Avalanche Weekly

Other than yesterday's discovery, it was a rather dull week in Avalanche land.

To start things off, Joe took a look at Tony Granato. Twice. In somewhat related news, it looks like the Avalanche wanted to interview AHL coach Mike Havelid for a job on Granato's coaching staff, but the Blackhawks turned them down. Havelid has since been promoted to an assistan job with Chicago. And, just to confuse the hell out of me, Tony's brother Don Granato is now the head coach of the AHL Chicago Wolves.

It wouldn't really be summer without updates on the whereabouts of Peter Forsberg. This week, we have Foppa actually skating in Sweden. And golfing. And pitching (okay, that one's old news). And, apparently he played a little hockey too. Quite well, I should add. Yeah, he's coming back.

And, if we're going to talk about Foppa, you know we'll be talking about that guy no GMs want to sign, Joe Sakic. Shane was shocked to read that Sakic is more likeable than Crosby. But you don't care about that. You want to know if he's coming back. And, since he knows when training camp begins, he's definitely coming back. And, in case that isn't enough to sway him, he should stop trying to decide and just listen to Steve Yzerman. At any rate, Jori is reporting that Super Joe will be on the FAN on Monday morning. I wonder if any interesting topics might come up. I hope it's good news, because someone at The Hockey News thinks we're in big trouble if he doesn't. (I agree)

Oh, and if you're into the whole radio, Dater takes a deeper look at the situation, with additional reading here.

Not many other news on the players, unless you count Andrew Raycrofts confusion about his goalie coach. Sheesh. Oh, and Joe finally released another entry in his glacial series on the 19 All-Time Avs. That should be finished up by 2019, for sure.

There's some minor time-changes for games this year. Also, for you Lake Erie fans, the AHL schedule is out. One guy you won't see next year is Eric Healey. He's headed to Europe.

And that about covers it for the Avalanche this week. Around the league, Abel to Yzerman has started an entertaining series to create the Detroit Red Wing rivalry depth chart. Good reading for those of you with thick skin. (Not you, Bob!). The Canucks are losing Byron Ritchie to Switzerland. That's also where the Wild's Sean Hill is headed. Do they have better steroids there? And, Mikka Kipprusoff has changed his training habits in an effort to return to his old form.

Have a nice weekend, folks.