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.