What A Game!

After losing 4 straight games (three of them in overtime) the Avs bounced back with a vengeance the last two nights. Last night they defeated the Atlanta Thrashers who have been hot lately, a 4-2 game. Tonight they played the Capitals in Washington and were facing a team that has struggled of late, which can always be a dangerous situation. It was clear in the early going that this would be a really fun game to watch. Despite having played last night the Avs came out flying.

The scoring started early for the Avs as rookie Kevin Shattenkirk put the Avs up 1-0 a little over 2 minutes into the game. The Capitals tied the game up nearly halfway through the first period, but that was the last time the game would be tied. Unfortunately, on this play Kyle Quincey fell down into the boards and injured his shoulder and did not return to the game. Ryan Wilson scored a goal late in the first period to put the Avs on top 2-1. Wilson had easily his best game of the season after having been scratched for the last 4 games. He was throwing hits and looking a lot like the Ryan Wilson we saw last season.

In the second period Washington's Alexander Semin got tossed out of the game for a cross-check to the head of John-Michael Liles. The Avs received a 5 minute power play as a result and Paul Stastny netted his team leading 12th goal of the season. Shattenkirk made a nice pass to Stastny on the goal and had his second point of the night. Stastny, having assisted both Avs goals in the first period got his third point of the game.

The only scoring in the third period came from former Avalanche player Matt Hendricks, further extending the curse of former Avs players scoring against them. The Caps came on strong late in the third period, out-shooting the Avs 17-5 in the final 20 minute frame. The play in the last 5 minutes of the game was very intense and if you weren't watching, you really missed out. The Avs won their second game in two nights and they had to fight hard to keep their 3-2 lead late in the game. All in all, this was a very entertaining and intense game to watch, probably the best game from the Avs all season long (with no Hejduk, Galiardi or Stewart in the lineup!).

To Fight or Not To Fight

It's easy to criticize a decision after the fact, when you know something did not turn out well. Chris Stewart broke his hand last week in a fight with Kyle Brodziak of the Minnesota Wild, an injury that will have the Avs' young power forward out for 4-6 weeks. Had Stewart not broken his hand in the fight, fans would probably have been praising Stewart for his pretty one-sided beating of the Wild player. However, Stewart did break his hand which puts his team in a pretty tough spot.

The question a lot of folks have been asking is this: should a star player ever drop the gloves? Ideally, the answer would be no. It's an easy way for a play to get injured and miss some games. When Matt Duchene dropped his gloves for his first ever NHL fight, a lot of fans were excited, but some were probably cringing, hoping that he didn't hurt one of his hands in the altercation. Duchene was not injured, so nothing bad really came of the fight. Then Chris Stewart dropped the gloves, as he has done multiple times in the past and broke his hand in the process. So it would seem that you don't want your more skilled players fighting.

It's one thing when a player like David Koci is injured in a fight. His main role on the team is to play a few minutes in a game and stick up for his teammates if needed (his effectiveness in fights is another story altogether). If Koci gets hurt during a fight, he's not leaving a huge hole in the roster that will be tough to fill. Call up any guy from Lake Erie to take on some of the minutes and you're okay.

When a player on the top line such as Chris Stewart drops the gloves and injures himself, the team is in a position where they might trouble filling in for him. At the time of his injury, Stewart was the team's leading goal scorer with 11 goals (now tied by David Jones and both Milan Hejduk and Paul Stastny have 10 goals). In the few games since Stewart's injury the Avs have not won a single game. They've lost three games in overtime and one in regulation. The losses cannot entirely be blamed on Stewart not being in the lineup, but it certainly isn't helping the Avs.

Fighting in the NHL is always being debated and certainly when a star player gets hurt in a fight, it brings on more questions. Sometimes a player needs to drop the gloves to stick up for his teammates who don't want to fight. A fight can totally change the momentum of a game, so outlawing it altogether would be bad for the game. Certain players should probably not fight or at least not do it on a regular basis. Perhaps Chris Stewart really felt that he needed to stick up for a teammate because the Avs were already ahead in the game. He probably regrets the decision now that he will be missing so much hockey. It was a single moment in a game and it ended up badly, but it doesn't mean that Chris Stewart should never fight again. Maybe in the future he will think twice before dropping the gloves.

Thanks-giving!

It's nearly Thanksgiving here in the United States, so I have spent some time thinking about things for which I am thankful. One of the things on my list of things to be thankful for is hockey. It's amazing once I sit down and realize how many cool and nice people I've met through being a hockey fan. There are so many diverse and wonderful people that I have gotten to know through our shared fandom of hockey and especially the Colorado Avalanche. When I think about it, I would probably not have ever met a lot of these wonderful people if we didn't share a love of the same hockey team.

I started out as an Avs fan all on my own. My dad was not ever a big hockey fan (he was a Broncos fan) and my mom really doesn't like sports at all. I didn't grow up watching hockey, although I did have a cousin (who shares a name - different spelling- with a current Avs player oddly haha) who played hockey for a while, so I was exposed to it at a very young age. Since neither of my parents were really interested in hockey, I didn't get to attend any Avalanche games until 2002 when I was old enough to have a job and save up some of my money for tickets. Once I was able to attend games, I got to meet other Avs fans and even some nice fans from other teams (although I've met not-so-nice fans too). Over the years I've gotten to see some fantastic milestone games and some less than spectacular performances, but I've always had a great time with the fans around me chatting about our love of hockey.

It's not just the fans either, all the players, coaches and other people surrounding the team that I have had the opportunity to meet have all been great, normal, friendly people. It's never been an experience like meeting your favorite actor or athlete only to find out they're a total jerk. Not only with hockey do you get to enjoy a fantastic sport, you get to be surrounded by many awesome people. With the growing popularity of social media like Twitter and Facebook over the years, there has been an even greater way to connect to the fans who share a love of the same sport as you too. Now you can chat with Avs fans around the world (I even met a fan from Brazil this year!) and fans of other teams who just share your same passion for the sport. What's there not to love about hockey?

