In The Cheap Seats

I have other commitments tomorrow, so I’ll jot down some quick thoughts before heading to bed…

This was over before it started. Minnesota had scored the game winning goal before the Avs even mustered a shot.

However, after Darcy scored (on a nice assist by TJ Hensick) the Avs played good hockey. There was no way they’d put up 4 against Nick Backstrom, so it was all just for shits and grins, but it was good to see the Avs hitting and hustling for a change, even if it was just for the final 30 minutes.

I thought all four lines played pretty well. It was Tucker’s best game in an Avalanche uniform. Hensick appears to be ready to stick around (I especially loved the work on the draws).  The Avs also did something new on the PK - they went with wicked short shifts (like 20 seconds) for the forwards and were extremely aggressive. When it worked, the Wild were stuck in their zone and the Avs even got a few terrific SH chances. Unfortunately, when the Wild did get into the zone, it was back to the same old same old.

Not a great game, to be sure, but I do think the last period and a half at least gives the team something to build from.

http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_10916037?source=rss

Sakic doubtful with the back (but we knew that, since yesterday Tony Granato said he’d likely play tonight) and we know how that all works out in Avalanche land.

Hensick has been recalled and is expected to play. Here’s what the lines may look like, based on info from Dater and the RMN:

• Stastny, Smyth, Hejduk
• Arnason, Wolski, Jones
• Hensick, McLeod, Svatos
• McCormick, Lappy, Tucker

Also, there’s no specifics in that RMN article, but Aaron Lopez does say that the defensive pairings were tweaked in practice as well, so it wouldn’t be a shock to see some different groupings on the blueline too.

EDIT: Well, scrap all that. Jori is reporting that Jones has been sent down and Kyle Cumiskey has been recalled. So, your guess is as good as mine on the lines.

Well, what can I say? The Avs were competitive…for a while. If hockey games were 22 minutes long, the Avs would have won 1-0, thanks to a somewhat fluky goal by Ben Guite. However - and I’m not sure the Avs have received this memo - NHL games are 60 minutes long. The ‘Hawks took advantage of a disinterested Avalanche defense to outscore the Avs 6-1 in the final 40 minutes.

For the first period or so, it looked like the Avs were inspired by Ian Laperriere’s post-game rant on Sunday. Defensemen were engaging, working for the puck, picking up open players in the slot. But then, they stopped. By the end of the 3rd period, Adam Foote and Brett Clark were “defending” by skating backwards and lazily poking their sticks at the hard-skating Blackhawk kids. It was ugly.

Meanwhile, our high-octane offense has been de-clawed. The Avs are averaging 1.8 goals a game over their last 5 (and one of those goals was the goal credited for winning the shootout). Tony Granato changed up the first 3 lines tonight, but it didn’t seem to help. In the early part of the season, Avalanche forwards were controlling the puck, forcing turnover, making smart passes to where they knew their linemates were headed and forechecking with vigor. Lately? Not so much. In every game over this dismal 4-game losing streak, the Avs have gotten a good performance from a few individuals, but no one line is playing well together as a cohesive unit. In just over a week, we’ve devolved from team hockey to street hockey.

And, while I think it’s really amazing that we’re 2nd in the league in major penalties and yet have the 3rd fewest minor penalties, I wonder how a team with so many fighters can let Dustin Byfuglien get away with that bone-crunching (but clean) hit on Joe Sakic? Or, for that matter, the Cam Barker slash on the hands of Dubya? Screw Adam Burish and Ben Eager - you can’t let our top players get hit like that.There are a lot of fingers that can be pointed, but no one on the team is exempt from criticism this morning - all 19 players who are in the mix on the team have to be better.

I’m not even going to address how fucking embarrassing it is that the more creative offensive team - by far - was the one coached by Joel Freaking Quenneville.

David Jones was a scratch (and if you read the recap of Sunday’s game, you weren’t surprised by this move). The top 3 lines were all shuffled around:

1. Sakic, Smyth, Hejduk
2. Stastny, Wolski, Svatos
3. Arnason, McCormick, Tucker
4. Guite, McLeod, Laperriere

I didn’t like the lines all that much. I thought the Sakic - Wolski - Hejduk & Stastny - Smyth - Svatos that we saw for a bit in the San Jose game made more sense. I did find it interesting when, in the 3rd period while still a 3-2 game, Cody McCormick took a defensive zone draw instead of Sanjaya. Unfortunately, because the camera was on one of the benches right before the draw, I couldn’t be 100% sure that Arnie wasn’t kicked out of the circle, but it seemed like Cody was taking that from the start.

