I’m not really sure what to write here. The Avalanche followed up their worst game of the season on Friday with their second-worst game of the season. The Wild dumped the Avalanche 4-1 in a game that had a lot of similarities to the Debacle in Dallas™.
The game started out fast, with both teams grabbing some early chances. The Wild settled down quickly on defense, but the Avalanche couldn’t quite do the same. Minnesota gathered momentum as the period went on, and finally scored with about 4 minutes left. The Wild’s 4th line - consisting of recent AHL call-up Aaron Voros, 9-game healthy scratch Matt Foy and rookie James Sheppard - took advantage of a John-Michael Liles turnover to score the first goal of the game. It was not the Wild’s only chance of the 1st frame; like the Dallas game, the Avalanche were extremely lucky to be down just 1-0 going to the first intermission.
And, like the Dallas game, the Avalanche gave up the eventual game winner on a soft goal just under 4 minutes into the 2nd. This time it was Foy, scoring his first NHL goal since the ‘05-’06 season. Foy skated in hard down the right wing boards with Voros breaking towards the net. Foy fired a weak, bad-angle shot at the net, probably with the hope that Voros could grab the rebound. He didn’t have to. Budaj tried to angle the rebound away from traffic, and ended up misplaying it and redirecting the puck into the net.
Minnesota sealed it about 10 minutes later on one of those “what if” moments. The Avalanche had their best opportunity of the night when Tyler Arnason was able to break in alone against the Wild’s Josh Harding. Arnason made a nice play, but Harding made the stop. Old friend Martin Skoula gathered the puck behind the net and fired it hard around the boards all the way up to the Avalanche blue line and an all-alone Stephane Veilleux. Veilleux walked in alone, used a trailing Marian Gaborik as a decoy, and blasted a shot past Budaj. If Arnason converts that chance, it’s 2-1. He doesn’t, and it’s 3-0. Not that Arnason is to blame for the loss - he had 7 shots in the game and was probably the best Avalanche player in both of these blowout losses.
Milan Hejduk scored on a fluky goal from behind the net about 45 seconds later to give the Avalanche a minor spark, but the Wild’s Brent Burns sealed the deal with about 2 and a half minutes to go in the 2nd. Down 4-1 in the 3rd to a defensive team like the Wild, the Avalanche had no shot to comeback in the 3rd, and played like it. They managed just 6 shots in the 3rd period, most (all?) coming with less than 10 minutes or so to play.
The team is, quite simply, playing terrible hockey right now. Forwards, defensemen and goalies - all just plain old bad. In both games, the team exhibited terrible puck possession and were out-hustled to almost every loose puck on the ice. With the exception of maybe Ben Guite, no one is hitting anyone. That’s not all that unexpected, as this is now an incredibly small team. But they aren’t playing like a small team - no speed, lousy passing, bad shots…there’s no skill in their game at all right now. The defensemen are getting knocked off the puck consistently in their own zone, and, if they do have a chance to clear, often miss. They also aren’t doing much to help out their forwards - either with a crisp head man pass that several of them are very good at, or by pinching in to apply extra offensive pressure. None of that is happening. Instead, the Avs are trying to generate all of their offense from their 3 forwards. It’s not working.
Game Notes
My notes on the game can be found here
Lines
As I mentioned during the game, the line combination Joel Quenneville used tonight makes the most sense. I prefer Smyth on the Stastny line, and Richardson looked terrific with Arnason. Obviously, the team looked terrible overall last night, which means Q might change things up next time. I, for one, hope he sticks with it a bit longer.
- Sakic, Wolski, Brunette
- Stastny, Smyth, Hejduk
- Arnason, Richardson, Svatos
- Guite, Smith, Hlinka
I should have the report up later tonight.
Quick Hits
- Milan Hejduk’s goal was his first since October 13 (9 games).
- Just 4 players - Wolski, Svatos, Sauer and Arnason - did not have a negative +/- in the 2 blowouts. All 4 were even. Parker too, but he didn’t play both games.
- On the other end of the spectrum, Scott Hannan and Paul Stastny were both -4 over the last two games.
Next Up
The Avalanche Dump And Don’t Chase Circus continues it’s road show this week, with a visit to Calgary on Tuesday and Edmonton on Thanksgiving. As I’ve mentioned previously, I won’t have notes or recaps for either of those games (I’ll be away for the holiday).
Other Recaps
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“Dump And Don’t Chase”
That more or less sums it up perfectly. And that’s sad.
I can’t stand the fact that we got slapped hard and then we rolled over and took it like we’re the new guys on the “Oz” cellblock. Wait…that doesn’t make much sense, but I’m so disgusted with the way we lost, I can’t think clearly. I wanted to say that we took it in the you-know-where, but that’s probably a bit of an overreaction. Maybe.
