The Week(s) that was the Avs 11/11-11/17 and 11/18-11/24
vs. Calgary : The Avalanche came out poorly again, falling behind by at least 3 goals for the 3rd straight game. This time by the halfway point in the game they were down 4-0. The Avs didn’t start all that poorly I guess, doing a decent job to start but the Flames scored on their first two shots and led 2-0 just 6 minutes in and it got worse from there until it was too late. The Avs would push back and pull to within a goal but couldn’t get the equalizer. A failure to play a complete 60 minutes again costs the Avs points in the standings. Kipper gets his 9th straight win against the Avs and the team falls to the Flames for the 8th straight time.
Monday, the day before the Pittsburgh game, the team announced that Milan Hejduk will be the third player to ever be captain for the Avalanche squad. A fitting honor for a lifetime Av. Mueller meanwhile was placed back on the IR retroactive to the 20th of October, but that likely means he isn’t expected back anytime soon.
@ Pittsburgh : After seeing the Avalanche fall behind early in the previous two games it was great to see the team jump out to a 3-1 lead in the first period. The team killed an early 5-on-3 and already up 1-0, Duchene then took a pass, pulled it between his legs, and fired a highlight real backhand shot into the net for his 50th in his career. However that’s where the good news ended as the Avalanche couldn’t keep it going as Hejduk hit a post on an open net and Pittsburgh came back with a goal after Varly tried to cover a puck but Dupuis found it and put it into an open net, then the Penguins went on to get another four in a third period that the Avalanche were greatly outplayed in. Malkin had a goal in which he poked the puck between Landeskog’s legs and was left alone down low to put on moves that led to an empty net against Varlamov. Poor play and repeated penalties spelled doom for a team that started off the game great. The 3rd line which had been so great went -5 with just 4 shots in this game, their first real let down of the season.
@ Minnesota : This may have been one of the more boring games I’ve seen in recent history. Neither team seemed to skate with a lot of urgency and there wasn’t a good pace to the game either. There were a few chances, sure, and while some 1-0 games can be exciting this wasn’t one of them. The Avalanche actually played a pretty decent game defensively but were unable to get anything going and in the end a shot that deflected off a defensemen across ice to Setoguchi who was able to fire the puck in ended up being the only tally of the night. Giguere was strong only allowing the one, but got no help. Duchene continues to look good on Stastny’s wing but the team was unable to do much on the evening. Brandon Yip returned to the ice for his first game of the year after injuries kept him out the first 18 games.
vs. Dallas : Needing a win after a few very disappointing nights the Avalanche came out and played a complete game, one of their best this season, in their first of an 8 game homestand. Of those 8, 7 games are against teams in the West and all 7 are ahead in the standings making this a very important stretch early in the season for the team. A complete reversal of the 6-7 OT loss last time the teams met, Giguere in net again shut down the Stars in route to his 35th career shutout, first of the season. Lehtonen played well but the Avalanche controlled much of the play and were able to get a couple past him for the 3-0 win. The win was also Giguere’s 235th career win moving him into sole possession of 50th place on the all-time NHL list. Stastny went 88% in faceoffs on the night and with his PP goal tied 10th on the franchise scoring list. The night also saw the best Avalanche line broken up (and this continued into the SJ game) with Landeskog moved onto Duchene’s wing and Jones put in his place. Again despite Duchene looking like a threat every time out on the Wing Sacco has ended the experiment to put him at center again. Both those lines played well but Stastny now centering Porter and Yip really screams out the lack of true top 6 wingers the Avalanche have. That is likely their biggest problem at this point and one that needs addressed as Yip, Porter, Kobasew, and Lindstrom have not filled those holes and Galiardi continues to play a 4th line role for some reason. Duchene has been the Avs best winger next to Hejduk this year but continues to only get a game or two there before being put back at Center.
vs. San Jose : JS Giguere gets his third start in a row for the struggling Varlamov (0-5-1 with a .831 save percentage in November to this point), however the Avalanche don’t provide much help to Giggy. The Avalanche were outplayed most of the game despite the early goal by Duchene, and Marleau scored into an empty net late giving him the hat trick. Wilson assisted on the only Avs goal continuing the trend of a defensemen having a point in every game this season where the Avs score. O’Brien played in his 400th NHL game, the only Avs d-man with that many games in the NHL. The Avalanche continue to be able to ice the same 6 defensemen since opening night, the only team to have done so. It is a far cry from the injury riddled team that saw 17 defensemen used last season.
Monday following the San Jose game the team was put through the dreaded “bag skate”. The team definitely needs to get moving because despite being only a few points out of the playoffs right now they are 25th in the league and the top defensive pairing of EJ and Hejda are a combined -28 heading into the game against Vancouver. Mueller has played very little while Fleishman recorded his 9th goal of the season. Mueller was reported to have skated very hard through the entire practice however, but when asked about his status he again stated that he is “trying to get some good days” together. Practice Tuesday EJ took a “maintenance” day and wasn’t there.
Speaking further on practices, with no Nuggets this year the Avs are taking more time to practice at the Pepsi Center itself. Of course this has a downside in that it hasn’t been open public practices as they normally were outside of the Pepsi Center.
It was also reported in the Denver Post that “part time” goalie coach Kirk McLean had been with the team for the past week working closely with Varlamov. The Avalanche are one of few teams, perhaps the only one, that doesn’t employ at least 1 full time goalie coach.
