But how about a little more love for Andrew Brunette?

The man does things perfectly, especially the little things. What a nice little tip in he had for the first goal?

But more importantly, he singlehandedly saved the team from the most embarrassing loss (well blown 3 goal lead) of the season. With either 15 or 5 seconds left, and Budaj covering a post, a pass come right on top of the crease for an open Columbus shooter with a nice juicy open net.

But Mr. Reliable was there, and as the pass came, just managed to lift the Columbus Player’s stick, and prevent the pass reception. If everyone else put as much care into the details as Mr. Brunette, this team would be far better in the standings.

You’re doing such a good job on keeping up with the blog you might as well give new visitors a good first impression. There are a lot of blogs that just die on the vine as you well know.

Keep up the good work.

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Red X for me.

—”14:52 Brett Clark, maybe the most underrated D in hockey (note to self: get ready for the feedback on this one), makes a great play at the Columbus blueline, calmly circling back to avoid a defender, while keeping the play onside. The Avs don’t score on the play, but do get a scoring chance. Clark is so good at handling the puck, and I think the Avs would benefit from him carrying it more.”

Unlike a guy like Breisbois I don’t get nervous when Clark has the puck. He sticks handles well and is often the guy beating defenders into the offensive zone (probably because they don’t expect him to take the puck into the zone like he does). And rarely does he make a bad pass that puts him in situation where he is chasing. I sometimes wonder what would happen if Q played Clark as a forward/7th D-man instead of Klee?

I didn’t see tha game, but in the few games I’ve seen I been imressed by Finger. He has make leaps and bounds since getting schooled on his first NHL shift. And unlike Cuminsky (at least in what I’ve seen) Finger is much more physical. He hits more, finishes checks better, and as of last night appears willing to drop the gloves when challenged.

I give Finger a ton of credit for dropping the gloves and holding his own (and drawing the Penalty), and I give Chimera the middle finger for letting his pride steer him into hunting down a rookie d-man and start whaling away. Way to not be able to take a hit, Chimera.

15:43 Are they really playing Wilson-Phillips on the PA system? Seriously?

Gold.

10:32 Rick Nash gets dumped by Ken Klee. Clean hit, but Nash is pissed after the play (probably at himself more than anything). Nash has struggled lately, which has Peter McNab depressed.

Pure Gold.

My favorite McNab moment last night was when Nash got behind Liles for a clear break away and Liles stops the pass with his skates McNab has the audacity to say, “Great play by Liles”. I hate, I mean HATE the praise that players get for saving their own bacon because they screwed up the fundamentals (ie Skrastins diving/almost trip penalty poke check).

Anyone who understands positional defense and how it’s supposed to be played would have admired the play of Jeff Finger and Adam Foote last night. With one clear exception. Foote got suckered in to a play by chasing Wolski up the side boards. None of his forwards came over to assist on the play and he didn’t/couldn’t get back to his position. It’s a beautiful thing when you can get defense to do that and the “chasing” starts. Columbus still has a lot of problems.