So as Thanksgiving rolls nearer for us in the US, there has been lots of time to think about the things we are grateful for. Sometimes, it's good to take a step back and realize what a wonderful thing you have in front of you. Hockey is a great way to meet with other people who you probably would not have ever had any connection to otherwise. It's amazing to start chatting about hockey and your favorite team with someone you've never previously met and before you know it, you have a new friend. Oh, and let's not forget that hockey is an entertaining sport to watch too.

Avs-Rangers 11/19/10 in Pictures

The Avalanche defeated the Rangers 5-1 in Craig Anderson's return to the Avalanche after hurting his knee during warm-ups when he was set to back up Peter Budaj in Vancouver.

Stop Criticizing Avs Fans

An article by Mark Kiszla that ran in today's Denver Post seems to have sparked a lot of irritation among loyal Avs fans. As an Avs fan, quite frankly I am sick of all the criticism from the local newspaper media (the only media source that regularly covers the Avs in depth). I've read plenty of articles recently citing low attendance at Avalanche games and using that as an excuse to say how bad we are as fans. It's a ridiculous argument to start in the first place. These professional writers are being paid to attend the games and they get in for free, so they're not exactly contributing to ticket sales themselves. In fact, one reporter has stated that he wouldn't pay the prices that we do to get into games.

I think the lack of attendance is not a sign that there is a lack of passion for the Avalanche. Certainly, there is no lack of desire to attend games on my part. If the money was there, I would buy season tickets and be there every night to the end, win or lose. It would be awesome for me to be able to support our boys in burgundy in person all the time, but financially, I just can't do it. There are ticket deals out there if you get on the right mailing list or read the right blogs, so you can find cheaper than usual tickets, but it's still not inexpensive to go to a game. Frequently I see offers for upper bowl seats for only $20 apiece. That's pretty affordable, but if you take a friend with you, there's $40 already and if you then pay $10 for parking, you're in for $50. I don't ever eat or drink at the games because the food prices are ridiculous. $50 for two people to attend a hockey game doesn't sound too bad, but I can't afford to do that all the time and those offers are certainly not there for every game.

Kiszla also criticized fans and went so far as to refer to them as "fans", which is just downright insulting. The criticism was that the crowd was flat and quiet early in the game. Well duh, the Avs were playing horribly and losing by a two goal margin. I'm sorry, but if the Avs are not playing well, why would I want to jump and scream and make noise? I'd feel like an idiot for mindlessly screaming just to make noise when the team is not doing anything good. The article even cites Avs' captain Adam Foote as saying the team wasn't giving the fans much to cheer about.

Fans might not be showing up every night and filling the seats, but there's no denying that the economy is not great right now. The Avs have a couple of promotions where they sell cheaper tickets that are available to all (Family Night and Guy's Night Out), but their marketing is horrible. Sure they put up some billboards around town this year (which Kiszla in his article said there were none), but the whole "It's All About the A" ad campaign is pathetic. I've heard a couple commercials where one of the players is narrating and sounded incredibly bored with the whole thing (not criticizing the players here, just saying) and that's certainly not going to make people want to go to a game.

The Avs need to start thinking about having more events to pull in the casual fans. They have charity events where fans can interact with the players, but you have to pay $250 to get in. It's understandable that the events are raising money for charity, but the fans who won't pay $50 to go to a game certainly can't go to those events. They used to have a team skills competition where you could pay $5 to watch the team do an All Star style skills competition. It was cheap and entertaining and the players probably had fun too. The first time I ever got to see the Avs in person was at one of those competitions because I was young enough to not have a job yet and my parents thought that was affordable for the whole family to go enjoy, whereas $150 for us to all sit in the nosebleeds at a game was not. Something needs to change at the organization to try and draw in more fans. Obviously doing the same thing (very little) to entertain the fans over and over is not working.

It's ridiculous that the media members would criticize the fans and call them apathetic for not buying tickets to the game, when the team is clearly just as apathetic about trying to draw fans in. I'll give them credit this year for doing the puck drop contest to give away season tickets prior to the start of the season and a few other giveaways on Facebook. Maybe they're finally getting the idea that they have to do more to get people to come to the games. If you win free tickets to a game and enjoy yourself, you're more likely to buy tickets to a future game. I don't know if the Avs will ever try to do more to have the casual fans interact with the team at some sort of event that average people can afford. Such a thing may not draw in more fans anyway, but it couldn't hurt to try. It just seems like something needs to change, something new needs to be tried to get more people in the seats. I don't see them ever dropping ticket prices to a more reasonable level, so they need to do more to make the current prices worth it (because let's face if, if you've been to more than one game, you know the in-game entertainment is going to be pretty much the same every night).

We may never know if the point of Kiszla's article was just to get a rise out of people and get more attention on the Denver Post's website. If that was the point of it, bravo, you've done it. However, if Kiszla really just feels that Avs fans are lame and cheap, then he doesn't know what he's talking about. I know every single player on the team and consider myself a pretty dedicated fan, since you probably couldn't pull a random person off the street and have them know who Kevin Shattenkirk or Jonas Holos are (and probably most of them wouldn't know who our starting goaltender is). The fact that the team is made up of so many young and unheard of players probably contributes to the lack of disinterest in the non-hockey nuts fans around town. Maybe the article wasn't aimed at people like me, but it seems that the audience that probably reads the Post is the audience that is at least somewhat fanatical about the Avs, so why criticize your readers? It seems pretty pointless to call the fans out for not buying more tickets and not cheering when the team was playing poorly. What has it accomplished besides making the more loyal fans, who can't afford to be there night in and night out, mad? Not going to every single game does not make a fan lousy, so the local newspaper media should stop insinuating that it does.

Down, But Not Out

Things were looking pretty grim for the Avs in the early going of the third period of tonight's game versus the San Jose Sharks. The Avs allowed a goal less than one minute in for the second straight game. They were in a 1-3 hole with only about a dozen shots on goal. The defensive pairing of Adam Foote and Ryan Wilson had been on the ice and had turnovers that lead to all three Sharks goals. Budaj was not having his best game, not awful, but wasn't fully on top of things. There was not really a whole lot of positives to go on at that point. In fact, the only good thing was that rookie defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk had scored his first career goal in the first period to tie the game at 1.

