The Avalanche went 1-1 over the past seven days, and will play at home against Edmonton and their youngs stars Friday night.
Ken Hitchcock spoke with Adrian Dater as part of Dater's "Talking Hockey" podcast that he has begun. An interesting listen but when asked about the young talent around the league Hitchcock first brought up Landeskog who he said reminded him very much of Forsberg in his way he controls the play in small spaces among other reasons. He also stated that in what he's seen RNH in Edmonton reminds him very much of Datsyuk. Landeskog recently spoke on that subject to the Toronto Sun stating "It’s fun to hear that kind of stuff, but at the same time, there’s never going to be another Peter Forsberg. I’m trying to become my own player, play my game and do those things that make me successful."
O'Reilly is very serious about winning and very serious about his shape. Dater wrote an article after the Chicago loss Thursday that O'Reilly took the loss very hard and was hard on himself despite playing a good game himself, and just as when he was running around the circular arena basement before the game, after the game he took to running stairs long after the game was over (something Liles used to do as well). He works hard constantly and is in great shape and he takes the games to heart and wants to win every game. He is first on the ice and last off nearly every day, game or practice. At this point many believe that he should at least have an 'A' but some are also calling for him to become captain. However I think Sacco is avoiding giving his 20 year olds in Duchene and O'Reilly that added presure, however with or without the letter O'Reilly is a leader on and off the ice for this team.
Duchene recently took up fly-fishing, being a big fisherman, and recently had an interview where they went out fishing on Altitude. Duchene stated of his new hobby that 'sitting in a boat or sitting by the creek he feels he can get better at hockey and life by doing this because it almost a form of meditation'.
vs Chicago : Prior to the game the Hawks had a ceremony to unveil statues in honor of Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull. Ryan O'Byrne played in his 200th career game in the second of back to backs against the Hawks. In warmups Duchene appeared to be skating on the fourth line with McLeod and McClemment with Galiardi between Kobasew and Lindstrom. Sacco has been stating he needs more out of his top players, especially Duchene and Stastny, so could this be his attempt to motivate Duchene? Turned out that was exactly what happened as Duchene spent the evening on the fourth line getting just under 12 minutes in the game. I don't expect that to last though and we'll see how he comes back in the next one. As for Landeskog, he again showed his worth. This was the first game in which he didn't have at least 3 shots on net, but both of his shots went in including a huge late goal with under 2 minutes. He also finished with 6 hits, second only to Winnik's 8 on the night. Speaking of Winnik, yet again he led the forwards in ice time. EJ looked like he tried to do too much at times and had a couple bobbles and one massive giveaway that may as well have been a centering pass to the Hawks forward tieing the game at 1. This game was a bit frustrating at times because first they gave up the lead with that turnover, then after being up 3-1 they allowed Chicago to come back and tie it and eventually take the lead late. The game had the feel of one the Avs would lose, but late that third line produced magic as Landeskog broke in alone to tie it. After nearly a full 2:00 of 4-3 for Chicago in the overtime the game came down to the shootout, where for the first time Hejduk and Duchene missed leaving it to Lindstrom to win it, and with a great move that left Crawford completely out of position he did. Despite giving up 4 goals again Varlamov couldn't be faulted on any of them and played another great game. The team has now won six in a row on the road (though three in shootouts) which the Avalanche have only done two other times previously. They have only passed that once, a 7 game road winning streak which the team can attempt to match Wednesday at Calgary. The win also gave the team more road wins than they had the entire season after Christmas last season (5-17-1).
After practice Monday Duchene asked to speak with Sacco to discuss where he is and where he needs to be. The following day, Tuesday, he skated with Kobasew and Lindstrom. This could be the team's 2nd line for the Calgary game with Galiardi returning to the fourth, the third remaining unchanged, and Hejduk continuing to skate with Stastny and Jones. (Meanwhile Sacco recently stated that he is happy with Kobasew's effort level and expressed no concern over his 1 assist, -4 start on the top lines. I'll admit that he has shown some effort and the first few games he didn't look bad but after 8 now he hasn't shown enough to be where he is at while Duchene is demoted to the fourth line.)
