Those unlucky “bounces” made for an exciting (cardiac arrest) of a game. But the Avs dug down into their bag of puppy dog tails and won a game against the Mild.

But how can anyone be happy about those 3 stars selections?
Clutterbuck?
Hannan??
Nolan?

Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly had some big defensive shits

Interesting spelling mistake…way to slip out of Altitude-mode.

What odds are we getting that Clark and JML will be together against the Ducks tomorrow? They have been hell on ice for a while now, but this game was particularly bad. Sacco has got to split them, and maybe stick one of them in the luxury box.

does Brandon Yip make Darcy Tucker entirely superfluous?

you’d better be ready to hand Tucker the f*&(ing Jack Adams for what he does off the ice, because ever since Ruutu popped him, he has been 99.9999867% ShamWow and SlapChop has left the building.

I get it if the guy is hurt, still not at 100%, whatever, but even if he does give a shit this year, something I’ll grant for the sake of argument (though I’m not at all convinced) he still manages to be the 12th skater to the puck in any given situation and is so weak on the puck as to make Brett Clark look like Foppa. I’ll grant that he has cut down on his abjectly stupid penalties at critical moments, but that’s mostly due to the fact that he is so far away from the puck and the play at any given point, that even the refs & linesmen don’t notice him.

He is beginning to make a case for Arnason level sucking as he consistently makes ANYBODY on a line with him worse, a lot worse. Just look at the relative performances of Dutchy and Radar this year with and without Tucker on their wing and I defy you to make a cogent case that Tucker is not, in fact, the second coming of the Black Hole.

If all Tucker has left is intangible “leadership” and “wisdom”, let him get the hell behind the bench, where he can dispense same without fucking up the play of the rookie whom he is ostensibly “advising”, “nurturing”, Whatevathef(*& you want to call it. If Radar needs a billet, for Christ’s sake, have him live with Duke or even Kono.

Even the braintrust at MSE figured out that it was better to pay Tucker to go away than have him about. If you wanna keep him around for his supposed sagacity, fine, but for the love of all that is holy, keep him the hell away from the ice!

Maybe Yip’s the answer, maybe he ain’t, but a “tough” 3rd/4th line winger that actually skates, gets to the puck, wins battles, shoots harder than my dead grandmother and will stand up for his boys and get into the heads of the opponent is by far preferable to the running, entirely unfunny joke that is Darcy *ucker.

I’m guessing Anderson wants that Nolan goal back…that was a tad bit on the weak side. I’d say he wants the Havlat goal back as well, but Havlat can flat out score when he’s healthy.

As for the rest of the game…I’m surprised the Avs held on, considering they were cheap-shotted ALL night long. I think AD summed up DDC’s feeling on Mr. Clusterfuck on his twitter last night very well:

Clutterbuck ever fight? Just 10 pims this year, guess not. he just runs guys when they’re not looking

Only the avs can make two seperate 3 goal leads interesting. Normally a shorty breakaway goal will break the other teams back. The avs need a killer instinct and I have no idea how to give it to them, maybe it’s the youth.

Lots of defensive breakdowns and soft goals made it a very entertaining game. The Avs should also be thankful for some offensive misplays by the Wild (like that rookie not stopping in front of a wide open net to knock in that beautiful centering pass by Nolan) because the game could have easily gone the other way. But hey, a win is a win. I do hope they play a more solid game tonight.

I don’t know the reason’s behind everyone trying to grow facial hair…but if you look at the Hospital visit pictures, pretty much everyone has it going.

What about Galiardi? Dude was a maniac defensively. Maybe his best game as a pro. And a couple of assists for good measure. Goodbye Bad T.J. (Hensuck), Hello good T.J.!

I think we all remember how douchey the Wild were in that playoff series a few seasons ago. But watching the game last night, it appeared as if their douche quotient is still pretty dang high. Cluster*uck, Boogeyman, etc. were running folks all night. I think they may be surpassing the Flames as number 2 on my hate list. Nobody, of course, will ever pass the wheel.