The third period is when things finally started looking up for the Avs. The Sharks were poised to go up 4-1, but had their goal called off when it was put in the net with a high stick (although just barely above the crossbar). That seemed to be the momentum-changer of the game for the Avs. Chris Stewart netted a goal, the 50th of his NHL career and suddenly the Avs were back in the game, down by only one goal. Paul Stastny then scored his 8th goal of the season off a nice pass from Stewart and the game was tied with just over 5 minutes left in regulation.

Just because the game was tied did not mean the Avs just got to coast into overtime. Peter Budaj had to make some great saves late in the third period as the Sharks made their last flurry of attempts to get back on top of the scoreboard. Budaj kept the puck out of the net and the teams headed to overtime to battle it out. A little over two minutes into the extra period saw Kevin Porter streaking in on Antero Niittymaki. Porter shot the puck and it found the back of the net. Miraculously the Avs had come back from their 3-1 deficit in the third period to somehow beat the Sharks 4-3 in overtime.

This was one of those games where the Avs were down and not playing very well. Their defensive pairing of Foote and Wilson was awful, yet continued to be played together while the forward lines were shuffled around. The Avs had a dismal 3 shots on goal in the second period and only had a total of 22 in the game to the 43 of the Sharks. Budaj finished the game with 40 saves and really was key in allowing the Avs to comeback in this one. Not to be lost in everything else was that John-Michael Liles had 2 assists, bringing his points total for the season to 18, tops in the NHL among defenseman for now (Kris Letang of the Penguins and Nicklas Lidstrom of the Red Wings both have 17). Somehow, something changed for the Avs in the third period and they pulled off a win in a game that for the most part, they did not deserve to win. Hopefully, this will not become a trend for the boys in burgundy, but being down does not always mean you should count them out.

More Bad News, Guys

I had a post all written out early this afternoon about how injuries could be a blessing in disguise for the young players who get called up from the AHL and have a shot at playing in the big leagues. My internet was not working by the time I finished typing up the post and now I don't feel like posting it. The Avs have lost two more players to injury after tonight's loss to the Calgary Flames, making it harder to see a bright side to all the injuries.

Players number 9 and 10 currently out with injury are David Van Der Gulik with a torn MCL and TJ Galiardi with a broken wrist. I guess if you wanted to find a bright side, it's not another concussion. Earlier today the Avs announced that Kyle Quincey is out indefinitely with a concussion, making him the 4th Avs player currently out with such an injury. This of course comes on the tail of losing Ryan Wilson to a leg injury which comes on the tail of losing Kyle Cumiskey to a concussion. The Avs players are dropping left and right and at this rate Lake Erie is going to have to suspend operations when their entire roster ends up in Denver (what happens when the farm team's farm team is all called up? Do we start suiting up the fans?).


For tonight's game the Avalanche dressed 4 rookie defensemen who had played in less than 10 games each: Holos (9 games), Liffiton (3 games), Shattenkirk (2 games) and Cohen (1 game). The addition of Cohen and Shattenkirk (both 21) and Kevin Porter (24) lowered the average age of the Avalanche to make them the youngest team in the NHL. In fact, they have only three players on the roster over the age of 30 with Hejduk, Hannan and Grahame. Given the Avs' not-so-hot start to the season defensively, this could ultimately be a good thing for them. At the very least their young D is getting some great NHL experience.

After losing two forwards to injury tonight, the Avs will be forced to call more players up from Lake Erie to fill in the voids on the roster. Both injuries are likely going to be longer-term and are currently listed as indefinite. At this point, it doesn't look like any of the injured players are very likely to return in the next game or two. Ryan Wilson's injury has not been clearly defined (big surprise) and he could be day-to-day. David Jones' hand injury is also a day-to-day thing (he practiced yesterday with the team in an orange non-contact jersey). Adam Foote is getting closer to a return as he skated for a solid 30-45 minutes prior to the rest of the team's practice yesterday.

Some of the injuries are not the sort of thing you could blame on conditioning, Galiardi's broken wrist being a prime example (he was checked into the boards and got his hand caught between his body and the glass at the wrong angle). However, with 10 players out of the lineup with various injuries, you have to start to wonder, is there something wrong with what the training staff is doing for the team? For the last several years, the Avs have had injury after injury and it has felt like the number of injuries has been beyond the level of normal hockey injuries. Hockey is a rough sport, ask anyone who has played it (I've personally had a concussion from being boarded), injuries are bound to happen. It just gets to a certain extent where you have to wonder, is it just bad luck or is there something that could or should be changed?

It's not time to panic and give up on the season for the Avs. It's still plenty early in the season and if you're going to have a lot of injuries, you'd always prefer them to happen early, rather than late. Several of the players out right now could be out fairly long-term, but it's really hard to say with those head injuries (I suffered post-concussion symptoms for years and sometimes wonder if I still do). It's getting to the point where you just kind of hold your breath every time a player gets hit kind of hard (in 2-3 days are they going to come out and say he has a concussion?!) or is a little slow to get up after blocking a shot. Hopefully the luck will turn around and players will start getting healthy, but until then, I guess we can just enjoy this sneak preview of players who will probably be making the roster in a year or two out of training camp.


*Not to be missed amongst all the bad news, Chris Stewart scored his 100th career point tonight when he netted a power play goal for the Avs in the third period. He's also one away from his 50th career goal now.*

One Month Down...

The first month of the NHL season is officially in the books, it's now November and 11 games are done for the Avs. They have a 6-4-1 record, nowhere near as impressive as this time last year, but a respectable record nonetheless. It's good for first place in the division and third place in the Western Conference. A lot happened during the first month of the NHL season for the Avs.

Chris Stewart had a fantastic October, landing himself the third star of the month for October. Stewart is tied for second in the league with Steven Stamkos, having scored 9 goals (one behind Chicago's Patrick Sharp). He's also tied for second in the league with Patrick Sharp at 16 points (three behind Tampa Bay's Stamkos). Stewart also scored a hat trick to help lift the Avs 6-5 over the Calgary Flames. He carries an 8 game point streak into November, the longest active streak in the league with 8 goals and 6 assists since the Avs beat New Jersey on October 15th. It looks like a trip to the minor leagues will not be necessary this year as Stewart seems to be developing nicely into an NHL power forward.

