JK, have a good trip, D.

Be proud of yourselves, Avs fans. Die-hard partisanship and high expectations are what sets us apart from fair-weather bandwagoneers.

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?

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.

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.

That more or less sums it up perfectly. And that’s sad.