From what I could see on the NHL.com highlights…

Budaj gave up more goals but Rayzor gave up weaker goals. Tie for worst?

Salei had a great night on the point. He appeared to factor in on a number of goals and and scoring chances. You tell me if he did ok on D. I am giving him best… of the highlights I saw.

We’re doing the ‘middle name’ meme for other players now as well? Cool.

And let me be the first to say: “WOOHOO, mediocrity! I started to miss the trusty .500”

This perhaps goes a long way to show how far the Avs have come, but I wasn’t even mad the Avalanche lost last night because the game was actually exciting for a change. No paint drying last night. Unfortunately, no goalkeeping either.

Positives:
Marek Svatos remembered that his stick can be used for reasons other than poke check.
Raycroft matching Budaj’s level of suckitude means no goalie argument b.s.
Cody McLeod has become one of the more valuable Avalanche players. He is reminding me more and more of Lappy. Playing with heart, throwing a big hit or fighting at the right times, and scoring timely goals.

If there were a right time to fire Granato (you know, other than the day after they hired him in an elaborate, funny, but ultimately cruel prank) today would be the best day. It would give a new coach 5 days to implement something with this team before their first game.

And in all honestly they would have 8, because their first game is against the Sharks and even a 10-0 ass-whooping would be accepted from a first day coach.

But Giguere is way too chicken to do something like fire a coach who has been nothing short of a catastrophic disaster this season.

I’m more than done with Granato. Anyone who can’t see the futulity of having Tucker on the PP, or having Arnason and Tucker on what is basically his second line now, is a big fat zero in my book. Late in the game, when the Avs were trying desparately to tie it, of course the Hejduk line took a couple of big shifts. But who was sandwiched in between them? The line that, oh, you know, has actually been effective lately, the Stewart-Hensick-Svatos line? Of course not. Gotta go with the juggernaut that is the Tucker-Arny-McLeod line. Genius. Pure f’ing genius.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/boards/thread.php?thread_id=56895

the only thing i’d add to it would be to fire FG as well…

Glad you brought him up. This has been on my mind all week, so now I have a forum to vent. It’s that 1/2/09 JML article Beachie posted, In that article Liles states:

“Now it’s OK to first and foremost shoot first and look to pass second. In the past, that hasn’t been the case. I don’t think that’s just me; that’s everybody.”

I keep thinking of all the games where the Avs couldn’t score and the press kept calling it “an offensive drought.” I don’t think it was an offensive drought at all. I think it was the product of a coach telling the team not to shoot the puck toward the net. In a game where the whole point is to get the puck in the net, wouldn’t the better approach have been to tell them “just shoot everything toward the net, create traffic in front of the goalie, and see if we can’t score.” I’m just glad that Granato has finally given the team permission to shot toward the net.

I though last night’s game showcased the ineffectiveness of the special teams. They were ineffective on both the PK and the PP. Interestingly, according to McNab, the team spent all of Tuesday’s practice working on the PP. Since the beginning of the season to now, there has been no improvement on these two things, as well as most everything else. I know if you had a 3rd grade teacher whose entire class was at the exact same level in reading, writing, and math as they were at the beginning of the year, you would really have to look at the effectiveness of the teacher. Seems the same should apply to a coach.

Feel free to tell me if I am completely off-base. That one rather subtle comment from Liles, sort of letting the cat out of the bag about some of the coaching philosophies, just leads me to believe there may be a lot more of that type of stuff going on than we realize.

Getting out of the first round got quenville fired…er…retired…er…whatever they called it. It’s pretty much the same team, something’s got to give.

So, I finally got to a game after a one-year absence. I can’t get the free tickets I once scored a dozen times a season or so, because my friends and associates have all given up on having season tickets! That was evident on Wednesday, when whole sections of the 300 level were empty – pretty much every corner was completely devoid of humanity. On the plus side, I scored 9th row tickets, dead center, behind the penalty box for $22/each (face was $111)! It’s worth it to wait for the first faceoff before haggling with the scalpers in front of Brooklyns.

The crowd was pretty lively, considering the turnout. There was a big LA Kings fan club behind our goal(not)tending duo. I think I read somewhere that the Kings offered a package where you got airfare on the team plane, hotel and transfer for pretty cheap. (Avs marketing, are you listening?) There were proabably 50 people all in Kings gear, with their own little cute thundersticks! Awwwwww. Did you get a lolly with your thunderstick too? They were pretty annoying because they were able to start their own chants, and once we were down 6-2 it was hard to get the enthusiasm up to drown it out.

Overall, I though the Avs played a pretty solid game, except for Budaj and Rayzer. We were really wondering if the Avs could suit up Hackett in the second period. Energy was high, and for Flying Spaghetti Monster’s sake, isn’t five goals enough to win a game against the Kings? I guess not. Great to see Stewart get a Gordie Howe Hat Trick!!! I say that because I am also of the Clan Stewart. No shirts availabe at the pro shop yet, but I pretty much need to buy one of those. He was definately the best player on the ice, or at least one you needed to watch at all times.

Even though we lost, it was a great game to watch. We came back with three unanswered goals and came so so close to tying it up at the end. Maybe it was the whiskey, but everyone was really fired up throughout the third period. I can’t wait to go back for another one!