John-Michael Liles set a new league record in October. He had assists in 9 consecutive games to start the season, the most ever by a defenseman (the previous record was 8 by Philip Kuba in 2008). The streak is also the longest point streak ever recorded in franchise history for a defenseman. Liles finished the month of October with 11 total points, all of them assists.

On October 26th, Peter Budaj was scheduled to start the game, his second of the season. During the pre-game skate, Craig Anderson was in net, doing a drill that the backup goaltender always does when he hurt his knee. As a result, the Avs had no backup goaltender for this game. The league rule in the event of an injury to Budaj would have meant another one of the Avs players on the bench would have had to step in to the net. Fortunately, Budaj was not hurt during the game (what bad luck would that have been!), but that didn't stop the fans from wondering who would have stepped in to the net. After the game, Joe Sacco admitted he had no idea who would have done it, as in the past it would have been Brett Clark.

Anderson flew back to Colorado the next day to have further assessment done on his knee. Anyone who saw the video of Anderson's injury was concerned as he left the ice immediately and didn't put any weight on his knee. The Avs were forced to call up a goaltender from Lake Erie and they went with John Grahame as the coaching staff there felt he was deserving of the call-up. The news on Anderson's knee was that it was not a serious injury and he wouldn't need surgery to fix it, but gave no specific time table as to when he might be ready to return. Peter Budaj is supposed to get the bulk of the games while Anderson is out and had his best showing of the season against Columbus on Saturday. Anderson was able to briefly skate sans equipment prior to the Avs practice session on Monday, a good sign.

The other bad news for the Avs was a series of head injuries to players. With Peter Mueller already out indefinitely with a concussion suffered during the preseason, the team also lost Captain Adam Foote to a concussion. Scott Hannan also suffered a head injury, but quickly was able to return. As if that was not enough, on October 30th defenseman Kyle Cumiskey also suffered a concussion. The Avs say Cumiskey's concussion is not too serious and that he is feeling better than he was on Saturday. The Avs have 6 healthy defensemen with Foote and Cumiskey out and may have to call someone else up from Lake Erie in the meantime.

There were definitely some concerns about the Avs special teams as the power play has allowed 4 shorthanded goals against in 11 games. It seemed for a while that they were incapable of scoring on the power play, but eventually they seem to have started putting pucks in the net. The penalty kill however, is one of the worst in the league at only 73.9%. The good news is it's still early in the season, so there's time to fix things and no need to panic yet. The defense has also been quite shaky at times, but consistency can be difficult with injuries. The Avs might have to think about making a trade to get a more solid, larger defenseman down the line though as they have three small defenseman in Liles, Cumiskey and Jonas Holos.

Only one month into the NHL season the Avs have had a lot of things happening and there's still a long way to go. The series of concussions is concerning and there's no certainty as to when Mueller, Foote or Cumiskey will return. Perhaps something will need to change, whether it's switching the whole team to the special helmets that Peter Mueller was supposed to get that helps protect against concussions or something else, it's hard to say. Hopefully the positive things that started the season for the Avs will continue as well. It would be great to see Chris Stewart remain among the league leaders in points throughout the season. The good news is despite everything that has happened, the Avs are on top of their division early in the season and they're not having trouble with scoring as they are second in the league with goals scored behind Chicago.

Opening Night: Victory!

Prior to the opening game of the 2010-2011 Colorado Avalanche season the 1996 Stanley Cup champion team was honored at the Pepsi Center. A video was shown recapping the highlights of the '96 win and then each member of the team was introduced one by one. The biggest applause, of course, went to Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy. A couple members of the team were unable to be present: Sandis Ozolinsh and Chris Simon are still playing in the Russian KHL and were not allowed to leave their teams, Craig Wolanin's father recently passed away and Scott Young's wife was due to give birth. Head coach Marc Crawford was present for the team dinner the previous night, but had to fly out to join his current club, the Dallas Stars for their opening game.

The atmosphere inside the Pepsi Center was awesome, the game was officially a sellout with capacity attendance of 18,0007. Despite the crowd featuring a lot of fans in Blackhawks jerseys, there were lots of cheers of "Let's Go Avs" and "Andy! Andy! Andy!" when Anderson made some good saves. The fans also did a lot of taunting Marty Turco. The players were also clearly excited to be back on the ice as they had some really excited goal celebrations when they scored.

The Avs got down 1-0 early in the first period, but they out-shot the 'Hawks and managed to tie the game up before heading to the intermission. The first goal of the season for the Avs came from Chris Stewart. In the second period, the Avs came out firing and got themselves to a 3-1 lead on goals from Matt Duchene and Paul Stastny. The 'Hawks added a goal in the second to make the score 3-2 Avs going into the third period. About midway through the third, the 'Hawks scored again to the game up. As time wound down the game, the Avs had a lot of chances late, but didn't score. Overtime came and the action went from end to end and the game ended when Paul Stastny added his second goal of the night, putting the puck in through Marty Turco.

From the pre-game ceremony to honor the 1996 Champion team (Denver's first professional sports championship) to the electric atmosphere in the Pepsi Center, a fan could not have asked for a much better start to the season. The Avs looked good and put a lot of shots on net, something they failed to do a lot last season and frequently in the preseason games. T.J. Galiardi looked good, with a couple of barely missed chances and Daniel Winnik looked like he fit right in with his new teammates. Craig Anderson was solid between the pipes and there was not a whole lot to complain about in the home opener. We can only hope to see more of the same from the Avs when they take on the Flyers in Philadelphia on Monday.

1996 Cup Team Reunion

Tonight is the night we've been waiting for. For nearly 6 months, we've been looking forward to when the Avs hit the ice again for the home opener. No more meaningless games, this is it. Tonight, Pepsi Center. Let's Go Avs!!!!!!!

That being said, the rest of this post will be pictures from last night's red carpet event at the Denver ChopHouse. The Avs current team and '96 Cup Team got together for a dinner celebration.















In order from top to bottom: The Chop House, Peter Mueller, Curtis Leschyshyn with Kyle Keefe, Paul Stastny and Patrick Roy, Patrick Roy and my autographed poster.

