Pre-Season Game 4: Avalanche 3, Stars 1
by Joe Dunman on Oct 2, 2008 6:54 AM MDT
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photo courtesy of Jack Dempsey/AP
You know, for a team that's supposed to be horrible, the Avalanche are having a pretty good pre-season. Granted, the pre-season "doesn't mean anything," but Colorado is playing well enough to suggest that the coming season might not be as painful as forecast.
With Peter Budaj providing some seriously impressive goaltending, the Avs were able to beat the Stars 3-1 last night in Denver. Wojtek Wolski and Marek Svatos returned from injury lay-offs, Ryan Smyth continued to lead the charge and David Jones tallied his first goal of the pre-season, which was also the game-winner.
The first period was a scoreless affair. Budaj faced eight shots from the Stars and turned them all aside. His rebound control seems to have improved significantly since just last year, when he was still periodically giving up big second chances down low. Not so much last night.
The second period began with the Stars on the attack, out-shooting the Avs 7-3 over the first ten minutes. But Budaj remained solid and stopped everything he faced. Ryan Smyth would eventually score on the power play (courtesy of Sakic and Stastny) with just over a minute left to play before the second intermission.
The third period began well, with David Jones finally hitting the back of the net on a pretty backhand that easily beat Stars stand-in Matt Climie. TJ Hensick and Scott Hannan had the assists. That goal would stand as the eventual game-winner. But Dallas dickhead Steve Ott managed to get the Stars on the board just over two minutes later. Budaj didn't lose his composure, though, and was lights-out the rest of the game.
TJ Hensick added an insurance goal at 16:50 in the third with assists from Per Ledin and Chris Stewart.
Budaj stopped 29 of 30 shots. He's been consistently solid in every pre-season game he's played, with last night's win being the first time he's stayed in for all three periods.
The Avs won 26 of 48 faceoffs, for a total of 54%. Even more amazing was Tyler Arnason, who won seven of eight, and was the most reliable center in the circle all night. It may be just a fluke, but if he's actually worked to improve his faceoff ability over the summer, it's really paying off. More please.
The Avalanche next face the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow night, and will look to improve their pre-season record to 4-0-1.
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Is it just me
or does Boots have a different ‘third’ mask behind him. It doesn’t have the Frost covered 31(coolest mask number ever) or the sleek Assassins creed 31, plus it has bigfoots feet either side on the chin. Is that an old one or his new one.
"To have arrived on this Earth as a product of a biological accident, only to depart through human arrogance, would be the ultimate irony"
R. Leakey, Origins; 1977
"Two roads divurged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference"
R. Frost
It looks like this one to me. Same big 31 on the chin, weird shapes along the jaw line. But it’s tough to see for sure.
Go Avs! Let's get some goals!
Nah
it’s definetly not that one, the one behind in the video is a white 31 on a blue background with the bigfoot logos the same colour as it is on the jersey whereas the one you linked to is the 31 i think is awesome withe the frost/ice dripping down and it’s blue on a red background with blue logos next to it, but thanks for playing.
"To have arrived on this Earth as a product of a biological accident, only to depart through human arrogance, would be the ultimate irony"
R. Leakey, Origins; 1977
"Two roads divurged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference"
R. Frost
Solved It
It’s his new mask, he wore it in the pre-season game against Dallas. It doesn’t look too bad although the only pictures i could find are from the game shots on the Avs official website.
"To have arrived on this Earth as a product of a biological accident, only to depart through human arrogance, would be the ultimate irony"
R. Leakey, Origins; 1977
"Two roads divurged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference"
R. Frost
No he’s still wearing that one. It too has the 31 on the chin. In the game photos I’ve seen on ESPN (they’re the AP ones), he’s wearing the Assassin’s Creed mask.
Go Avs! Let's get some goals!
He was wearing the Assassin’s Creed mask in the first game against Dallas.
Go Avs! Let's get some goals!
And against the Kings on September 24th. Unless somebody has any more recent shots of him with something else on his head, he’s still using the AC mask.
Go Avs! Let's get some goals!
Upon further review of the mask behind him (man, it’s hard to tell), it appears he does indeed have a new mask in addition to the AC.
It’s clearly different than the AC:
The chin is totally different. I’m not entirely convinced that the “new” mask is anything other than the one he used to wear, the one with the skeleton hands on the chin, but it does look different in the grainy screen cap.
Ooooooooh, it’s a mystery!
Go Avs! Let's get some goals!
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