Given real life got a bit in the way the previous week this recap will look back over two weeks, not just one. In those two weeks the Avalanche had 5 games and got 6 of the possible 10 points, having unlucky bounces take potential points away from them in both Vancouver games but having a goalie steal a point for them against St. Louis. The team would also finish this stretch a few points out of a playoff spot as new teams entered the race and 6th through 13th are only seperated by 8 points (as of this writing) with the 6th place team Chicago sliding (1-8-1 last 10) and Anaheim in 13th but charging up the ranks.
vs. Vancouver : In an important game after having lost 4 straight 1 goal decisions the Avs came out firing on all cylinders. They skated fast and had grit and an early post by Landeskog was just the start of the team's chances. It would be the Nucks however just after their PP expired that would get on the board first though with Kesler putting one in as the Avs found themselves a stick down on the ice. Landeskog would later send a pass across for the tip by Hejduk but a great leg save kept the Avs at 0, but shortly after Stastny would send one through the crease to Jones to tie it. The Nucks would hit a post of their own before McClemment would put the Avs up. The 2nd would finish 2-1 Avs while they outshot Vancouver 30-17 through 2. The Nucks would have a few more chances and hit a couple more posts, and the Avs would have some great chances as well but Luongo stood tall, and with about 90 seconds left Vancouver would pull the goalie down 1. With just under a minute Galiardi flipped a backhand shot toward the open net but Bieksa would make an outfielder like catch and save the goal and play would come the other way where a chip up the boards would take a strange hop off the boards and perhaps a player and come right to that same Bieksa in the slot who would bury the game tying goal. Overtime would go scoreless so the Avs looked to the shootout, something they have been great in, but on this night Luongo would stop Hejduk, Landeskog, and O'Reilly and Raymond's lone tally would give Vancouver the win and the Avs would only get 1 of the two points after a hard played game. The Avalanche PK killed all 5 penalties, and the Avs outshot the Nucks 46-29, but it wasn't enough on this night. Landeskog's 9 shots in the game was an Avs rookie record. Marek Svatos was the last of five previous players to have the old record of 8 shots. The last Av with 9 shots in a game was Hejduk on 12/9/09.
vs. Chicago : Paul Stastny played in his 400th career game and the Factor, O'Reilly, turned 21 as well on the day as both teams came into the night riding 5 game losing streaks. The first real good chance in the game came from a pass on the goal line from Winnik to O'Brien walking in but the shot would catch Emery between the eyes. Chicago would get on the board first though in the second period after a point shot would get blocked and slide across to Keith, sitting on the faceoff dot, who would beat Giguere as he tried to get into position. The Avalanche would get a handful of odd man rushes before they would finally get on the board on their 4th, with O'Reilly feeding Mueller, and soon Hejduk after a turnover would feed Jones and the Avs would have the lead. Kane on a bit of a rush would give the Hawks a 2-2 tie with a nasty backhand shot, but it would be Landeskog intercepting a pass and giving it to Stastny, only to get it back in the Hawks zone with Seabrook well out of position who would take the lead back for the Avs. Giguere would keep the lead with a poke check on Hossa in alone and then Jones would fire one top shelf a bit later to get some breathing room. Mueller would miss the chance to seal it missing the open net after a great back and forth passing play, but it wouldn't matter as the Avs would later get an empty net "bank shot" goal from Quincey to end things. Dater mentioned later in an article that the Hawks had some chemistry issues and it certainly appeared that they weren't playing to the level of talent that team has as they turned the puck over regularly and gave up numerous odd man rushes on the night.