It's Almost Here!

We are now just over 48 hours away from NHL opening night! The Avs will be hosting the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks on October 7th as part of NHL opening night festivities. The Avs will be holding a reunion for the members of the 1996 Cup champion team which involves a dinner for the players on Wednesday night. Then prior to the game on Thursday, they will be doing a ceremony to honor the players.

The opening night action will be nationally televised on Versus (although I imagine the ceremony will not be aired since there will be a game on right before the Avs game). It has been 6 long months since we last saw the Avs play a game (give or take a week), so whether you are attending the game in person or just watching it on TV it will be good to see the boys in burgundy and blue back on the ice.

If the lines that were used during training camp and the Burgundy and White game hold true the top two lines should be Stastny-Stewart-Galiardi and Duchene-Hejduk-Jones (Jones in place of Peter Mueller who is out with a concussion...again). Milan Hejduk missed the end of the preseason with a back injury, but will hopefully be ready to go for opening night. Kyle Cumiskey missed training camp, but was back on the ice during the preseason.

The roster has been trimmed down to size with many players going back to their minor or junior teams. The open spot for the 7th defenseman has gone to Norwegian Jonas Holos. It will be interesting to see if Holos is on the ice for opening night in place of one of the other defensemen or whether he will be rotated into games occasionally. The two forwards who are still on the roster are Phillipe Dupuis (who played a few games for the Avs last year during injuries) and Mark Olver (who was drafted by the Avs in 2008). One of them may be cut eventually or else Peter Mueller will need to placed on the injured reserve to get the roster down to 23 players.

Training Camp - Day Two

Day two of training camp was definitely a lot more physical than day one. The hits were harder and there were a couple of fights (kinda fights, mostly pushing and angry words starting with Winnik and Quincey). Cody McLeod was not taking it easy on anyone, he didn't care who was on the other team, he was throwing hits. Which was probably the highlight of the gray team's play as they lost both their scrimmages in a combined 11-2 score. The blue team beat them 6-1 with two goals from Brandon Yip. The black team then beat them in the second scrimmage 5-1 with two goals and an assist from Chris Stewart. Team blue was the winner of the day as they beat team black 3-0 in the final scrimmage of the day during which Yip scored his third goal of the day. Calvin Pickard and Trevor Cann combined for the blue team's shut out.



One of the young guys that stood out to me was Matt Ford. It seemed like he was constantly flying into the offensive zone and putting some great shots on net. Greg Mauldin continued to look good during the scrimmages and could be a serious contender for a roster spot or be high on the list of call-ups in case of injury. Ryan Stoa is another one of the guys that looks like he could win a position on the roster. He definitely looked good during camp. On defense, Colby Cohen looked great on the ice today. He's definitely an offensive defenseman, but he could possibly be the Avs 7th defenseman (or maybe temporarily the 6th while Cumiskey is being held out with a slight groin injury).

Cameron Gaunce was a name that was bounced around a lot as a guy who could be in a position to take up a roster spot this season, but I wasn't totally convinced that he was ready. He got into a bit of a pushing match with Cody McLeod and that was the only thing about him that really stuck out to me. Kevin Shattenkirk was another name in the same category and another player that doesn't quite look ready for the NHL (I noticed a lot of failures to keep the puck in the offensive zone on his part). Of course they could both step it up during the preseason and steal a spot from someone else, nothing is set in stone yet. The trouble with the shorter training camp format (2 days instead of the usual 4) is that a lot of guys have a lot to prove in a short amount of time.

It seems unlikely that we'll be seeing the Avs' first draft pick Joey Hishon play for the parent club at any point this year. He looks to be headed for the minors. Hishon's on the small side for an NHL player (under 6 feet tall and only 170 lbs.) and has a tendency to look lost when he's not playing the puck. He could just be starstruck attending his first NHL training camp at 18 (not everyone can mature as fast as Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly). He definitely shows some great potential, but I don't think he's ready for the big leagues just yet. During one of the scrimmages he was participating in, he was injured and was pulled off the ice for the remainder of the day (and according to http://avalanche.nhl.com it was mostly a precaution).

Chris Stewart was flying all over the ice today and seems like he is going to be a force to be reckoned with this year. He was really clicking well with line-mates T.J. Galiardi and Paul Stastny and I think they will definitely be a great offensive threat together. The lost weight and gained muscle mass over the summer definitely seems to be a boost to his game. Kevin Porter looked good at this year's camp as well. He definitely seems like the experience he gained with the Avs last year was beneficial and he has built on it.


After a short training camp, it is now up to the players who are trying to earn a job to have a strong showing in the Burgundy and White game and preseason. Of course, everyone who attended training camp will not even necessarily make it to the annual intra-squad scrimmage tomorrow night. It will be interesting in the next couple weeks to see who is cut and who makes it onto that opening night roster on October 7th. All in all it was an entertaining training camp and made me really look forward to the regular season!

Training Camp - Day One

Today was the first day on the ice for the Avs full training camp roster after rookie camp earlier this week and off-the-ice training yesterday. It was great to see the Avs all out on the ice again. The format for this year's camp was three 45 minutes scrimmages with the clock running (the roster was broken into three groups: blue, gray and black; and each team played each other once). The coaching staff, scouts and management watched from the bleachers with the rest of us fans (although they were roped off in their own section). The team that was not playing during the scrimmage did drills on the other sheet of ice.

The scrimmages were held on the opposite sheet of ice from where the Avs usually practice. The ice was apparently not in proper shape for scrimmages (too soft and according to David Jones there was a large hole in the ice).


It was apparent from the start which players were playing for a spot on the roster and which players were comfortable with their positions on the team. That's not to say that the veteran players were lazy, rather the guys just hoping to secure a spot on the team worked really hard and often out-skated the experienced NHL-ers. One of the players hoping to make the team that stood out was Greg Mauldin. He scored a goal and had an assist during the scrimmages and even hit a couple posts. He demonstrated his desire to play for the Avs with his quickness and refusal to take it easy on any of his shifts. None of the players really held back as there was hitting going on left and right from the start of the first scrimmage.

