I was asking after you in the GDT since the weather has been a bit nasty for you in NH. When you didn’t answer I was forced to speculate your demise.

"I’ll take no answer as…
Your power is out and you froze in your house along with several refugees seeking shelter from the ice-storm.
In a utopian future a few decades from now the technology will be available to unfreeze those lost in Keene, New Hampshire. It will turn out that one of the refugees is a Red Wangs fan that will try to work with the criminal underground to overturn peace and prosperity in an effort to return Detroit to something resembling glory. DD will save the day by freezing the Refugee Red Wangs Fan and kicking his head off while saying a tough yet delightfully witty one liner. Afterwards, DD will go watch the Colorado Avalanche destroy the hapless New Orleans Red Wings in New Orleans, because that city could sell more hockey tickets than Detroit. Sadly, DD will recommit himself to the deep freeze a few days later when he learns that when he was presumed dead Dater was quoted on his epitaph as saying, "Here lies the second-best hockey blogger from Keene, may he have better opinions on goaltenders in the next life".

We will miss you David Driscoll-Carignan."

Sweet.

Both Ballard hits seemed clean (he got a penalty on the 2nd, probably because the refs didn’t want the Avs to explode). Man, I wish we could get guys who could hit like that.

Keith Ballard was actually an Avalanche prospect at one point in time. He was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres and became Avalanche property in a three team trade that saw the Avalanche trade Steve Reinprecht to the Flames while the Sabres also sent Rhett Warrener to the Flames. In exchange, the Flames sent Chris Drury and Steve Begin to the Sabres and the Sabres sent Ballard to the Avalanche.

Ballard was later part of a trade by the Avalanche that sent Derek Morris to the Phoenix Coyotes for Chris Gratton (who was later bought out by the Avalanche), Ossi Vaananan (who left the Avalanche as free agent to play in Europe) and a second round draft pick (which turned out to be Paul Stastny).

Digging back even further to another trade which saw the Avalanche trade Drury and Stephane Yelle to the Flames for Derek Morris, Dean McAmmond (who was traded back to the Flames for a 5th round draft pick which turned out to be Mark McCutcheon) and Jeff Shantz (who left the Avalanche as free agent to play in Europe), we see that while in the end the Avalanche gained a first line center in Stastny, they certainly gave up A LOT for little to nothing along the way.

Just some food for thought.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

What there was a game today….Did some one tell the Avs that?

I opted to see The Wrestler instead and after seeing what happened, I don’t regret it at all. My only hope was an Anderson start for my fantasy team, but Vokoun shut us out, so I have nothing to gain from this. Weak game. The McLean goal is salt in the wound.

How much more of this bullshit do we have to tolerate before Granato gets fired? His fault or not, someone needs to take the blame for the Avs not showing up to half the frickin’ games.

On the upside, I’m getting a ton of stuff done around the house with the extra two hours I’m spending every gameday doing things other than watch Avalanche hockey, (if “efforts” like tonight even constitute being called “hockey.”

Depending on how you look at it, this is either the best or the worst .500 team in perhaps the history of the sport. On one hand, they don’t give a rats ass about anything more than half the time. On the other hand, they somehow manage to get wins slightly more than half the time. Here’s to efficiency, I guess.

I’d almost rather we were bad than this depressing mediocrity.

I paid more attention to the Bronco game (which has bigger playoff implications) but that game was just as frustrating.

By the way, Avs and Broncos playing at the same time, a stellar 3-9 this season. I hope the Avs don’t play next Sunday for both teams sake.

let’s make a new word:

for Liverscribbits’ sake

Hey Joe, could you draft a Writ of Habeas Corpus and get it filed with the court, so the next time the Avalanche decide not to show up for the game, we can have the authorities haul their butts into the building.

Or, maybe we could buy a bunch of those battery packs Forsberg was hiding in his boot and put them in their pants, so that when they fall asleep on the ice, we could send several thousand volts of electricity up their rumps to wake them up.

I tried to post a wicked picture of the Incredible Hulk, but I am too stupid to know how to do it. What I wanted to say was sometimes I wish Budaj would live up to his mask and pull a little Bruce Banner “Don’t make me angry. You won’t like it when I’m angry.” number on the team.

I asked my 8 year old son which (underachieving) Avalanche player, aside from Budaj, played the best tonight. He said Adam Foote. That’s at least his perspective on the game.

Hope they show up Tuesday.

I can’t believe Budaj didn’t score a goal in this game. Your Right on Labelle and McGeorge, Budaj didn’t win this one. Maybe Raycroft would have had a hat trick and 3 Assists to go with as well as a +6 +/- and then he would have won 2 fights, killed off every penalty and also had a better than 65% faceoff percentage. Its amazing, we didn’t even score a goal and Raycroft would have mysteriously won that game. I am beginning to believe the people who say we don’t know hockey in this state. Budaj had 21 of 23 saves in a game totally dominated by the Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers. Give me a break. As much as I think this team and coaching staff is a total disgrace, to place the blame on a goaltender during an opposing shutout is retarded. Maybe we should make Raycroft the team captain and coach, star center, rightwing, and pointman in the powerplay. Dudes, wake up, we were shutout. Not sure what that has to do with Budaj, you guys are jack asses.

By Andrew P.

Might as well be the face of Av fandom this season. I wonder if Kroenke has asked Sominex if they want to sponsor the ice at the Can?