• The Avalanche have allowed 18 3rd period goals - worst in the league. (And none of those are empty netters.
• In the last two games, 4 players have 2-goal games against Colorado.
• Each of the Avalanche defensemen was on the ice for at least one of Chicago’s even strength goals.

The Avs host the Minnesota Wild - a team that has allowed a league low 22 goals (in 10 games). Super.

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Denver Post

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Associated Press

Well, if we’re going to lose to poor teams like the Columbus Blue Jackets, surely we can lose to the good ones too, right? The Avs played their best hockey of the week against San Jose. Unfortunately, that isn’t saying much and it still wasn’t good enough to beat the Sharks.

It looked like it was going to be a terrible game. Although the Avs had some early jump, the Sharks got on the board first at the 7:02 mark. Milan Milachek too advantage of some extra skating room granted by John-Michael Liles and Scott Hannan and converted Joe Pavelski’s cross-ice pass into a laser beam of a shot over Peter Budaj’s shoulder. Honestly, that goal was just one of those goals that you can’t do a lot about; Michalek’s shot was that good (you can read that sentence in Peter McNab’s voice for added entertainment value, but it’s still true). Before the Avs could get their heads around that tough goal, Sharks defenseman Christian Ehrhoff broke in hard against Brett Clark before dishing to the front of the net. All night long, San Jose’s forwards crashed the net relentlessly, and this play was just the first to connect. The puck found Joe Thornton on the weak side. He couldn’t put it in, but he was able to tip it to Devin Setogouchi. Just like that, the Avs were down 2-0 before the 10 minute mark of the first period.

Colorado cut the lead to 2-1 at the 14:24 mark. Paul Stastny (in one of the few good plays he made last night) won an offensive draw to the left of Evgeni Nabokov and dropped it back to Jordan Leopold on the point. Leopold let a good shot go and it deflected off of Ehrhoff’s stick and past Nabby into the net. The Avs continued to pressure late in the first, but couldn’t come up with the equalizer.

Whatever momentum the Avalanche took into the locker room during the first intermission evaporated when they hit the ice in the 2nd. San Jose was all over the Avs in the 2nd, and only some stellar saves by Peter Budaj kept the deficit at one goal. Thanks to Budaj, the Avs weathered the early storm and started to get pressure of their own…and then disaster struck. The Avalanche iced the puck around the 12 minute mark of the 2nd period. Last year, there would have been a TV timeout there to give the team some rest. This year, no timeout. Pershaps since Joe Sakic was one of the guys stuck on the ice, Tony Granato opted to save his timeout. Sakic won the draw cleanly, pushed it back to Scott Hannan…who promptly managed to turn the puck over leading another Setogouchi goal. The Avalanche were gassed, and looked it on the play. But, if the TOI report is correct (and they often aren’t), Hannan was only 44 seconds into his shift (while Salei and Sakic were both over 1:30 into theirs). Either way, he needs to get that puck out of the zone. That goal was the killer. It wasn’t the eventual game winner, but it was the one that cooked the Avs’ proverbial goose on the night. And since we’re talking about fatigue, it’s also worth pointing out that, with almost identical EV ice time, the Avs had 38 less shifts than the Sharks. That means our guys were out there for a longer shifts. With the depth we have, that makes me scratch my head.

Down 3-1, the Avs came out in the 3rd the way they should have come out in the 2nd. They dominated from the early going, and got an early goal from Milan Hejduk (playing with Sakic and Wolski, as Tony Granato shuffled the lines frequently in the 2nd half of the game). But just a few minutes later, with the Sharks applying substantial offensive zone pressure, Adam Foote outletted to Darcy Tucker along the sideboards. Unfortunately, Tucker’s stick was laying in pieces on the ice. Former Avalanche Rob Blake was aware of this and took the opportunity to pinch in. Blake took advantage of Tucker’s hesitation (just get down and sweep the thing out, Darcy) to steal the puck. He threw it on net where, of course, two Sharks were headed. Michalek would get the tap in to make it 4-2. And that would do it. Liles scored (on a blistering shot through a Ryan Smyth screen) to make it 4-3, but Ryane Clowe answered to make it 5-3.

All night long, the Avs were pretty-good-but-not-as-good-as-the-Sharks. Several of the Avs looked good offensively - Smyth, Wolski and Sanjaya Arnason, for example - but didn’t end up with anything on the scoreboard (well, Wolski had an assist). It’s not news that the Avs haven’t gotten terrific goaltending and defense, but the offense should be shouldering some of the blame as well.

