There’s a few things that seem to crop up more in games against the Coyotes than any other team. On the shortlist of things we can see in a game against Phoenix:
- Former Avalanche players will burn us.
- The refs will do something to hurt us.
- Nick Boynton will act like a dick.
Last night, we got all three (although to be fair to Boynton, he’s been much more obnoxious in previous games than he was last night) and added a new item to the list: Make a boneheaded play to cost us the game.
vs. last year:
For much of the game, this was shaping up to be just an ordinary, somewhat dull hockey game. The teams traded goals in the first two periods. TJ Hensick opened the scoring late in the 1st period with a powerplay goal, his 3rd goal in two games. Peter Mueller tied it just over a minute later with a blistering point shot while the Avalanche had two players in the penalty box. Phoenix took the lead at the 5:04 mark in the 2nd when former Avalanche minor leaguer Matt Murley fed a great pass for Daniel Winnik to deflect in front of Peter Budaj. But the Avs were able to tie it at the 14:49 mark when Ed Jovanovski’s deliciously bad pass lead to a 2 on 1 break by Brad Richardson and Ian Laperriere. Richardson used his speed to create some space for his partner, and then fed him a good pass that Lappy was able to bang home.
And then the game got interesting.
At the 7:13 mark, Brad Richardson wa sent to the box for slashing. The Avalanche were able to kill (more like stifle) the Coyotes’ powerplay and Richardson happened to come out of the box just at the right time and found himself on a breakaway. Mikael Tellqvist made the initial save, but could not control the puck that was hanging out dangerously in the paint. Any chance we had to bang the rebound home was nullified when Mathias Tjarnqvist accidentally ran head-first at full speed into the net to knock it off it’s moorings. The puck ended up crossing the goal line after the net was dislodged, but seemed to cross outside where the posts had been a few seconds before. Tjarnqvist was not penalized for that blatant move, although he did get a penalty for a slash on Richardson on the way to the net.
On the ensuing powerplay, the Avalanche went with its new top PP unit: The Three Centers - Tyler Arnason, Jarsolav Hlinka and TJ Hensick. They’d already scored once tonight, and seemed to convert again when Hlinka grabbed the puck behind the net and found Hensick in his new favorite spot in front of the net on the back door. Hensick shot it in and the Avs began to celebrate, but Keith Ballard seemed to kick the puck out at the last minute and the ref immediately waved it off while play continued for a good 90 seconds before a whistle finally gave the officials (and us) a chance to review. It was clearly a goal - the puck was well over the line before Ballard kicked it out. For such an easy review, it took the refs forever to come back with the decision. In the end, though, the goal was a goal; Hensick had his 4th goal in two games (3 on the powerplay) and it seemed like it might hold up to be the game winner.
Or not. At the 16:49 point, Peter Budaj froze the puck after an awkward dump in off the back boards. Joel Quenneville sends out the Arnason line for the critical own zone draw (Guite and Hlinka had just recently completed a shift). Arnason immediately gets tossed from the draw (for, in his words “chirping” to the linesman about the guy lined up against him, former Avalanche Steven Reinprecht). Marek Svatos stepped in and used the “stand like a statue” method to try to win it. Oddly, it didn’t work. Reinprecht grabbed the puck and took two strides, drawing Scott Hannan’s attention. Meanwhile, former Avalanche Radim Vrbata headed right to the space vacated by Hannan while Tyler Arnason apparently had his attention focused on a shiny object in the stands. Reinprecht found Vrbata and Budaj had no chance on the play as the Coyotes tied the game.
A couple of things I don’t get on the play (besides the obvious “what the fuck were those players doing” stuff). I’ll admit that I’m not much of an x’s and o’s guy, so I’m really asking for help on this. First, why did Svatos take the draw? Wolski was on the ice. Svatos has taken, by my count, three draws on the season. Wolski, on the other hand, has taken around 30 (and is around 50% effective). Is there a reason Svatos was taking that draw (and again, by “taking” I mean “standing there watching”)? And how come when teams line up to take own zone draws, they put one of their defensemen along the boards? Wouldn’t it make more sense to put a winger out there and place the two defensemen in the middle of the ice along with the other winger? At any rate, this was a mess of a play and, in the end, cost us a point.
