed any proof that the Avalanche changed head coaches this summer, read the next sentence. After Thursday’s loss, the Avalanche went with the same lines and defensive pairings.
The line report is up. I’ve tweaked the formatting of the event summary while adding team totals (although team penalties aren’t in there yet, so the Oilers penalty numbers are one short). Oh, and I inadvertently reveresed the team faceoff percentages (Avs should be 72). I knew about that this afternoon, but forgot to fix it before running the report. I’ll fix it tomorrow.
Quick Hits
- Adam Foote was playing in his 1,000th NHL game and received a nice round of applause from the Edmonton crowd when that milestone was announced.
- Meanwhile, Ryan Smyth was booed when he took the ceremonial faceoff. That idiocy continued most times he was on the ice or touched the puck (which was frequent - he’s been excellent so far).
- Joe Sakic has made some turnovers, but overall has looked head and shoulders better than he was last year.
- It didn’t take long for Ruslan Salei to start disappointing. In the second period, he conspicuously skated away from an both incoming forechecker AND the puck, leaving Budaj stranded and leading to a turnover.
Next Up
The Avalanche travel to friendly Calgary to take on the Flames.
Boobs didn’t look that badly but he keeps playing pucks behind the net when he shouldn’t. On a wonderful sidenote I signed up for center ice online and i couldn’t be happier.
My girl friend is tired of hearing how cool it is… Wonder if it works on a 3G iphone (slight tent pitch)
i bet the transfer rate is to slow.
Svatos is starting to look better and that Darcy Tucker shot surprised the hell out of me (as well as Garon).
I counted 5 posts.
ugh
Check out all 3 of the comments on RMN’s recap of the game: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/12/oilers-beat-avs-goal-54-seconds-play/ Aren’t they just brimming with confidence and optimism?
Seriously, it’s only 2 games. If we lose the next 2, then I would start to panic.
I’ve got to give them credit for creativity in those RMN comments…Butteye? lol
no self-respecting Avalanche fan would EVER use the name “Lanchelover”
Did anybody else think there should have been a boarding call on the hit on Smytty? Was I high or dreaming or something?
even the Edmonton announcers said it should have been a penalty
McLeod gets points for fighting the puke that boarded Smyth, and actually winning a fight for a change.
Why is the supportive Budaj excuse always, “he only gave up one bad one?” Out of curiosity, just how many bad ones does a decent starting goalie give up every game?
If Budaj finishes the season with a 3.00 GAA and 1/3 of those goals are “bad ones,” is anybody honestly cool with that?
no, but I’d be ok with 2.50 and 1/3 bad ones
Mike (the Avs Fan)”Seriously, it’s only 2 games. If we lose the next 2, then I would start to panic”
Maybe, but the last time the Avs lost their first to games in regulation they went on to lose four straight and then make the playoffs anyway. Granted this isn’t the same team as in 98-99, so a small panic may be in order if we still haven’t won a game after playing philly.
Americanario: Yeah, I suppose it shouldn’t be a full fledged panic, but it just seems like with all the parity in the league today that if you get down early, it’s gonna be hard making those points up. And Vancouver is (surprisingly) doing great, Edmonton looked great in flashes last night and they won the game, Minnesota has a win, and even Calgary has a point. We’ve got 2 losses, and if it gets to 0-4, then I’m gonna really start to worry.
It’s an 82 game season. Even if it gets to 4 games, then it’s still only a tiny percentage. From what I hear about how the team has been playing, I’m not at all worried.
I’m not worried. I like what I saw from Budaj last night.
I watched Calgary and Vancouver and neither of those teams are impressive. Edmonton was not impressive last night. Many pundits have put Calgary and Edmonton at the top of the NW. If that’s the competition then I think the Avs are in great shape considering what they are up against. The Wild are the only team I haven’t seen much of yet, but I suspect they will look like they always do but without Rolston (and that’s no small subtraction).
Just looked at the Washington/Vancouver game and Luango has just let in 5 goals on 23 shots and the 2nd period isn’t over yet. Theo isn’t in goal but Johnson has let in 1 goal on 3 shots. Luango has a 780 save % and Johnson a 666. St. Louis beat Toronto 5 to 4. Buffalo beat the Islanders 7 to 1. There seem to be a ton of teams scoring 4 plus goals so far this year.
It’s all relative and I think Budaj will be just fine.
Two goals allowed vs. Da Flames in :55. I can’t watch from work, and they were PP goals, but for the love of all that is good and holy, should we be concerned about Budaj?
After last night, yes. He’s not even average by NHL goaltending standards right now. He doesn’t need to be brilliant just average. And right now he’s just not doing it.
DDC is so disgusted that he is abandoning his blog.
I mean, I’m wondering when even Yoda gets to the point where he just says, “Oh f@#$ it you, and ask not why you will f@#$ it. Budaj sucks, sucks does he.”