vs Calgary : Last year the Avs didn't do well against the Flames winning only 1 of those games. The worst was the Valentine's Day massacre, often seen as one of the worst days in Avs history, when Forsberg's retirement comeback ended for good and then the Avs went out and got beat 9-1 later in the day. While the team had 3 days off and didn't play back to backs, Sacco decided to play Giguere in goal (and he played well) but there is no word on why he was played over Varlamov that I have heard at this point. The game appeared as if it was going to take on that same tone with the Avs getting outshot and outplayed early, but they managed to get the first goal of the night. However they still finished the first lucky to be tied at 1 after being outshot 21 to 5. They fell behind two more goals in the second though the shots somewhat evened out. Duchene showed how close the difference is between the highlight reel and never being mentioned as a spin move and shot which would have had goal of the year potential instead rang off the post and will never get mentioned again. Come the third the Avs were the better team controlling most of the play and despite a late goal by Wilson it was too little as that was the only one of the 20 shots they got on goal that went in. An empty netter would seal the game and the Avs road winning streak would end and an opportunity for a couple of points against a struggling opponent were lost out on. The third line again had a strong game though, including Landeskog with an assist and a game high 7 shots plus a pair of hits in 17 1/2 minutes of ice time. He also picked up his first penalty of the year, a goalie interference call in the second which negated a power play for the Avalanche. Duchene again had limited ice time with just over 13 minutes while both Stastny and O'Reilly logged about 19 1/2 minutes each. While there were miscues and breakdowns from many, EJ had a pair on Calgary goals. On the second Calgary goal the puck lay in the crease at his feet, and while he had time to look down and find it, then fire it out when he went to play it the puck hopped or he just plain missed and the puck remained there for the Calgary player to pounce and play it into an open net. On the third and game winning goal EJ failed to see or at least to play Bourque at the side of the net who jumped on a rebound and unharrassed scored into an empty net. While a loss can't be blamed on one person, especially when the team played so bad the first period, these two misqueues certainly contributed to the loss. Oddly enough NHL.com had EJ as the third star of the game. However the Avalanche team showed great work in turning things completely in their favor in the third. Sacco will undoubtedly and rightfully claim that the first period was unacceptable and the team needs to play a complete game and show up on time.
Everyone knows how good Landeskog has been for the Avs this year, or at least Avs fans do, but the man with the highest expectations for him might just be defenseman Shane O'Brien. O'Brien recently was overheard commenting that Landeskog could be the top of the league in five years. When asked if he meant in the league or on the team O'Briend commented "In the league. Five years. Might be sooner than that." http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_19186326
Speaking of Landeskog, there wasn't any question that he would be remaining with the team after the 9 game cut-off but it became official on Thursday. It does make one wonder however, if he had come in and struggled and it looked like him returning to juniors would have been best then what would the Avalanche have done. Returning him and his $3.75M contract (with potential bonuses) would put the Avs below the cap floor and they would needed to have brought in a salary to get back above it and likely that would have meant being forced into a trade.
Milehighhockey.com had a brief "after 8 games" article posted the day before the Calgary game where a few interesting facts were presented. http://www.milehighhockey.com/2011/10/25/2511784/through-eight-games
Some of the more interesting ones...
-Duchene is 2nd on the team in blocked shots, 1 behind the leader Hejda.
-O'Reilly has 7 assists, a number he didn't reach until game 30 last season. (I also looked back on Quincey and with the poor play and injury you would have to go back to mid February two seasons ago to surpass his current point total from this season through 9 games already.)
-Varly's 180 even strength shots faced is tops in the league.
-Winnik, leading the forwards in ice time, has taken 3 penalties this year and all three power play goals given up by the Avs occurred with Winnik in the box. (This ended against Calgary as the Avs allowed a PPG with Quincey in the box though Winnik wasn't on the ice.)
Through his first six starts Varlamov is keeping the Avs in games even during losses, and it shows in his stats as they are actually better in his two losses than in his two wins. In wins he has posted a 2.59 GAA and a .924 Save % but in losses he has a 2.03 GAA and .940 Save %.
Through the first 9, only Porter (1 game), Mueller (3 games), and McClemment are yet to record a point for the Avs. McClemment is the only one to have dressed in all 9 games. The defensemen have contributed 4 goals and 19 assists through the first 9 games. O'Reilly leads the league in takeaways and is 9th in faceoffs for players taking at least 50 draws (following Wednesday's game) and is tied for the team lead with 7 points in 9 games.
There are some rumblings that the Avalanche may be interested in the Flames Bourque, and the way he plays against the team it may not be bad to get him away from Calgary, but many fans are worried about the cost. At the bare minimum it is believed that one of our top defensive prospects and perhaps more would have to go the other way. While the Avalanche could use a boost to the top 6 as Kobasew and to a lesser extent Lindstrom and Mueller's injury aren't putting the team in a great position, what is an acceptable cost to fill that hole now?
I also have to mention that I hate Tebow at this point. I'm not a Broncos fan honestly, but given that the 6-3 Avalanche have gotten little to no coverage while Tebow has gotten more coverage than every other sport plus the rest of his Bronco's team combined lately is just really annoying and frustrating. I'm tired of hearing about the "savior" of a 2-4 team who played one good quarter to come back and beat an 0-6 team when the Avalanche are off to a great start.
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