Matt Duchene looked great on the ice, like he was very comfortable being there and confident with himself. He was frequently on the ice with Peter Mueller and Milan Hejduk and the trio had great chemistry. Another frequent line combination which might be familiar to Avs fans was Paul Stastny, Chris Stewart and T.J. Galiardi. Galiardi looked to be playing with the same passion and grit that we saw from him during the playoffs, so look for an interesting season for him.


Adam Foote looked pretty good on the ice as well. He looked a bit faster than last year and definitely like he was ready for another NHL season. Peter Mueller looked comfortable on the ice and like he was more than prepared to return to action after his season-ending concussion. Hopefully he'll be ready to continue producing as he did during his brief healthy stint for the Avs last season. Also looking decent was David Jones who of course had his season cut short with the knee injury last year. It looks like he'll take a little while to be fully back in game shape, but he looked ready to go.

It was great fun seeing the boys back in action and it should be interesting to see who steps up on day two of training camp, which is also tomorrow morning starting at 9AM.

It's About Time!

Finally the Avs have signed Peter Mueller to a 2 year contract today. Last week they signed Chris Stewart to a 2 year contract as well. Those were the last two major unsigned players that were expected to stick around. Stewart lead the team in goals last year with 28 and was second in total points. Peter Mueller only played in 15 games for the Avalanche before Rob Blake gave him a concussion and ended his season. In those 15 games, Mueller had 20 points (9 goals and 11 assists) though so barring any lingering post-concussion symptoms, the Avs are hoping to see more production from Mueller for the next two seasons.

Even more on the good news front is that one week from tomorrow is the start of training camp (or at least the start that us fans can attend). Just one week until we can watch our boys in burgundy take the ice for the first time as a team since last April (that was forever ago!). Much of the young core of the team is going to be back together with veterans like Milan Hejduk and Adam Foote. With Craig Anderson and Peter Budaj back in nets this year, things are looking good for the Avalanche. The biggest worry they should have is all those rookie players from last season hitting the dreaded sophomore slump.

As If We Needed Another Reason

As if we needed another reason to attend the home opener, the Avalanche have announced that they will be having a reunion for the 1995-96 Stanley Cup winning team. A lot of details are still to be released, but they did say that they will be honoring the team prior to the team's home opener on October 7th vs. the Chicago Blackhawks (whose head coach conveniently is Joel Quenneville, one of the Avs' assistant coaches back in '96).

It's only been since April that we've been able to attend an Avs game, so it's not like any of us were itching to go to the home opener anyway. Last year, it was Joe Sakic's jersey retirement ceremony and this year it's going to be honoring Denver's first professional sports championship team. The Avs may be establishing a new tradition of holding a big celebration every year when the season begins. Even if they don't plan to continue this trend, it should be a fun night for fans to see the original Avalanche team that came to Denver and won our hearts.

View the article on the Avs official site here.

Is Summer Over Yet?

August is probably the longest month of the summer for hockey fans. Even if your team is eliminated early or don't even make the playoffs, you can watch the rest of the playoffs through early June. Usually, Avs fans would have had the opportunity to attend or at least read about a prospect development camp in July. At least there was free agency (although that wasn't terribly exciting this year), and the announcement of the Burgundy and White game and the opportunity to buy tickets.

The only excitement we really have in August is that it is the last month where we have no hockey. September brings with it training camp, the Burgundy and White game, and the pre-season. Of course, the time we are all really looking forward to is the start of the regular season in early October. The season opens with the Avs hosting the 2010 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks on October 7th.

Over the summer, we have said good bye to a few players, none really unexpected: Brett Clark and Chris Durno who went to Tampa Bay, Ruslan Salei who went to Detroit, and goaltending prospect Tyler Weiman went to Vancouver. Darcy Tucker was unsurprisingly not offered a new contract and remains as a free agent. Matt Hendricks is also still a free agent. According to Adrian Dater earlier this summer, Hendricks was made an offer by the Avs, but it was not what he was hoping for and he wanted to test the market. It's looking unlikely that he will return.

Then there were the players who returned to the Avs. Prior to free agency, the Avs announced the signings of Captain Adam Foote, goaltender Peter Budaj and left wing David Koci. Brandon Yip and Kyle Quincey both signed 2 year contracts to remain with the Avs after July 1st. Shortly before the start of free agency, the Avs traded a 2012 4th round draft pick to Phoenix for left wing Daniel Winnik. They also signed him to a 2 year contract this summer. Chris Stewart and Peter Mueller have still not signed contracts with the Avs, but are both restricted free agents. The Avs should re-sign them both, but whether or not they will still remains to be seen.

The Avs will definitely have to make some signings because they are still below the league's cap floor. That's right, not only is there a salary cap, but a salary floor, a minimum amount that the team has to spend. The Avs have not even met that salary minimum yet. With training camp starting up in about a month on September 17th (the date veterans report for physicals), it seems likely that the Avs will sign a couple more players prior to then.

The summer has been long and rather boring, with no big free agents being signed by the Avs because they didn't feel that they needed any. The argument could also be made that they don't want to spend a lot of money on big name free agents because they have so many young players who will be earning bigger contracts in the next couple of years. If you follow the NHL in general, the most interesting story was probably the ridiculous contract between Ilya Kovalchuk and the Devils which was ultimately rejected. If you are only interested in the Avalanche though, it was not a terribly exciting summer. The good news is that we are only a month away from training camp and less than 2 months away from the start of the regular season.

More Returning Players

With the July 1st free agency date just over a month away, the Avs have announced the signing of two more players to new contracts. Backup goaltender Peter Budaj and left winger David Koci each signed a one year deal for the upcoming 2010-2011 season.

Budaj has been with the Avs for five seasons as both a starting goaltender and a backup. This last season, Budaj served as the backup for Craig Anderson and appeared in 15 games. When he was not playing, Budaj was still busy on the bench watching the other team's shooters and telling Anderson about their shooting tendencies. He would also consult with the Avs shooters during a shootout and let them know the opposing goaltender's weak spots.

Last season was Koci's first year as an Av and a career high for him. He appeared in 43 games, more than any previous season in his NHL career. He was not shy about dropping the gloves while on the ice.