vs. Carolina : On Military Appreciation Night the Avs did a great job before the game in ceremony honoring the armed forces. They also landed a Blackhawk helicopter outside the Pepsi Center for fans to appreciate, and took to the ice for warmups in camo jerseys that would be signed and auctioned off. Early in the game itself the Avs came out a bit slow but Giguere would stand tall until the ice evened out. However it would be the Canes getting on the board first as Tim Brent was left alone in the slot. After a couple penalty kills the Avs would get a break as the puck would deflect off Mueller's skate to Landeskog who would circle wide and beat Ward to tie it, however the Canes would come right back down to take the lead again before the end of the period. A tic-tac-toe goal by Jones, Stastny and Hejduk would tie it up, but a bad bounce on a pass attempt by Staal would come right back to him and the Canes were again up by one. As the period neared the end Jones with hard work and a great pass would feed Stastny who would drag it around Ward and tie things back up. The third would be fairly even but it would be O'Reilly getting the best chances, and after first getting a great feed by Landy and hitting a post on the open net and then later on the penalty kill rushing ahead to get stopped by Ward, only to follow the puck and feed it into the slot for a great chance which he would again get the rebound and fire another great shot on goal only to be robbed again. Feeling frustrated by being unable to bury the puck O'Reilly showed his emotion slamming the door and his stick as he returned to the bench. This was a really great series worth watching the replays for. There would be some chances in OT but a lot of neutral zone play until the final seconds when O'Reilly would poke the puck away from Faulk (who he also took the puck from on the PK to start that sequence) and after looking up at the clock as he skated in and seeing second tick away he fired a slap shot short side to win the game with 1.2 seconds left. After the game Giguere would comment that it was fitting that O'Reilly would get the goal as no one works harder that he does and good things come to those that work hard. The Avalanche for the 2nd consecutive game did not get a single powerplay opportunity, a trend that seems to have taken hold in the team's games of late having only 9 power plays in 6 games compared to 18 kills in that time, but the team is now 11-2 against the East this year. The win for Giguere tied him with Kirk McLean (the Avs part time goalie coach) at 46th in the all-time wins list with 245. Carolina's last win in Denver was in 1996 when they were still the Hartford Whalers.
@ St Louis : In the Avs 7th back-to-back of the season (they have three to go), Milan Hejduk played in his 967th game with the Avalanche/Nordiques franchise tying Adam Foote for second on that list. He only trails Joe Sakic's 1378 at this point. (Next on the list by the way is Stastny, then McLeod and Jones, then Duchene and O'Reilly. Hejduk is the all-time leader in games played for the Avalanche with all his games being played with the team since the move to Denver.) The game was a big one for the team but they came out like a team that had just played the night before and had traveled, which they had. They took a few penalties early and while they had killed 13 in a row coming in they gave up 2 to Perron in the first period of this one to fall behind. O'Brien opened the scoring in the game and later EJ on the Power Play would tie things up (EJ's goal gave him 2 on the year now, certainly not what the Avs were hoping for out of him). The rest of the game went without scoring, but not because of a lack of effort from the Blues. At the end of the night Varly stole a point for the Avs before a deflected floater would get past him in overtime. The Avalanche just didn't have it in the tank after overtime the night before. Varlamov's 41 saves in the game were a career high for him and a high for Avalanche goaltenders this season. Final shots in the game were 44-19.