But…come on. I don’t need this team to be the Broad Street Bullies. I don’t need them to fight as much as Anaheim. But what I do need is to see players actually finishing their checks. This is that same kind of soft pond-hockey that failed us for two-thirds of last season, before we finally woke up as a team and started being more physical. Kurt Sauer worked his way into the lineup last year because he was one of the few players willing to hit. It soon became contagious, and I honestly think it caused us to be a more aggressive and dangerous and better team.
This year? Not so much. Wojtek Wolski was our most physical player yesterday - it was him forechecking hard and actually finishing his check that led to the goal. I don’t expect Sakic to be physical, but if Smyth doesn’t mind hanging out in front of the goal all the time, then why isn’t he more physical? What about Brunette? What about Guite and Wyatt Smith?
Defensively it’s even worse, and it points to the biggest disappointment of the season, Scott Hannan. How, exactly, has his play been noticeably different than that of Jeff Finger this season? I don’t know if he looked bigger or more intimidating in a Sharks sweater, but he sure looks small to me. He had two big turnovers yesterday that Budaj bailed him out on. I didn’t see him hit anyone in our two terrible losses. He gets a solid C- through the first quarter of the season. He’s not the only one to blame, but he’s the one making the big bucks who was supposed to add toughness to the D and help the PK. That’s a big failure on both counts.
I’m worried about Quenneville’s attitude about being physical. In yesterday’s post-game he listed the areas the Avs need to improve, and a reporter asked, “Does that mean being more physical, too?” to which Q said (paraphrasing) “Well, that’s part of puck possession and getting to the loose pucks and blah blah blah.” Come on…fucking admit that your team has been soft and needs to get tougher. I hate losing this way, watching a team that acts like it doesn’t give a shit and can’t be bothered with the physical side of hockey. That toughness, that edge, is what makes hockey so exciting, and I have no doubt it helped us make that run last season. It’s disgusting to see that this team didn’t learn its lesson last year and is falling back to the same mediocre and unappealing type of hockey.
For what it’s worth, Sandy Clough says he thinks it’s a lock that Scott Parker will dress against Calgary. But that’s not even the point, because he won’t be able to make an impact in his 2 minutes of ice time trying to chase guys he can’t catch. The point is that the team needs to get tougher overall, from top to bottom. If we don’t, we’ll roll along and get a few wins here and there against the Edmontons and Phoenixs of the world, and we’ll beat some pretty good teams on our ice…but we won’t ever make the jump to upper tier.
great comments Dan. I complete agree - I don’t want this team to be the Broadstreet Bullies either, but come on. just a LITTLE hitting wouldn’t hurt, would it?
I agree with everything Dan said.
I’d also like to add that nobody seems able to TAKE a hit on this team without losing possession of the puck. Little bumps and guys pull up and turn it over. WTF? Some of these forwards and D need to remember that they are elite players and stop playing like they’re the latest call-ups. I’m talking to YOU Liles, Stastny, Hannan, etc.
Were the F* has the power play disappeared to? I though Smyth was a down low garbage man and yet even when he is in the crease no one will shoot the puck on net. WAAAAAAYYYYYYy too much passing on the PP. Get Smyth, Svatos, Wolski, and or Staz in the crease and start shooting the puck on net.
Our Pk is atrocious as well (even though they finally managed a game where they didn’t give up a ppg - Minny didn’t need it this time). We don’t stand the other team up at the blue line, we let them skate in, take their shots and hope we can clear the puck, IF the goalie makes the save and the rebound doesn’t end up on the opponent’s stick first. When we play aggressive and attack the puck we usually get a kill, when we don’t….well that is why they only have one game without giving up a ppg.
Defense continues to be an issue. Remind me why we picked up Hannan? If Q is such a great defensive mind, maybe we should send out the search party because he definitely has lost it somewhere.
Goalies - neither goalie play bad in the two debacles…in fact the actually kept it from being worse that it was. But I wonder if the Goalie-go-round is starting to make the goalies dizzy?
Every day I’m impressed by my fellow Avalanche fans. We all have such high expectations of our team, that even though they’ve only lost two games in a row, that is unacceptable to us all. We know they are a great team—they played like one of the best of all time at the end of last season and then added even more talent to the roster in the off-season. And while they’ve started out well in general, the smallest lapse back into soft hockey and we’re all outraged.
Be proud of yourselves, Avs fans. Die-hard partisanship and high expectations are what sets us apart from fair-weather bandwagoneers.
Good thoughts. Deep thoughts. Now, I’m off to Los Angeles for the week to celebrate Thanksgiving. See you all in a week.
They celebrate Turkey Day on the Left Coast? Who knew!! I figured all the tree-hugging, hippy do-gooders would be liberating turkeys and bemoaning the cries of helplessness from cranberries!
JK, have a good trip, D.
In California, instead of eating a turkey, they plant one. very eco friendly.