2009-2010 Season Tribute

Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of interest going on with the Avs right now. Starting this blog near the end of the season means it will probably be slow and uninteresting for a while. In the meantime, I will try to come up with some interesting posts.

Shortly after the Avs were knocked out of the playoffs, I went through my pictures/videos from going to games this season and put together a video. It starts on Joe Sakic night and continues throughout the regular season.



If you feel the need for music, the song I put in the clip was "The Pretender" by Foo Fighters. I cut the song out so that I wouldn't infringe on any copyrights. All of the photos/videos were shot by yours truly. I hope you enjoyed!

The Captain Returns

The Avs announced today that they have signed Captain Adam Foote to a one year contract for the 2010-2011 season. This signing is no surprise since Foote said earlier that he was definitely interested in playing for another year with the team. He is only the second team captain in Avalanche history and will continue to lead the team with his veteran presence for at least one more season.

On July 1, 2010 the free agency period will begin for the NHL and between now and then, the Avs will be able to negotiate contracts with the restricted and unrestricted free agents if they wish to re-sign them. The restricted free agents are: Peter Mueller, Kevin Porter, Brandon Yip, Chris Stewart and Kyle Quincey. The unrestricted free agents are: Stephane Yelle, Matt Hendricks, Chris Durno, Darcy Tucker, David Koci, Marek Svatos, Brett Clark, Ruslan Salei, and Peter Budaj. I might be skipping somebody, but that's who is up for a new contract during this off-season.

Another One

Avalanche defenseman Ruslan Salei will also be heading over to Germany for the World Hockey Championship, starting this Friday, May 7th. Salei will don the captain's C for Team Belarus, just as he did at this year's Olympics.

Also heading to German is defensive prospect Jonos Holos who also represented the Avs for Team Norway in the Olympics.

The Good News Is...

The season is over for the Avalanche, but the good news is some of the team are not done with hockey just yet. The first round elimination from the NHL playoffs has led to a good thing for some of the guys. Several members of the Avalanche will be representing their respective countries at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship to be held in Germany this year. The championship starts on May 7th and will last a couple weeks until May 23rd.

Representing Team USA will be forward T.J. Galiardi who was born in Canada, but much like his roommate Paul Stastny, has dual-citizenship and elected to play internationally for Team USA. This will mark Galiardi's first appearance for Team USA in international play as he never previously made the team's cut at the junior level. Joining Galiardi for Team USA will be Avalanche head coach Joe Sacco, who will serve as an assistant coach for USA in the IIHF World Championship.

The Avalanche will also have two representatives on Team Canada when the World Championship starts next Friday in Germany. Rookie sensation and Calder Trophy nominee Matt Duchene will be lacing up his skates for his country. Duchene has previously won a medal with the Under-18 Canada team. Joining Duchene on Canada's roster will be speedy Avs defenseman Kyle Cumiskey. This will mark the first team Cumiskey has put on Team Canada's jersey in international play.

In other good news, Matt Duchene will not be the only member of the Avalanche who will be up for an award on June 23rd. When the NHL convenes in Las Vegas to host it's end of the year awards, Duchene will be up for the Calder Trophy as the league's outstanding rookie. Also nominated was head coach Joe Sacco who will be up for the Jack Adams award for the best coach in the league.

The nomination is quite an honor and a nod to Sacco's unexpected success at establishing his young team as a force to be reckoned with in the tough Western Conference. The Avs were not expected to be a playoff contender until much further down the road, but Sacco coached his team full of rookies and mostly under 25 players to the 8th seed. While they were ultimately knocked out by the San Jose Sharks in the first round, the Avs and coach Sacco gave them a run for their money.

Congratulations again to Joe Sacco for his Jack Adams nomination and to Matt Duchene for his Calder nomination. Hopefully they will be bringing home some hardware, but even if they don't, it's nice that they are getting some deserved recognition.

Good luck to the Avs three young stars Matt Duchene, Kyle Cumiskey and T.J. Galiardi who will be skating for their countries in Germany and also to Team USA assistant coach Joe Sacco. The NHL season ended too early for the Avs, but some of the boys will be able to extend their hockey for a little bit longer anyway. It must always be fun to represent their own country in international play too. Go Team USA! Go Team Canada (but mostly go Team USA!).

To learn more about the IIHF and the 2010 Men's World Championship and to follow the action you can visit: www.iihf.com

*All images in this post were taken by me and you must ask permission to use them elsewhere*

Heartbreaker

Well, what can you say? The Avs have been defeated 4-2 in the series against the San Jose Sharks. As a fan, it is a bitter disappointment right now. But there is a lot of positive to go on as well. Look back to October 1st, game one on the season. Did anyone honestly give the Avs a shot at being in the playoffs? Nope. When the Avs actually made the playoffs, everyone pretty much blew them off and figured it would be an easy first round for San Jose.

The Avs definitely gave the Sharks a run for their money. They stormed into San Jose and took game one on the road, surprising pretty much everyone. The series was very physical and for the most part, very close in scoring. The Sharks outshot the Avs drastically, and yet thanks to the play of Craig Anderson the Avs managed to stay in the series. This was a very close battle as 3 of 6 games went to overtime and 2 others were close to it (game 1 was a last minute victory and until they pulled Anderson tonight, it could've easily been tied up again).

Right now, it's nothing but a heartbreaker for Avs fans, but still we have a lot of positives to go on. I think that next year this team is going to be a force to be reckoned with. The Avs' young stars played magnificently this year and they'll only get better with age and experience. The team surprised a lot of people including all the experts that predicted another season much like last year. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect for the Avs this season, so I was pleasantly surprised when things came together the way they did.

We do have one more thing to look forward to as Avs fans. June 23rd is when the NHL Awards take place in Vegas. The Avs' star rookie Matt Duchene, 3rd overall draft pick in 2009 is one of three players nominated for the Calder Trophy. Duchene lead all rookies with 55 points (24 goals, 31 assists) in the regular season. There's no guarantees that Matt will win it, but it's something to look forward to anyway.