Heading into the Wednesday night game Avalanche fans got a bit of a treat from the NHL during an otherwise frustrating start to the season when the league released its top 10 goals of the year thus far. Matt Duchene's hat trick goal against Dallas where he skated in and beat a trio of Stars came in at #5 and his between the legs to the backhand goal against Pittsburgh came in at #1.
vs. Vancouver : The Avs go back to Varly in net for this one. Prior to the game the Avs definitely give up more shots with him in net, Varlamov facing an average of 32.5 shots in his 14 appearances, to 24.9 for Giguere, and come in hoping to play better in front of him as much as to have him play better. Gabriel Landeskog also turns 19 the day of the game. Hunwick got to put down his nachos and get in the game again as well as EJ was out with a groin injury. The Canucks never had to worry in this one though as they started their "backup" goalie Schneider and if we know anything, the Avs can't beat a backup goalie. Just as with SJ where they only scored a single goal, they again couldn't solve a backup and were shutout, never really looking dangerous though O'Reilly had a good chance on the powerplay but just couldn't get a lot on the shot and Schneider reached back to stop it with his stick. The Avalanche were outshot badly in the first and the only goal came directly after Duchene ended up tripped, and despite the Altitude announcers sounding surprised that there was no penalty they never replayed that, just the goal that came shortly after. In the second the only goal came on a 2-on-1 where Burrows waited and eventually O'Brien slid into Varly and he was able to put the puck past him. O'Brien may or may not have interfered with Varly enough to make a difference but he still has to be careful not to slide into the goalie. From there the Avalanche actually took more shots than Vancouver but you never got the impression that the Avs were going to come back. A handful of late powerplays were pretty fruitless and the Avs lose once again and Kessler seals it with the empty netter, the 6th scored against Colorado in their 22 games this year. Following the game the Avs shut the doors for a closed door meeting that was very brief before letting media in. On the bright side Varlamov did have a strong game.
In continuing to work with the community the Avalanche recently saw defensemen Erik Johnson and Matt Hunwick visit Father Woody’s Homeless Shelter serving food and handing out t-shirts.
Numerous sites have commented on the Avalanche coaching situation of late as well, stating that Sacco could be in trouble or already is. It started with Dater stating as much a few weeks ago, but lately the Toronto Sun (http://www.torontosun.com/2011/11/19/rink-wrap-coaches-on-firing-line--could-iggy-be-trade-bait) and StLToday (http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/hockey-guy-hitchcock-s-success-could-inspire-more-change/article_d83a07bc-1383-11e1-b236-0019bb30f31a.html) are a pair of outside locations that have also commented on the situation. Others have as well such as BleacherReport and ESPN Insider and they will only continue to grow as the team continues to struggle.
The Avalanche in the 2011 Calendar year have played 66 games. Of those 66 they have 19 wins, however only 6 wins have come in regulation. That's right, 1 out of every 11 games this calendar year they have gotten a regulation win. This year the Avalanche have scored 0 or 1 goal in 9 of their 22 games.
Going into the game against Minnesota all six of the Avalanche defensemen were on pace for career highs offensively. Yes, all six. I’ll have to check the numbers again after the Vancouver game to see if this still holds true but to have all six guys on career paces nearly 20 games in is something I would have never expected as I honestly was worried about offense from the blueline heading into the season.
Speaking of the Avalanche defense, MileHighHockey.com had a poll recently which asked readers to judge which Avalanche defender has had the best season, ignoring contracts and expectations. EJ and Hejda to this point not surprisingly haven't done well, collecting only 32 total votes of the 375 votes thus far, and last on the list with 6 votes is Ryan O'Byrne. Kyle Quincey holds a 1 vote lead over Ryan Wilson at 127-126, and O'Brien rounds out the top 3 with 84 votes. Those six were the only ones in the poll given that they have played all the games thus far with Hunwick only getting a very small amount of ice time as 7th d-man so far "and nacho eating is not a criteria in the voting" according to the site.
Goalie Semyon Varlamov will soon have a bit of home in Denver with him as his mother will soon be moving in with him for the remainder of the season, his sister will follow shortly after for a visit (she does banking in Russia), and his father will come out in February. His father who coached him when younger continues to coach in Russia. http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_19396037
Avalanche prospects Muers and Siemens continue to be at the top of the prospect class for Colorado, Muers having posted 20 points in 24 games and Siemens having slowed but still with 14 points in 23 games. Millan in Boston’s net got suspended a game for skipping class, while Patterson in Minnesota set a school record with his sixth shutout of the season just 14 games in (1.71 GAA, .933 SV %). Pickard while still struggling at times on a bad team giving up tons of shots is starting to have some good games as well and has brought his record back to even and is above a .900 SV % again.
In the Subway Super Series games the WHL split the series with Russia, with Pickard winning one game and losing the other. Siemens was -3 in the series and had 1 assist and two penalty minutes.
In the AHL the Monsters have improved slightly but still only have a ways to go to get back into playoff talks. Desjardins has been a big part of that turnaround having a 4-2-1 record but allowing only 12 goals in those 7 games including 1 shutout, posting a 1.7 GAA and .947 SV %, much better than the 3.29 and .883% that Cann had given in his 10 games. Van der Gulik continues to lead the way for the team offensively having 6 goals and 11 assists in 13 games thus far. Elliot has played well, as have a few others, but there are stronger performances needed from a number of players including Ryan Stoa (just 5 points in 18 games) and Brad Malone (4 points in 18 games). The team’s troubles though could have something to do with their top four centers coming into the season. Thus far, Mark Olver, Mike Carman, Joey Hishon and Patrick Rissmiller have not played this season because of various injuries. Also speaking of the Monsters, their annual toy drive for underprivileged children kicks off Friday.
On a more league wide note, there is a new technology coming about that the Globe and Mail had an article about recently (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/new-chin-strap-flashes-red-to-warn-of-potential-concussions/article2236330/). The “Impact Indicator” is a chin strap that measures forces of hits and contains a flashing device that illuminates after so much pressure.
No comments:
Post a Comment