Reportedly, Ian Laperriere lashed out at the defense after the game (thanks to Shane for pointing me to that). Hopefully, that acts as a wakeup call to the team, because several blueliners (Salei, Foote and Leopold) are not playing as well as they are capable of. On the other hand, it could also cause a rift that divides the team. I’m very curious to see how things pan out.

In the 2nd period, Tony Granato begin to tinker with his lines. Marek Svatos skated some shifts with Joe Sakic before moving up to the Stastny line in the 3rd period (with Hejduk moving to the Sakic line). Over the night, Svats played with Tucker and Arnason, Tucker and Sakic, Sakic and Wolski, Stastny and Smyth and, finally, Stastny and Wolski. Five different lines in 21 shifts.

Granato shortened the bench in the 3rd, and it’s curious to see who played and who didn’t. Ben Guite had just 1 shift, David Jones and Cody McLeod had just 2. Meanwhile, Darcy Tucker had 5 - one more than Arnason’s 4. Curious.

• The Avs have scored first just twice this year. They are the NHL’s worst in that category.
• There have been no empty net goals in an Avalanche game this year.
• Speaking of empty, quite a few seats were empty, as the reported attendance was just 15,452.

The Avalanche visit Joel Quenneville and the Blackhawks tonight (which makes Granato’s decision to shorten the bench even more curious). The Hawks are 5-3-3 on the season, 3 points ahead of Colorado in the standings.

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Jibblescribbits

Denver Post

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Associated Press

Raycroft.

Was.

Awful.

Well, that was a quick trip back to earth. The Avs’ 5-game winning streak ended last night with Calgary shutting out the good guys 3-0.

This was similar to the Buffalo game in that the score was tight through the first two periods - as in 0-0 after two. That’s where the similarities end, though. While that was a back and forth nail-biter between two teams playing good, hard, smart hockey, this one seemed to be two teams just going through the motions. Both teams looked extremely tentative, like they would have been perfectly happy to skate to a 0-0 tie. After two periods, shots were equal (20-20). There wasn’t a ton of hitting, scoring chances or penalties. It was almost scrimmage-like.

In the 3rd, one of the teams woke up…and it wasn’t the 18 guys wearing the uniprons. The Flames started working for it, and it paid off. At the 8:24 mark, David Moss outworked the Avs down low and Curtis Glencross used his powers of invisibility to get between Marek Svatos and a wide open net. That would be all the Flames would need (the Avs mustered just 2 shots in the final frame), but they’d add a couple of insurance tallies just for kicks. At 12:58 Rene Bourque also outworked the Avs below the goal line and beat Budaj with a shot from behind the net. That play started when Darcy Tucker lazily turned the puck over at center ice, and it was the proverbial backbreaker. Just a couple of minutes later, Bourque outraced Ruslan Salei to beat an icing call before dishing back to a wide open Michael Cammalleri. Now, I used the word “outraced” in the previous sentence, and that’s a bit of a stretch as Salei probably would have beaten to the puck by a glacier. If there’s anyone who know how dangerous those kinds of races, it’s Salei and I think the touch-up icing rule is a dangerous dinosaur the NHL should make extinct…but damn, Ruslan, you can do more than just watch the play, can’t you?

I don’t think there’s a ton that you can do with this game. The Avs didn’t play great…but didn’t play badly enough to start making some wholesale Quenneville-esque changes. I am losing patience with the 3rd line, though. David Jones is bringing his lunch pail each night, but Tyler Arnason and Marek Svatos have both been woefully inconsistent. I personally think it’s time to swap Jones and Darcy Tucker. Jones goes back to the 2nd line where he started the season, and Tucker, Arnason and Svatos can find a comfy seat on the bench between their occasional (and carefully-chosen) shifts.

The only change was a swap of Ben Guite and Cody McCormick. Guite was a scratch and McCormick took his spot as 4th line center (I’ve seen some people say that Laperriere is centering that line when it’s him and the Codys, but it’s actually McCormick in the middle).

I’m on vacation this week, so I’ve tweaked the ITCS reports quite a bit. I’ve added the 3 stars, referees and linesmen, links to the NHL.com reports and, perhaps most importantly, I’ve made the shift charts a lot easier to read.

• Brett Clark went to the dressing room after taking a puck off the leg or foot in the 3rd period, but did not miss his next shift (and led the team in TOI)
• Clark had more blocked shots (5) than the entire Flames team (4). Clark is currently 3rd in the league with 28.
• The Avs have won just 41.3% of their faceoffs against Calgary (vs 52.4% against the rest of the league). A lot of that is thanks to Craig Conroy, who is 19 for 29 against the Avs (65.5%)

The Avs host the Columbus Blue Jackets. At 3-6-0, the BJs have the worst record in the Western Conference.

