Five power play chances and nada to show for it

Thought it was 7.

long week, busy work day, thought at least I’d get to see the Avs win against, the worst team in the league….and I saw that.

Damn it Kizla..don’t be right

Avs cannot have an extended losing streak with how tight the west is.

I didn’t get to watch the game, I was way too involved with my beer at the bar. So, WTF? This is the worst team in the league. It would be like some team losing to last years avs.

Whitney is a FA at the end of the year and Svatos (besides being on IR for sucking) is too, so Whitney for svatos and a 3rd?

and another thing, when did Yip become the most dangerous player on the team? And is that a good thing (gratuitous sig. promotion besides)

Hey, Paul Statsny says the team needs to shoot from the point on the powerplay…and that they need to simplify their game.

Peter Budaj said the 2nd goal was bad

Chris Stewart said it’s time to go back to basics

Joe Sacco says he has no clue about Foote’s injury (yet)

All very true statements.

The worst of these is Foote…remember how bad the D was when he was out the first time? If he is out for any extended amount of time, this team is going to suffer.

At the same time, I have to question some of Sacco’s decisions in personnel yesterday.

A powerplay line of Galiardi, Tucker and Duchene with Hannan and Foote on points? Really? There was more but I have to go right now…blah

So last night after this game, I (clearly like you and so many others out there I am sure) was incredibly frustrated and feeling very tired of this team. It’s not like they didn’t play well. They did…for – again – 40 minutes of the game, PPs and Skrastins notwithstanding. But once again, they couldn’t get it done. By one goal…again.

One thing that really bothered me (and gl avfan can back me up on this) was that post Stastny hit when he should have buried the puck late in the third. I kept thinking of that play back in Nasty November when Hejduk so neatly and beautifully dropped in that game winning goal with ease. I text her, “THAT’S what Stastny needs to be doing, damn it!”

Then I woke up this morning with a clear and obvious thought: SoS just turned 24 years old. He’s basically 10 years younger than Hejduk who turns 34 next month. And I thought about how much of a frenzy around the net I saw last night as the team frantically tried to jam the puck in under Ward’s pads. It reminded me of the Kings and their mayhem around Howard on Thursday. These are both very, very young teams. These are both very, very talented teams. We, our fans and theirs, get frustrated because we know they should be winning. I bet they, our team and theirs, do too for the same reason. But within a year or two, they will start winning because they will be able to slow the play down and stop the frenzy. It will be like movies with slow action film…the play around them may continue at normal speed but that player and the puck and the net and the goalie will all slow to a fraction of real time and pucks will go in for SoS, Ding, Baron, and the rest.

Anyway, long story short, I woke up this morning with a sense of calm because I realized that we have a powerhouse team on our hands just waiting to bust out and be on top of the division, conference and even the league for a good 10 years despite the post-cap era (as long as our beloved new GM makes smart moves and continues to cultivate the youth movement and make trades for the future, not sacrifice it for the now.)

The team also isn’t 15th in the West. It’s also not boring to watch. The fact it’s made up of so many rookies is no longer the punch line of a joke; it’s a huge source of pride for us, envy of the league, and awe of sportscasters/writers everywhere. So the power play still sucks. The rest of the game freaking rocks compared to last year, no?

THAT was a game to be angry about

but I thought it might be appropriate to say it here too (and maybe I just took a “don’t be so negative” pill this morning) but…

Don’t you think that some of the problems the Avs are experiencing this year might have something to do, even just in some small way, with one simple yet very heartbreaking fact:

This is their first year without Joe Sakic.

I’m ashamed no one has commented on this gem from the recap:

The Avalanche, clearly, are down with No PP.

That is comedy gold people, and to show my respect, I will now shamelessly lift it for my sig.

I was wondering about Stastny not playing as he used to… You know, last year there were speculations about whom could replace Joe Sakic as captain, and the name of Stastny did come up quite often.

Maybe, he thought about it a lot, wanting it, thinking he could do the job because he loves the Avalanche even if he was still young; nothing anormal in that, maybe he thought he was ready… And maybe it was a huge disappointment for him to see Foote get the job. Not that he resents Foote being the captain, just disappointed. Maybe he has lost his momentum within, his enthusiasm because inside he felt that upstairs they did not have faith in him.

You know how these things are, they are emotional, and even if you try hard to be rational about it, there is a little something sour that you can not erase and that keeps nagging you inside your head.

Now, If this assumption has a bit of truth to it, here is his challenge to prove that he can be a leader. Play like he never did before, with such an enthusiasm that other players will have fun playing with him, getting in the game with pleasure, because even if they earn salaries playing hockey, it still is only a game and we do say playing hockey. Come on, Paul, have fun, forget the past and look forward, look directly behind all the goalers where the puck is meant to go.

having troubles posting