My appologies to those that actually read this and like my recaps for not being able to do my normal recaps these last two weeks. I do plan on doing a full recap of not only for next week but the time I missed these past two as well in next weeks recap but I have been swamped with work and this past weekend a trip to Texas to visit family before they move to Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands (the island is about 3 miles long, 1/2 mile wide and is part of many islands about half way between Hawaii and New Zealand). I do want to put out a few little tidbits however that you might find interesting.
Paul Stastny regularly takes heat from Avs fans for not producing, however he plays a solid two way game and has been better of late. His play could be a bit better, but he does regularly chip in. The person who doesn't get mentioned much however, and nearly all Avs fans love him, is Hejduk. The captain of the team is currently in a slump that has seen him playing on the 3rd and 4th lines of late, having only 4 goals in the last 42 games now and only having a single multi-point game in that stretch. He currently sits 7 goals away from the normally reliable 20+ goal mark he reaches every year.
Prior to last night's game against Nashville Varlamov had some pretty solid numbers coming in, going 5-1 in his last 6 games and having a GAA of .84 and a SV% of .970, including 2 shutouts. It can be argued as well that Varlamov should have had another shutout if it had not been for an extremely weak penalty shot call in the 7-1 win against Minnesota on which Setogucci, initially missing the breakaway shot, would bury the penalty shot. In the game against Nashville he did give up 3 goals but the first two were on defensive miscues early (including one going off his defender's shinpad in front of him) and the third was a rare turnover by Landeskog late in the second. He made a number of great saves throughout the game to keep the team close enough that a pair of crossbars in the late stages of the third nearly tied things up for the team.
Newcomers to the team are playing very well. McGinn has come in and now has 6 points (4 goals including 2 game winners) in his last three games and has gotten his first multi-goal game of his career as well as a gordie Howe hattrick this past week. Downie recently also set a career mark, notching three assists in a game, and has 10 points (2g/8a) in 8 games with the club so far.
With good news coming in the form of Seimens returning to the ice for the Blades after missing time with a concussion, the team also recieved bad news in that Duchene, just back from 2 months with a bad knee, had his skate catch an opponents in a recent game causing his foot to turn nearly backwards resulting in an ankle injury that will keep him out 3-4 weeks, perhaps ending his season if the Avs can't make the playoffs.
Part of the McGinn trade, Michael Sgarbossa has been discovered by Avs fans to be a great addition to the team's prospect core. Hishon was to be the next potential scoring threat in the system, however he hasn't played in nearly a year with a concussion and there has been no news of any change in his concussion. Beyond Hishon the cupboard is pretty bare on talented scoring forwards (recent draftees other than Hishon are already on the club), and perhaps that played into the Avs decision to make Sgarbossa part of the deal when moving out Winnik and Galiardi. Thus far the slightly smaller forward has Avs fans grinning from ear to ear as the young man earned player of the month honors in the OHL for February then earned player of the week honors for the first week in March as well. He just had his 19 game point scoring streak snapped in his latest game as well, however he had temporarily taken the OHL scoring lead from Tyler Toffoli before Toffoli took it back. In 61 games this season Sgarbossa has 44 goals and 50 assists.
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