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Red Mile (Calgary)

What a great game (and not just because the Avs pulled out a “chintzy” win, as Ryan Miller called it). It was a game that saw two good defenses keep two great offenses in check. With the defensive effort, inensity and physical - but mostly clean - play, this thing looked a lot like a playoff hockey game. And it wouldn’t shock me to see these two teams facing each other in the Stanley Cup Finals next spring.

Early in the game, Patrick Kaleta goaded Ian Laperriere into dropping the gloves…and then skated away with his tail between his legs. If you thought that dick moved looked familiar, it’s because we’ve seen it before:

Before the draw, Ian Laperriere swaps with Ossi Vaananen to pair off with Patrick Kaleta. The two start jawing; Lappy, seems to think they have an agreement to fight, as his gloves go flying as soon as the puck drops. Kaleta, though, pulls a Barnaby and keeps playing.

Adam Mair pulled a similar stunt late in the game, going so far as to punch Adam Foote. When Foote turned to square off, Mair refused to fight. Lame, lame stuff from the Sabres. This is not shocking from a team coached by Lindy Ruff who, as usual, was quick to point fingers after the game (”I don’t like it either after watching it,” Ruff said. “It’s a tough call. It’s a patented Ryan Smyth. It’s a great play if you get away with it.”) I don’t believe his team has ever lost a game for any reason other than a bad call by the refs. (I do think he’s a hell of a coach, but the crybaby stuff really gets under the proverbial craw).

Early in the game, before the Kaleta dodge, Ian Laperriere stepped in between Andrew Peters and Cody McLeod, who were about to fight. If I’m not mistaken, that’s the 2nd type Lappy has intervened when McLeod was headed for a fight. I wonder why he’s doing that?

Oh, and the Avs have now won 10 of their last 14 regular season games (going back to last year, of course).

So far, Brad Richardson is not off to a tremendous start with the LA Kings. Richie has played in only 3 games, and when he has played, he’s played sparingly (like the 6:29 4th line minutes he mustered against the Avs). Last night, I happened to be watching the Blues - Kings game, and was totally caught by surprise by a scrum after the whistle. With all sorts of tough guys on the ice, the two people who ended up squaring off were former Avs Brad Richardson and Dan Hinote. It wasn’t much of a fight (which you can watch here), but it certainly was surreal to watch. I don’t think Richie is going to earn more time as an enforcer.

Today’s recap is brought to you by the number 4.

The Avalanche extended their winning streak to 4 games, topping the Oilers 4-1. Edmonton started off strong, outshooting the Avalanche 10-7 in the first period (despite giving the Avs 3 powerplays). But both goalies were strong in the early going, and the teams were knotted up at 0-0 after the first.

In the 2nd, the Oilers jumped to a 1-goal lead on a PP goal from Shawn Horcroff. And, for a moment, it seemed like the Avalanche were going to be in trouble…until the dam burst. The Avalanche scored 3 goals over a 6:19 span to go from a 1-goal deficit to a 3-1 lead. 4th-liner Ian Laperriere started the scoring with his rebound of Ben Guite’s blocked shot. Guite, playing for the first time in 4 games (and rocking the fu once again) had shot the puck in from the blueline after a cleared puck was kept in inadvertendly by a linesman. 5 minutes later, Paul Stastny scored on the PP, taking a quality pass from assist-monster Marek Svatos and banging it home. The 4th line struck again just over a minute later when Cody McLeod scored his 3rd of the season charging hard to the net (Mathieu Garon seemed so frightened by the oncoming bus that he simply let the puck slide under his pads and into the net).

Last year, the Avalanche led the league in 2nd period scoring - 43% of Colorado’s scoring came in the 2nd frame. This year? The Avs are again leading the way with a whopping 14 of their 23 goals (60%) coming in the middle frame. Perhaps the Avs should think about petitioning to move their benches, because the long-change period seems to be where they are most effective.

Lately the Avalanche have struggled with 3rd period leads. Last night, there would be no prevent defense. The Avalanche kept offensive pressure on through the third (the Oilers would have just a slight shot edge in the 3rd, 9-7). Joe Sakic made it 4-1 early in the 3rd period, and that effectively was it. That goal was a excellent bit of give-and-go passing between Sakic, Darcy Tucker and Wojtek Wolski. I felt that last night was the first time all 3 guys on that 2nd line were on the same page. With the way our 1st and 4th lines are playing, a gelling 2nd line could be devastating to opposing teams. Wolski had just that one assist in the game, but he is my early favorite for most-improved on the team (which is saying something, considering the play of Milan Hejduk and Ryan Smyth). He has looked incredibly confident so far this year. He’s stealing pucks, making plays, using the body, killing penalties, working the point on the PP - he has been head and shoulders better than the too-scared-to-make-the-wrong-play Wolski of the past.