@ Vancouver : The Avalanche had their work cut out for them in this one. Despite Vancouver trailing only Detroit in the West, in last 10 the Avs were 4-4-2, Nucks 7-0-3, Avs 12-12-3 on road, Nucks 16-6-4 at home, vs. NW: Avs 2-12-1, Nucks 12-3-1 and the top Scorers: Avs O'Reilly (41), Stastny (36), Hejduk (32); Nucks H. Sedin (58), D. Sedin (55), Kesler (39). Tyson Barrie would be coming back to his home and would have upwards of 20 friends and family in the stands to see him play for the first time in Vancouver, but the team would enter the game short not only Duchene but wouldn't have Mueller (torso) either. The game wouldn't start out well with Vancouver jumping out to a lead less than 15 seconds in on a Booth backhander, and then as the period wound down Giguere would have to come out of the game with an injury. It would later be reported to be a groin issue, but he would return to the bench and after the game he commented that "he didn't think it was serious". Galiardi would also be lost in the first period to injury. The team would recover well to the early goal though and play would be fairly even. Varlamov would play well as he came in, and even had a stop on a Booth breakaway later in the game keeping the Avs tied, but the offense just couldn't get things done. The lone goal came as Hejduk held the puck until EJ snuck in behind the defense, then EJ would beat Luongo for his 2nd goal in 2 games. With the game tied at 1 and the third period ticking away the Avalanche were again bit by the bad luck that saw a puck bounce off the boards allowing Vancouver to tie it late in their last game against them less than two weeks ago. This time as Quincey took the puck in his own end and moved to put it up ice throwing it off the boards behind the Vancouver forechecker the puck would catch the leg of linesman Steve Miller and bounce out to the center where Hodgsen would jump on it, skate between the circles, and feed a wide open Hansen for the 1 timer to put Vancouver up with just over 6 to go. While the Avs got another chance or two they didn't produce a lot of late threats and Vancouver's Burrows would seal it with an empty netter with about a minute to go. Varly played well stopping 20 of 21 shots, and Landeskog had another strong game in nearly 24 minutes of ice time, but the Avalanche still walk away with a loss falling even further back in their playoff hunt. O'Reilly, -3 and 32% on faceoffs on the night, commented after the game "Personally, I was awful tonight. I can't be having games like that if we expect to win."
Fans donated over 8,000 diapers and 5,000 wipes during Saturday's game against Vancouver. These donations will benefit children in need at The Gathering Place, Denver's only daytime drop-in center for women and children in need of safety, opportunity and acceptance. This drive was held by the Avs Better Halves.
Before Friday's game against Carolina the Avalanche honored the US Military on "Military Appreciation Night". In addition to honoring the Military on this night, the Avalanche took to the ice in the pregame in special camo jerseys which are being auctioned off right now. The highest bid on one of those jerseys at this time doesn't belong to Duchene as one may think but rather to O'Reilly whose jersey at the time of this writing had a bid of over $1000, nearly double that of the next highest jersey. http://auction.nhl.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/User?id=colNHL&wl=12717464&type=L&navid=DL|COL|home
It isn't just the Avs players that are getting in on chartiy work and visits but also the mascot Bernie. Bernie, the mascot for the Colorado Avalanche, brought smiles and laughter to patients and employees when he made a visit to HealthONE’s Sky Ridge Medical Center on Thursday, February 9th. In celebration of the Avalanche season thus far, the visit also highlighted the opening of HealthONE’s Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children’s 3D mascot mural at Pepsi Center.
Avalanche forward Chuck Kobasew has been fined $2,500 for tripping Vancouver defenseman Dan Hamhuis on Saturday. Kobasew was given a minor penalty on the play in the third period of this game. "I thought I had a chance at the puck. I wasn't going at his feet on purpose," Kobasew said. "I was just trying to get the puck and prevent the icing. This time of the year, you never know. That can make the difference in a game."
Matt Duchene is back to skating. No reports on a timeline for his return but Dater believes it is still a week or two away.
With the trade deadline nearing David Jones is aware of his potential as a trade candidate, being a UFA after this season. He has had a poor year but has picked up his play as of late. Stastny is also a name in the rumor mills but his value to the Avs, a down season points wise (though he's turning it around) and a high cap hit likely won't see him moved. As for what I think the Avs should do (and what I think they will do), for the most part I think they should stay where they are and go after a winger or two next off season. If the Avs do move something, it will likely be a minor swap or moving one of their eight healthy defenseman (plus Elliott in the minors so 9 guys truly) or a guy like Jones or Galiardi, but with the thin wing depth the latter is unlikely in my opinion. Moving picks also isn't something likely to happen after moving their 1st and a second in this draft already for Varly.
The only major rostor move for the Avalanche during the past couple weeks was moving Elliott back down the Lake Erie and bringing up the Monsters leading scorer Tyson Barrie. The two look almost identical in style and Barrie has played solid but unspectular since his debut with the team against Chicago.
