Game 49 Recap: Avalanche 6, Oilers 0

great post game dustin!!

i’d just like to mention that it was nice to see the boys as a whole win this one without andy bailing them out, yes it’s nice to have a goalie that can do that, but we’re going to kill the guy if we kept it up..

we got all the breaks tonight, i mean yes it’s the oilers, but like you mentioned, that second line was money, and just think, they only get better from here

Peter McNab made mention of something that I hadn’t thought of, our top 6 forwards are an average age of 22 years old! Let that sink in for a minute…22 YEARS OLD! Oh yeah, and our #3 center, Radar O’Reily, is still just 18 years old.

It is really scary to think about how good this team could be for long time if we can keep this core group of young players together. Now I know that Greg Sherman is still the GM, but Pierre is still a big piece of the puzzle. That being said, I’m always a little worried.

With the third-period nightmares and the losing to ass-ball teams like Carolina, up until today I was fairly confident, in a “I hope I’m wrong” way, that the Avs (I’d say “we” but I know “we” hate that here) were going to have a hard time slipping into the top eight.

But this is what good teams do. When you play the Oilers, you need to crush them. Up until tonight, I didn’t hold out much hope for crushing anyone.

What a statement, though.

“Hi, we’re a bunch of plucky youngsters who are having a great time playing the game and learning our way around the league” has just turned into, over the past week:

“Hi, we’re a bunch of plucky youngsters who are going to skate circles around you, jam your sticks up your holes, punch you in the mouth and make you wonder which plucky truck just ran over your ass.”

So good. And Chris Stewart still looks like Tom Morello, I don’t care what anyone says.

The are called “skeelz”, Pinchy.

“Skeelz”.

Kyle Cumisky got the 2nd star of the night on nhl.com.

Altitude’s stars tonight are Cumiskey Lyle
Sending chills up our spine Matt Duchesne
Finally back to his style Beachie’s Liles
Poor Oilers were engulfed on Avs’ mountain!

I would also like to point out that Matt Duchene’s 3 point night has moved him into first in rookie point scoring.

Mad props, son.

Is it just me or do they really, really need a backup goalie – McElhinney is terrible (0.885 SV% is Vesa Toskala bad)?

Thinking of it, playing without Hejduk (for at least two weeks) and Svatos (if only he could get back his self confidence for scoring sigh), this young team is pretty impressive. And to think that Jones isn’t there either.

The more and more the rookies progress through this season, the more we can see how they are eager to learn from their mistakes so they can play better. It was not until one week ago that I saw appear a really better control of the puck, less panicking when an opponent tries to squeeze them, which meant before bad and hurried pass to another squeezed player, mostly along the boards. Now they seem to prefer going back a little and stay in control of the puck.

I agree with you, Derek B., when you write: “It is really scary to think about how good this team could be for long time if we can keep this core group of young players together.”

And if they continue to have flair for the next NHL drafts like they did with O’Reilly, they will really be like an avalanche burrying most of the other teams, like a polar bear on a nice tender juicy human being, like a… hmmm… I guess I’ll just shut up…

Avs remain perfect on Mondays

“And Colorado wins 6-0. Gosh that score looks familiar. Alberta zero, NHL 12.”

Make that Alberta 1, NHL 15

am I the only one who was surprised that McLeod actually agreed to fight Stortini? I think it fired up the team a little as well

The Galiardi and Duchene forecheck in the 3rd period. The Oilers had 3 players trying to break out and those two guys basically pinned them in for a minute.

I am not sure why Bigfoot showed up last night and hung out for the whole time, but I think he likes when we have 4 goal leads not 2 goal leads.

Great Recap, for me the biggest part of last night was playing 3 whole periods and not playing down to the competition. That shows that this young team is maturing quickly. Everyone contributed last night, which is also huge if we continue to fight injuries. Great game!

I like that the Avs put the peddle down harder in the 3rd period. Great finish. And I can remember some folks on the Avs forum saying Cumiskey and Stewart were not NHL material. Stewart is a frickin ice beast! Hope Wilson is okay and gets back on the ice quickly. Bad hit, full force from behind. The NHL needs to look at that one. Good game across all four lines. The smiles of the players on the bench says it all.