In overtime, the Coyotes predictably scored. The way they scored, however, was highly controversial. At the 3:23 mark, Vrbata (again) took a shot on Budaj. Budaj made the save and then a whole mess of people - Vrbata, Doan, Liles and Finger - collapsed on Budaj. The puck was somewhere under Budaj and, after what seemed like forever, the puck found it’s way into the net. This play is screwy for a few reasons. One, Shane Doan seemed to pretty clearly push Budaj into the net. Two, when the puck disappears for that long under a goalie, it usually gets whistled dead. And three (and this one I didn’t catch while watching the game) the Avs claim there was a whistle before the puck came loose. If true, that should make it no goal. Unfortunately, the refs did not agree. After a brief review (during with the Coyotes left the ice while the Avs stayed on their bench), the goal stood. My only hope is that the Avalanche can turn their anger from that goal into some hot on-ice action.
One (final) interesting thought on the game. Paul Stastny is due to come back soon (perhaps as early as this Wendesday, and Darren Pang mentioned during the game that he looked like he could have played last night). Someone is going to have to sit. The two biggest candidates for that have been Brad Richardson and TJ Hensick. Richardson, though, has looked terrific on a line with Guite and Laperriere. And Hensick has been playing his best hockey in the NHL and has looked infinitely more confident with the puck. I’m leaning right now towards towards one of the Codys. Since McCormick kills penalties and has gotten a few more noticeable hits of late, I suspect that McLeod will be the scratch. I admit, though, that I’m usually wrong on this stuff.
Game Notes
Notes are here
Lines
- Hlinka, Brunette, Hejduk
- Arnason, Wolski, Svatos
- Guite, Richardson, Laperriere
- Hensick, McLeod, McCormick
As I expected (see, I get it right sometimes), Kurt Sauer was paired last night with Brett Clark. Karlis Skrastins was the healthy scratch. Sauer had 23:46 of ice time, and doesn’t seem to have any rust.
Quick Hits
- John-Michael Liles had 5 blocked shots in the game, tops on both teams.
- The Avs recorded just their 6th multi-PPG game of the season. They are now 5-0-1 in such games.
- Michael Wall was recalled before the game and replaced injured (?) Tyler Weiman on the bench.
Next Up
The Avalanche visit the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday before a big game in Vancouver on Saturday.
And the Budaj bashing has already began…not here thankfully. I wonder what game people were watching when they start bashing Boods for giving up the tying goal. If any of three players had done their jobs Vrbata might not have gotten a shot, let alone the goal.
The game winner…Watching the replay shows that the puck is on the line moving into the goal at the whistle. Normally this is where the Avs get screwed because of the “intent” to blow the whistle argument. (The Avs never get those goals because of the whole “intent” thing). It didn’t look to me like the officials even looked at a replay as most of them were standing on the ice ignoring Brunette.
I hate to use this comparison, but Gretzky was off that bench faster than Belicheck was off the field on Sunday. I think he knew something was fishy and he got out of dodge as fast as possible.
Dater is saying today that Doan pushed the puck with his hands. I’ll be honest, I looked a few times at the play thinking he might have done the same thing, but couldn’t see it.
I’d like to be more upset about the OT goal, but the truth is we should not have even been in OT. That 3rd goal was just rank.
and no, you wont get much Budaj bashing from me. I don’t think his last two games have been his best, but he’s still my choice without question.
i was there DD, Doan pushed it in. Also, there was no whistle until the puck was in.
Budaj was sharp the first period, but really struggled as the game went on. His rebound control is
lately.
And lets give some blame to Q for that last goal too. He called for a line change as the 3 on 2 developed, and then the player didn’t go. terrible.
as for who to scratch when Stastny (Gott sei Dank)comes back, I could have sworn Darren Pang said that Cody McCormick got injured in the third period.
Coach Quenneville is using something more complicated that “logic” and “reason” to make his decisions.
From the Alt feed, I don’t think Doan actually hit the puck with his hand, but it looked like Doan pushed at the puck, hit Budaj’s blocker hand and THAT pushed the puck in the back of the net. Also the Altitude feed had a good replay showing the ref moving the whistle to his mouth and blowing it just as the puck was crossing the line. It was over, but he was moving his hand to his mouth well before it had crossed, i.e. his “intent” was to blow the whistle before.
Yes the defense had a complete breakdown on the third goal, especially Arnason who completely blew it. I don’t think he would have made the save, but an attempt by Budaj to get over would have been nice. Vrbata could have hurried the easy goal or panicked a little and pushed the easy goal wide or something had he seen Budaj coming over. I was disappointed that there was no effort there.
The doc said it best, Budaj was very strong early but really seemed to weaken as the game moved on.