In a move in Lake Erie the Avalanche/Monsters let Hugh Jessiman, the team's 3rd leading scorer (25) and leading goal scorer (20) go as his PTO ran out. He wanted a two-way contract which the club apparantly didn't want to give him, but Calgary did. Odd given that this all occurred mid season and not good news for a Monster's team hoping to make a push...
Also of note, this past week rookie Gabriel Landeskog joined the twitter world remarking that he felt he was the last one to jump on the bandwagon. @GabeLandeskog92 (He also had a post commenting that he puts in his milk before the cereal and he's been taking heat about from the guys ... confirmed by Dater's tweet. It even made it to the Denver news as Xfinity on CBS4 had Landeskog and O'Reilly on and during their interviews they had to ask about it. http://denver.cbslocal.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6739139 Hard hitting reporting in a social media world that gets to the skinny of things there, isn't it? ;) )
AvsHockeyPodcast recently had a thought about how great it would have been to have twitter in the 2000-01 season and had a string of tweets that hinged on that very topic. There were a ton of great things that came out of it and it was a good time remembering that team and just how great they were, and there were a couple things that stood out. First, Sakic had more points in the playoffs alone that year than all but 4 Avs players have all of this season so far. Second, Sakic had 19 Power Play goals that year. Right now O'Reilly leads the team with 15 goals total (Hejduk leads in PP goals with 6). It begs the question is this team that lacking in offense or was that team, and Sakic himself especially, that good? A bit of both I think...
Cam Charron over at TheScore thinks pretty highly of Landeskog, even going so far as to saying he would be the frontrunner for the Calder in his mind. He states "For Colorado, Landeskog would be my pick as Calder front-runner even with a healthy Nugent-Hopkins." He gives credit to the Oilers rookie, as well as Henrique and Couturier among others, but states Landeskog's Corsi and Quality of Competition, his defensive game, and his improving scoring prowess put him at the top of his list. http://blogs.thescore.com/nhl/2012/02/13/evaluating-the-calder-trophy-race-in-light-of-rnhs-injuries/
Sakic sat in during the Canes game on the broadcast for a bit and gave a pretty good interview. During that, he had some pretty high praise for a couple of the youngsters in the game. Of O'Reilly he said "And then last year, with the injuries, he came in, he started scoring at the end, playing power play and showed everybody what sort of player he could be. And obviously he's such a hard worker that he really worked hard this summer and came in, and you see the payoff now for his work ethic and what he did.... and you can tell in the last year, when he got hot, he got the confidence and now right from the start of the year he knew could take it to another level and he has. He's been unbelievable, and Mike, like you said, both ends of the rink. He's got a great stick. He's one guy that you can see the hockey sense. He's got that - he's so smart out there." and of Landeskog "Oh wow, he's something else. I tell you what - this is a kid who does not play like an 18-19 year old, and you'd think he'd been around for 5-6 years. So mature out there, he does everything well for his teammates and himself. I mean, he hits everything, the way he plays.... " The transcript was put on MHH as well. http://www.milehighhockey.com/2012/2/13/2794692/sakic-interview-during-the-carolina-game
MileHighHockey has had a couple "Anatomy of a Goal" posts. The first was a goal against, the second here was Landeskog's game winner against Chicago. Pretty fun reads on the breakdown of how a goal occurs from the view of the writer. http://www.milehighhockey.com/2012/2/8/2785016/anatomy-of-a-goal-chi-vs-col-goal-5
MHH also had a post that laid out the seating of the Avalanche players in the locker room. While this doesn't contain a lot of honestly useful information it was interesting and the biggest point of "interest" for me was Landeskog's seat. He finds himself sitting between current captain Milan Hejduk and the enshrined locker of longtime captain Joe Sakic. http://www.milehighhockey.com/2012/2/6/2774779/avalanche-lockerroom
This is a scary time of year for Avs fans of late. Two years ago they rode their early season success all the way to the playoffs, but they truly backed into the playoffs not winning much. Last year they were in a playoff spot and collapsed all the way to the 2nd overall pick. Sacco in his 2 1/2 years is 20 games over .500 in the first half of the season and 20 games under in the second half. Right now, he has more wins in October (23) than February, March and April combined. The team currently sitting outside a playoff spot has to turn this around if they want to play extra hockey.
