Game 61 Preview: Avalanche at Kings

19 goals on the Kings isn’t necessarily 19 goals on the Avalanche though. It’s hard to say because we’ll never know if Sacco would have used him like he was, like, I dunno, Ryan Smyth, or something. I think that piss poor coaching strategy was the biggest problem with his stay in Denver. How many years did we all suffer through watching dump and chase on EVERY possession? Either way, I never thought he was a good fit on the Avs, and I’m happy with the trade, minus the Preissing contract, of course. Holy crap, we need to trade a damn d-man or two already!

Cumiskey took a hard hit at the end of the game they may keep him out as precaution also… this whole JML situation is just a mess…idk =\

I was so impressed! Maybe he got all the Tucker falls out of his system.

I’m only here during lunch, I working on some projects.

This. He wasn’t utilized properly. He’s a crash the net and see what happens kind of player. If you don’t let him do it he can’t score.

I’ve seen him spit out teeth and keep playing, the man lives hockey. Any team is better with that kind of guy in the locker room. Is he overpaid, yeah, but if you look at what was available in that offseason it’s the only way the Avs would have gotten him.

He is what I like to call a great “playoff” guy. IMO he steps up his play in the post-season and that is the type of player you need. Who cares how much he scores if he can help you in the playoffs, right? Guys like that are hard to find.

That being said, I still like the trade for the long term reasons. The team is on the right path, and I NEVER want to see another year like last year… (it was wierd ‘rooting’ for the Avs to lose for the draft)

I think the intangibles are often overemphasized. We had Captain Canada and The Greatest Guy in the History of the World (Lappy, who I love, btw), and we still sucked ass last year. And not only that, but that team was an absolute freaking chore to watch. It sucked the life out of me forcing myself to try to watch those games. So…what good did having such great leaders do? What do we miss without them? How did his leadership manifest itself last season?

I think Mike hit on a good point – if we’d have kept Smyth, it would have cost one of the young guys a place on the team. Same with Lappy – if we’d have kept him, we likely wouldn’t have seen the emergence of one of the younger guys.

What I often saw Ryan Smyth do is loiter around the opponent’s blueline, corral a pass, take a few strides, then shoot a “slapshot” (often off target) from the left wing about 35-40 feet out.

Seems like the trade was a win for both teams. I’m enjoying this season about 500% more than last season, and that’s probably understating it. Even with a new coaching staff, if we’d have kept Smyth we’d have been a slower team, and possibly not as enjoyable to watch.

Rudy liked the trade even less than I did. I believe his quote at the time was something to the effect of “fuckety fuck”

Beachie will be happy.

Second time all season we get to see him play. I know that during the game there will probably be a time were I go “Who is number 24 again?”

I want to whine. I have to get up early tomorrow to make breakfast. At least I can go for a nap later that day.

I’ll give you one of them, but I have to hold the other in reserve for the exact perfect moment that may never come, but if it ever does it will be unbelievably glorious.

It’s not even enjoyable when it’s that one sided.

I had it up first.

Not really.

Depends on Swedish goaltending, but probably not.

Why should they really try and run the risk of getting hurt?