From the place where people who ride the short bus post…TSN.

CanuckFan4Life

coreymm…Afraid of what? your ‘so called’ team just beat the Oilers, whoop de doo, what does that prove? does that prove your team is a contender No! at the moment chimps on skates can beat the Oilers. Right now I’m wishing the Canucks do matchup with your team in the playoffs so we can obliterate your Avs they are the biggest pretenders in the western conference, that will be proven if they do make the playoffs.

:)

that’s all I have to say

Anderson is second in the league in penalties and tied for first in assists. Awesome.

he will receive no trophy for this season, and he’s been one of the most consistent on the team

they reminded me of the Avs last year. Horrible turnovers, terrible defensive lapses, stupid penalties. At one point in the game they were on the power play and they get called for a stupid penalty. The camera freezes on Souray’s face as he rolls his eyes with this “I am in f*cking groundhog day” look . Isn’t nice to be on the other side of those teams?

Oh, and I know they Avs were playing great in the third, because I fell asleep the that 4 minutes of the game to hear the announcer say “Anderson gets a shutout!”

What do you guys think about it? I think he should get some sort of suspension for it and I’m almost certain the league will hand him something. There was no reason to hit Wilson when the numbers were clearly facing Jaques. That was a bullshit hit.

True, chiavsfan it was very similar, maybe he will get away with it. I guess we’ll see

I can’t shake the feeling that when the Avs finish the season as strong as they started the season, and go into the playoffs on a hot streak that we will all continually look back to the night that Calgary was exposed as a pretender and Colorado was Vindicated as a Contender. This could be the night that the team rallies around for the rest of the season, and with 4 wins in a row, this couldn’t have happened at a better time.

I would also like to say props to Craig Anderson, as if you ask any goalie in the league they would tell you that as fun as it is to get a shutout in a 1-0 game, he’ll gladly take the 6-0 drubbing and get no credit for the saves he did make! Steal of the year!

As per the Preview thread for this game, the performance on the ice reiterated what was said yesterday. This deep into the season, the Avs are for real. What has happened is not a fluke, and I believe that the good guys in Burgundy are all realizing that. And they are pissed off that they have to teach other teams that they are for real. Its going to be great to see how far these kids can take us in a few years! Great night of hockey!

I would have posted them last night but I was distracted by my inebration. The avs are a much faster team then the oilers, maybe even most of the league and they were beating them up and down the ice. Koci had a great game, After Stortini’s fight, then later in the second after the oiler’s jumped Yip around the oiler goalie, there were no calls and the Oiler’s left the same guys out there the avs used their last change, put in Hendricks, Koci and someone else…and…nothing happened, the oilers wanted no part of Koci. It was amazing because up to that point I thought he was the biggest waste of a jersey on the avs, but he really did calm down the game. I was also impressed by Cumiskey sandpaper (pretty fine grain, but sandpaper none the less), he fought through some checks and had some great, sick moves.

We score 6 goals last night:

Darcy Tucker’s line: 0g 0a 0p 0(±) 1(sog) 2(PiM)

It’s very similar to O’Reilly’s and McLeod’s line. O’Reilly had 3 & 1/2 minutes of Shorthanded time.

That line combo is pretty much awful. McLeod and Tucker are not good fits with O’Reilly.

Did the avs peak last night? It was pretty much a perfect game.

Still not sure if he is quietly having a bad year or if he is just fitting into a more natural role. I think he is fitting into a more natural role but occasional goal here or there would be nice.

I think Tucker was the only forward last night over 30 years old.

What do you think?

Did anyone notice that the Avs goal differential has cracked into double figures?

     GF 147, GA 135, Diff +12.

They’d been winning a lot by a few and losing a few by a lot resulting in a slight positive. They’re still not playing with the big boys (Chicago +55, Washington +46, San Jose +42), but their number is starting to look respectable. Interesting to note that Vancouver is sitting at 6th in the West but carrying a +36, so clearly this number isn’t all that important. I wonder if the difference is indicative of the youth of the Avs, and until recently, their inability to put an opponent away at the end of the game.

When did Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers become Jeff Deslauriers?