It sounds as if Landeskog, already having shown to be a complete player in his first year of NHL hockey, has found something to work on. According to SarahActually on Twitter "Reasons not to leave Avs practice early... you miss things like McLeod teaching Landeskog how to fight."
With some time off between games and a day without practice as the Avalanche waited to take on Vancouver, Semyon Varlamov and Cody McLeod held an on-ice clinic with students from Meadow Point Elementary in just the latest of Avalanche players spending some time with local youth.
With the injury to Giguere many began wondering who would be called up if he can't go for any length of time. At the beginning of the season it would have been Desjardins, who in two games in the NHL only allowed a single goal and was having a very solid year in the AHL, even being named to the All-Star team this year prior to his injury. Instead maybe it will be a guy by the name of Gerald Coleman who is currently only playing for the Monsters because of injuries (Cann is injured as well) and doesn't have a contract with the Avalanche ... yet. The 224th pick in the 2003 draft by the Lightning, who was later traded to the Ducks with a first for Shane O'Brien and a 3rd. Coleman played the 2010-11 season with the Alaska Aces posting a 2.19 GAA and a Save Percentage of .913 earning himself a record of 30-15-1-0 with 4 shutouts. In the Kelly Cup Playoffs, Coleman, along with the rest of the Aces set a playoff record with a 12-1 record to capture the cup. Coleman earned 11 of those 12 wins and did so with a .938 save percentage and a 1.73 GAA and 3 shutouts. In the end, Coleman lead the Alaska Aces win their second Brabham Cup and second Kelly Cup in franchise history. The Alaska Aces are also the only team to win the Brabham Cup and Kelly cup in the same year twice. He also captured goaltender of the year. Returning to the Aces at the beginning of this season he got a professional tryout with the Monsters during their injury troubles and has helped lead the team back into the playoff race (currently sitting 9th) with an 8-2-1 record, a 2.59 GAA and a .926 Sv%. Of course Justin Goldman of the Goalie Guild was quick to write up his thoughts on the situation the night of Giguere's injury, including background of Coleman and his travels through mostly the ECHL and AHL... http://thegoalieguild.com/2012/02/with-jiggy-injured-is-gerald-next-in-line/
As a follow up to the above point (and further evidence that I often write this throughout the weeks or in clumps on different days), on Thursday it was announced that Tyson Barrie was sent back to Lake Erie which would indicate that currently the Avs aren't planning on moving one of their defensemen out to me, and also that Mark Olver was recalled as was Cedric Desjardins to cover recent injuries. If we'll see Desjardins in a game or not remains to be seen but his injury must be nearly healed and Giguere's must be a bit worse than initial thought at the very least. It also appears that Galiardi who was placed on the IR (shoulder) and possibly Mueller will be missing some more time with Olver coming up.
Landeskog using his new Twitter account kept fans informed of the off-day activity for the Avalanche as the prepared to take on Edmonton Friday stating "Team bowling in Edmonton, huge bragging rights up for grabs."
An update to the Bertuzzi/Moore case was had this week. It was reported that the details of the settlement between Bertuzzi and the Canucks/Crawford that saw those seperate lawsuits dropped must be released to Moore's team of lawyers. The hearings are scheduled to begin September 22nd. http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_19981658/Canucks ...and court papers for those who want to read the legal jargin of the case... http://canlii.org/eliisa/highlight.do?text=moore+bertuzzi&language=en&searchTitle=Ontario+-+Superior+Court+of+Justice&path=/en/on/onsc/doc/2012/2012onsc597/2012onsc597.html
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