And now, it's time to finish up. I just want to say, thank you from the bottom of my heart to the Avalanche. There have been a lot of memorable moments and I have a lot of new favorite players (Yes, I'm one of those people who can't pick just one favorite). This season was really a lot of fun and more than I would've thought it would be after last year. I am so proud of everything the Avs have accomplished this season and I am going to start counting down the days until next season rolls around. It's only a little over 5 months until the next NHL season starts!

Frustrating

There are no words for how frustrating the Avs are right now. Game after game after game they have been completely outshot by the Sharks. The shots in the first period of the game were 12-2 in favor of the Sharks. Seriously, Avs? Two shots in a period will never win you hockey games. They were then outshot 17-9 in the second period (and outscored 3-0 in the period). Finally, the Avs outshot the Sharks 17-8 in the third period, but the game was well out of hand by that time. They lost this one in a huge 5-0 letdown.

Throughout this series the Avs have relied heavily on the play of Craig Anderson. He has been fantastic and totally stole game 3 for the Avs, but he is human. A goaltender can definitely save your butt from time to time, but your game plan cannot be 'let's just let our goaltender do all the work for us.'

It's hard to believe that game after game, so much of the play has been in the Avalanche's zone. Defensively the Avalanche clearly need some work. It's puzzling that in a series with so many shots going toward Anderson that Brett Clark has been a healthy scratch throughout. Clark is the Avs' top shot blocker and one of the leading shot blockers in the league, but he has yet to suit up in the playoffs.

The Avs got their butts kicked in this game, with a little assistance from the referees. The officials continue to call every little thing on the Avs and not much on the Sharks. The Avs however failed to put much on net and spent way too much time in their own defensive zone. The Sharks controlled the play for almost the entire game.

The one-sided refereeing is bound to continue in this series. The Avs will just have to continue to overcome that as much as possible and keep up their penalty killing. This sets up for a game 6 on Saturday that will be do or die for the Avs. They still have several players out with injuries (most notably Milan Hejduk, Peter Mueller and David Jones).

Either the Avs will find a way to spend some time in the San Jose zone next game or they are liable to exit the playoffs early. Or just maybe super-human Craig Anderson will show up again. It will be interesting to see how the Avalanche come out for game six.

Here We Go Again...

For the third straight game, the series between Colorado and San Jose headed to overtime to decide the game. Their last meeting in the regular season also went to overtime and the first game of this series narrowly avoided overtime. It's clear these two teams are pretty evenly matched.

San Jose came out strong in the first period, clearly hungry after losing game 3 because Dan Boyle put a puck behind his own goaltender. Ryan O'Reilly was actually shown to have tipped the puck past Evgeni Nabokov, but Boyle was the one who shot the puck, trying to flip it behind the net.

Dan Boyle redeemed himself early in game 4 as the Sharks got a power play 35 seconds into the game. He scored just over one minute into the game, probably making himself feel a lot better for that OT goal in game 3. The Sharks continued their play from the second and third period of the previous game by completely dominating the play for the first period.

The Avs came out strong for the second period and things were much more even for the rest of the game. Rob Blake took a penalty and allowed the Avs to even things up. Just a few seconds into his penalty, John-Michael Liles fired a shot from the blue line that Paul Stastny tipped into the net behind Nabokov.

For the remainder of regulation, both goaltenders remained strong. Both Nabokov and Craig Anderson made some big saves to keep the game tied at 1. Late in the game, it became apparent that barring any last minute goals, the teams were headed to overtime again. The teams were closer in shots this time around, although once again San Jose out-shot the Avs 34-28 in regulation.

As the other games in this series have been, this game was very physical. Both teams were throwing hits left and right. The referees were definitely less of a factor tonight. Both teams were called for four minors apiece and traded power play goals.

Early in overtime, both goaltenders had to make some huge saves to keep the game going. The action went from end to end and the overtime lasted about ten minutes before San Jose's Joe Pavelski finally got a puck past Craig Anderson.

The series now heads to San Jose for game number 5 with each team having won one home game and lost one home game. Both teams will be desperate to get a win in San Jose to bring the series lead back to Colorado on Saturday with the potential to eliminate the other team. Hopefully the Avalanche will get a couple of guys healthy for game 5.

NOTES:
The Avs were missing Milan Hejduk tonight who was injured in the last game. Kevin Porter and Ryan Stoa were also both out with injuries, joining David Jones and Peter Mueller. Ryan Wilson was a healthy scratch tonight in favor of Ruslan Salei. Brett Clark was also a healthy scratch. Marek Svatos and Chris Durno stepped into the lineup to fill the voids left by Hejduk and Stoa.

New Blog!

I've had blogs in various forms in the past and decided it was time to start up again. This first post will be a kind of 'about me'. I am a huge fan of the Colorado Avalanche hockey team. I have been a fan since the team moved to Denver back in 1995. One day I was channel surfing and came across an early Avs game and never made it any further. I was instantly hooked and went along for the ride as they won the ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup in their first year in Denver.

Initially, I was too young and my parents were not terribly interested in hockey, so I just watched the games on TV. It was quite rare for me to miss a game, although back in those days not every single game was televised, a handful were only available on the radio. It didn't matter to me, as long as I was able to follow along with every game. When I was old enough to get a job and save up some money, I bought myself tickets to my first ever game. The Avs played the Calgary Flames that night and the game ended in a 2-2. It might have been disappointing to have the first game I ever went to end in a tie, but I was too thrilled at getting my favorite NHL team live to care.

Now over the years I have attended numerous games, some wins, some losses and some important moments in team history. When they clinched their historic 9th straight division title, I was at the game. When Patrick Roy played his last regular season game (though we didn't know it at the time) I was there. I also was at Joe Sakic's 1000th NHL game, my little sister's first hockey game experience. Earlier this year, I was there as Joe Sakic's number 19 was raised to the rafters.

The team has had their ups and downs over the years, but my love for them has never wavered. Oh sure, I have been frustrated with the team at times and last season was quite disappointing, but it ended up getting us some great draft picks and surprising success this year. It has been a fun ride these past 15 years as an Avs fan and this year's playoffs are definitely the most exciting in quite a while.

I won't give any guarantees as to how regularly I will be able to post, but I hope to have fun with two of my favorite passions: hockey and writing.