In the post-game interview, Ian Laperriere - wearing street clothes after getting tossed for allowing Zach Stortini to hug him vigorously - mentioned that the Avalanche had tried some new things defensively. One of those things would be better shot blocking; the Avs blocked 24 shots - 9 more than their previous high. Their clearing attempts were better, and they also seemed to be working better with their forwards. Early in the 2nd, John-Michael Liles went for the body to stand up an Oiler coming into the zone. Meanwhile, Cody McCormick calmly retrieved the puck in the corner and moved it up and out of harm’s way. This was easily the best defensive effort of the season, and I’ve rambled so long that I barely have enough time to give a stick tap to Peter Budaj, who, in his 4th appearance of the season, finally looked comfortable in net.

The Oilers looked good in this game early, but faded once the Avalanche started scoring. Perhaps it’s because they were in the 2nd of back-to-back games or perhaps there’s other issues. It was interesting to notice that Craig MacTavish gave his 4th line (featuring bruisers Stortini and Steve MacIntyre) just 4 shifts in the first 43 minutes of the hockey game. After Sakic made it 4-1, that Dumb and Dumber Line was suddenly very important to the Oilers’ comeback efforts, as they got regular shifts the rest of the way (well, minus Stortini who was tossed for that hugging thing). It’s possible that was just a dick move to try to take some of the sting out of a bad loss, but I think it might have been more an attempt to simply ignite a little fire under his team.

David Jones missed the game with the flu. Ben Guite - who apparently was going to play even if Jones was well enough to dress - centered McLeod and Lappy while Cody McCormick stepped into the black hole of a 3rd line. Everything else stayed the same (stick tap to Tony Granato).

I’ve got all the game reports and recaps indexed in the sidebar to the right, for easy reference.

• With Lappy’s goal, all 13 forwards (and 16 of the 19 skaters) who have dressed this year have a goal.
• McLeod, Lappy, Guite and McCormick have 6 goals and 8 fighting majors so far this year.
• Clark (6), Liles (4), Hannan (4) and Foote (3) accounted for 17 of the Avs 24 blocks.

The Avalanche host the 6-0-1 Sabres on Saturday in a matchup of two of the highest scoring teams in the league.

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AP

Six games in, and this season is already shaping up to be a bit…odd. The Avalanche started the season by losing games that they should have won. Now, they are winning games they easily could have lost.

We thought the Avalanche would be improved offensively, and that’s definitely been the case. The Avs lead the league in scoring (24 goals) and (might want to sit down for this) are 2nd in the league in powerplay goals (8). The offense didn’t look particularly sharp against the Kings - they only mustered 16 shots against a suspect Los Angeles defense and goalie Jason LaBarbera looked AWFUL. However, they made those shots count. Ryan Smyth scored twice, including his gorgeous game winner in which he turned around LA rookie Drew Doughty. Milan Hejduk and David Jones also scored (although both were nice goals, both were shots that should have been stopped).

Unfortunately, the improvements to the offense seem to be directly proportional to the slide in our defense and goaltending. Too often our defensemen are getting caught in the wrong spot, and they’ve been getting outhustled consistently this year. Our defense is notorious for slow starts and it’s a quality group of players, so I’m hoping this ship gets righted soon. Peter Budaj got the win (his first win since March 13th). He didn’t look as bad as, say, Andrew Raycroft looked against the Stars, but he still doesn’t seem to be on his game. The Kings missed a lot of scoring chances wide of the net, and I feel Budaj and the Avs were lucky to escape with a victory. Hopefully, this win will build up his confidence.

Tony Granato has yet to change his defensive pairings. I’m glad he’s not overreacting, like we’ve seen in the past. However, something needs to be done to wake the D up a bid. John-Michael Liles has generally been the only one working hard out there.

The ITCS report is up

• The reported attendance at the Staples Center was 13,891, the 8th lowest NHL attendance this year
• Peter Budaj was making just his 9th regular season start in the 2008 calendar year. He had 76 starts in 2007.
• 15 of the 19 skaters the Avalanche have dressed so far this year have a goal.
• There was only 1 icing called in the game.

The Avalanche host the Oilers on Thursday. Edmonton looked off in their opener against the Avs (although the Oilers won), but they’re now 4-0, with 4 1-goal wins to start the year. Meanwhile, that opening Avalanche game has sparked a bit of controversy in Edmonton. If you’re interested, there’s a lot of good commentary about that story.