Game 48 Recap: Avalanche 3, Devils 1

I was lucky enough to be at this game and it was spectacular. The building had to be sold out or nearly so and around the 45 second mark of the third the entire building was chanting ‘Andy.’ He is much beloved. Also, Stewie passing the puck off to Wolski was the coolest thing ever. This team is growing up together and when I see unselfish play like that, it makes me think we have a potential dynasty in the making,

Great game and I agree that the NJ goal seemed to wake the Avs up as they had been sleeping since about the half way mark of the second period.

The first line was on their game today. The combined for 13 shots on net (Baron 3, SoS 4, Stewie 6).
Great sign on unselfishness by Stewie at the end of the game giving Wolski the goal.
Woslki has now passed his goals total from last season and is only 2 points from matching last season’s total (10 from his season best).

Andy has been a beast the last three games…good to see that swagger in net.

It looked to me like the sliding defenseman was hindering Stewart’s chance at the EN goal so giving the puck to Wolski seemed like the best move.

Chris Stewart is officially my new man-crush. I’m still naming my first dog Foppa, but if he keeps playing this way, “Stewie” will be the front-runner for #2.

You gotta stop this lyin up in here. We are clearly not frontrunners. We’re a horrible team filled with pimple faced teenagers who don’t realize they don’t belong in the NHL and DAMNIT OUR CORSI REFLECTS THAT. LET’S NOT KID OURSELVES HERE, OKAY? GOSH.

does anyone recall the score of game 7 of the 2001 stanley cup?

I rewatched the 3rd period against Buffalo and paid careful attention to this third period against NJ and there isn’t one single thing the Avs were doing wrong in this game in the 3rd. They played a little soft to start the third but they did a much, much better job from the red line to their own blue line.

One of the big things I noticed in the Sabers game for sure was that the Avalanche defense was giving up the blue line waaaaay too easily. In that game they had good energy in the 3rd, with great back pressure from their forwards all the way back in to their own zone. But the defense was giving up the zone with absolutely no front pressure at all. This is kind of hard to see on TV because of how the camera tends to lag behind the puck rather than preview the direction of the puck carrier. Anyway, in this game the Avs D still did back off the blue line pretty quickly in the 3rd but they were “taking a few more chances” than they usually do by poke checking more aggressively and giving up a smaller cushion. I put the chances thing in quotes because when you have good backside pressure, there’s very little risk involved with taking an aggressive stance at your own blue line. Unless they get a lot of speed through the neutral zone (and forwards aren’t because the Avs centers are back-checking mothers) then guys are going to have to make a move to get buy the defense and a forward can recover for a D man if they get to high in the zone making a play on the puck carrier. In a nutshell, against Buffalo the weak side defenseman was 30 feet off his assignment on the rush in the 3rd. In this game they were 10 to 15 feet away while the strong side D was about five foot away from the puck carrier when they took the zone.

I don’t care how good you are in your own neutral zone, if your defense is giving a huge cushion at your own blue line then you’re just letting the other team set up. It’s the football equivalent of prevent defense. It prevents you from winning. So, in future games with leads take a close look at how the defensive pairings are holding the blue line.

I was at the Kings game this afternoon and so I had to TiVo the game. I had a message from my Aunt who always calls after an Avs game when (1) they win or (2) they lose horribly. I was on the edge of my couch until the empty netter. (Cuz you know what this team does with a lead.) gl avfan was nice enough to let me text her “during” the game, going along with me as if she didn’t know the outcome.

After I got over the shock of how this team of kids that everyone predicted would be TEH SUXXORS just beat the best team in the league and the second best goal tender of all time (that’s right…second best…) I thought about how well they did it. The Devils were not having a bad game. The Avs were just the better team. How freaking cool is that??

No matter what happens with Vancouver tonight and Calgary tomorrow, the Avalanche will be in 3rd place in the Western Conference on Monday morning. The Avalanche are not underdogs. They are front runners. Teams taking the Avs for granted now do so at their own risk.

DDC!!! Thanks for again starting my shift off with a grin and a little tear of happiness!!!
Great Re-Cap!

I have your poster. I will be at the January 31st Rangers game. If it works for you, we can meet at the bottom of the stairs again at 5:30 p.m.

If you haven’t read it, stop over at In Lou WeTrust and read their re-cap. It’s so nice to read level headed game analysis from the opposing fans!

Per In Lou We Trust:

According to Lou Lamoriello, as reported by Tom Gulitti, Elias is OK. CT scans and X-rays came back negative,

Great to hear. That was such a scary moment in the game.

And yes, gl avfan is right. Great analysis that doesn’t attribute the loss to conspiracies and luck by a bunch of pimply-faced kids who’ve no business being in the NHL.

Budaj needs to play a bit more. The last two games, Andy has had a lot of rest. He took down two of the best goalies in the league. With a good amount of rest, he could be the best goalie in the league. When he is tired, he’s a tiny bit off, we can till win,but a bit off.

Since we have 60 points and need, basically, 20 more wins, I now agree Anderson should be rested to make sure we get those 20 wins. After this two week showing, I think Sacco should never play Andy in back to back games.

There, my pride is swallowed and sitting deep in my stomach.

Also, all my devils fan friends, which there are tons of them, are super impressed by us. This was the game i needed the Avs to win so I could gloat. One poignantly said this in a text. “You guys are really good and built for a Cup soon. You have a goalie, two allstar centers, you just need a bit stronger D.”

Dater Says the Dukes gonna be out for awhile.

Can anyone shed some light on this: I’m a little confused as to why Galliardi, who played an amazingly strong defensive game especially on those last few PKs and got the GWG, didn’t get at least the third star? I realize Stewie had a good game, but I really felt Gali had a better one. Thoughts?

Unlike Patrick Roy, (Anderson’s) number doesn’t ever figure to hang from the rafters of a hockey rink in Denver.

Kiszla is such a freaking idiot. Not like I’m arguing it will happen, but how can he make any kind of blanket statement like this? What if Andy plays like this for the next 10 years in Denver? He’s only 28. It’s possible, no matter how improbable. Or let’s say he only plays like this for 6 years…but in those 6 years, the Avs bring home 2 more Stanley Cups while relying heavily on Andy the way the team has thus far this year? If either of those things happened, you don’t think that jersey would be up there?? Um, yah.

Oh man, is anyone else watching this Chicago Detroit game? Great great game to watch. Its got some amazing goals in the shootout… aaaand…… CHICAGO WINS!!!!

You guys missed a fun game, unfortunately the Goddam Wings get a point.

Philly – Caps…Flyers up 1 to 0