I missed the McCormick injury. Looking at the toi reports, he didn’t play in the last 7 minutes of the 3rd.
then again, neither did McLeod or Hensick (although Hensick did play in OT)
Q said three interesting things about the tying goal on his radio show this morning.
1. That he still has no idea why Arny was kicked out of the face off.
2. That Wolski should have been the one to move over the take the draw when Arny was kicked out.
3. That he (Q) was also at fault for not having two centers on the ice in that situation.
He didn’t necessarily say anything about the entire team sucking on the play, however. Like they did. I agree that Arnason seemed to have the biggest wtf moment, but I was also disappointed that Budaj didn’t even make an attempt to get over. Vrbata could have had a cup of team before directing the puck in. One major lapse = one lost point for the Avs, two points gained for a team competing with them for a playoff spot. We could look back at this as the play of the year, in a bad way.
those are some really interesting items, Bob. Especially #2, IMO.
Yes they are…also interesting that Q actually took some blame for the screw ups.
As for Budaj making at least a move. I don’t think he even knew the puck had gone to Vrbata. I think he looked behind him after the goal horn sounded…but I may be mistaken. And even if that is the case, than shame on him cause he should know where the puck is.
Also interesting was my “cup of team” comment. I seem to make stupid mistakes like that more and more …. am I getting old or what?
For those of you in-towners, you can catch Q generally every Tuesday morning at 8:00 AM mountain time on AM 950, The Fan. For those of you out-of-towners or those streaming online at work in town, catch him online at http://www.am950thefan.com. You have to become an “insider,” but it is free and relatively painless.
Also, on the Budaj play, I was originally very pissed that it looked like he made no effort to move to move across the crease. But, after watching the replay (and from my own experience as goaltender last year), he was actually in a really hard position to move left off the post AND get his left pad down to the ice, OR to dive left onto his torso to block the goal with his body. He was in position at tight to the right post, exactly halfway to the ice. The position is great for face-offs, because it has the short side extremely well covered, and allows you to quickly go straight down or straight up, depending on whether the shot is along the ice, or elevated. However, your vertical maneuverability in that position severely compromises your lateral ability to move. Being angled toward the face-off, knees bent and with your right foot on the post, your ability to push off while simultaneously going down makes you push out and slide your leg out and away from the net, not right along the goal line, which is what would have been needed to prevent the goal once Vrbata had the puck. It would have been possible to slide out and block the cross-crease pass, if it is close enough to the goalie, but then you are out of position. The other option, to dive left with your torso onto the ice, is almost impossible in the position, where your knees are bent so much. Not only is it also difficult to dive along the goal line, the moderate angle of the knees makes the probability for injury very high, as you have move in a way that the joint does not bend, and thus there is a great chance of tweaking either the left knee or left hip.
So yeah, I was pissed, but it would have been worse had he gotten injured and still not been able to stop the puck.
I was upset with the makeup slashing call on Richardson that preceded the cross check by Clark for the 5v3. That call was clearly a makeup call.
I don’t know what Q is so upset about, he puts Arnason out for faceoffs all the time. He has to know that Arnason is going to lose even if he doesn’t get kicked out. Is he more upset that Arnason is so passive in the faceoff circle that he never gets kicked out so he never knows what to do if he’s not losing them? Are we to expect so little of a professional hockey player that we can’t ever imagine that they might have to cover a man off a faceoff? One dimensional players do this all the freaking time. It doesn’t matter if their names are Svatos, Arnason or Hensick. Somehow it’s OK that these guys can be one deminsional while players like Sakic, Hejduk, and Statstny work hard on defensive aspects of their game. Anyone on the team but those three guys wouldn’t have let that play happen (Skrastins not withstanding).
‘Skrastins not withstanding’ should be your sig, Dario. It’s usable in almost any situation.
“Thanks to these fertitility drugs, we should be having a baby in no time, Skrastins not withstanding.”
“I don’t see why everybody thinks the Patriots were cheating, Skrastins not withstanding.”
“Obama is a much more polished public speaker than Hillary, Skrastins not withstanding.”
You try it!
Mike, you’re a pretty funny guy, Skrastins not withstanding.
My wife rarely agrees with you, Skrastins not withstanding.
This will never get old.
Is that not maybe the best thing you’ve ever come up with Mike? Skrastins not withstanding (SNW) of course.
I think you have something.(SNW)
That is not maybe the best thing I’ve ever come up with, Skrastins not withstanding. It IS the best thing I’ve ever come up with, Skrastins not withstanding.
I think my head just exploded
…Skrastins not withstanding.
you guys are hilarious…Skrastins not withstanding.