Per the Post, (and to the surprise of no one) Joel Quenneville will change the Avs lines tonight, reuniting Milan Hejduk with Paul Stastny and Andrew Brunette with Milan Hejduk. Also, Ryan Smyth will swap with Jaroslav Hlinka and Marek Svatos will move up to the 3rd line, with Ian Laperriere dropping to the 4th line. Honestly, these lines make a lot more sense than the way they were…
- Hlinka, Sakic, Brunette
- Smyth, Stastny, Hejduk
- Wolski, Arnason, Svatos
- Smith, Guite, Laperriere
Peter Budaj is expected to get the start tonight for the Avs, with Evgeni Nabokov in net for the Sharks. I assume Jose Theodore will be activated for the game; he played last night for Lake Erie, stopping 21 of 24 shots in the Lake Monsters 3-2 loss.
Player to Watch (SJ): Joe Thornton seems to be looking to shoot more. In the first two games, he’s averaged 4.5 shots per game, a big jump over the 2.5 shots per game pace he had last year. He has 2 goals already, both on scary-good shots. I think he’s been looking to pass to much in the last few seasons, and teams key on watching for him to dish the puck. If he starts shooting more, he becomes much more dangerous than he already is.
Player to Watch(Col): Wojtek Wolski is probably the only player who has looked good in both games, and he and Svatos had a couple of good shifts together in Nashville. Tonight, they’ll be paired up for the entire game (or until Q starts shaking things up). Plus, their center, Arnason, has taken the first two games off, so he should be on schedule to put some effort in.
Thanks for posting the lines… for those of us struggling to follow along without DirecTV it’s awfully handy.
Joe sakic ties phil espisito in goals scored tonight!
Opps points
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“Thanks for posting the lines… for those of us struggling to follow along without DirecTV it’s awfully handy.”
glad to help, Dave. I’m actually planning some improvements to the way I display the line info. stay tuned…
Who’s spot do you figure Richardson will take once he gets back. I figure he’ll get regular ice-time just because of faceoff proficiency.
Seriously, if there is one glaring problem with this team so far, it has got to be face-offs.
[...] usually thinks pass first”. Obviously, Haynes doesn’t read this crappy blog, because I pointed out yesterday that Thornton is shooting more this year. Oh by the way, Thornton had 6 shots in the game, tops for [...]
I suppose if Richardson were to come back today, he’d replace Wyatt Smith on the 4th line. That’s a shame, because I think Richardson is better than that. But where else would he play?
And yes, Selanne, faceoffs are just awful. awful awful awful awful awful.