Game 5 Recap: Colorado Avalanche 6, Montreal Canadiens 5 (SO)

Ryan O’Reilly led in face offs at 73%; Stastny followed with 62%

Wait a minute….
Lindstrom, Kobasew, and Winnik were all 100% in face offs. All three were one for one. :-P

Thanks for the recap

Just saw that the Avs spoiled Price’s bid for his 100th win. That’s twice this season that they haven’t allowed their opponent to reach a milestone….

IIRC the other was Claude Julien’s 100th win.

-Note to everyone: don’t skip Montreal games. Every time these teams play, it’s a ton of fun.

-Johnson has been better each game. Tonight was his best game of the season so far.

-And I love the Avs defense right now. They are giving up a ton of shots, but they seem to be mostly keeping things in control. I really think one reason for the high shots against is that the Avs still aren’t getting a lot of sustained pressure offensively.

-Kyle Quincey and Ryan Wilson have REALLY elevated their game.

This weeks questions are for Johnson:

-Late last season, Avalanche fans on Twitter nicknamed you "Yeti." Avs fans have given nicknames to different players throughout the years, such as "Radar" for Ryan O’Reilly and "Dutchy" for Matt Duchene. What is your favorite nickname that anyone has ever given you, and what do you think about the new one? Justin, Ottawa, ON
-I wasn’t aware of the new nickname. The first nickname I was given as a rookie was by Dan Hinote. He named me ‘edge’. And it just stuck the rest of my days in St. Louis.

Interesting that it was Hinote that nicknamed him “edge”

hey, why does Montreal have two small logos at center ice instead of one big one? is one in french and one in English?

Congrats to Kyle Quincey on his first goal since the ‘09-10 season. 2 point total, tonight, also doubles his scoring output since then. He’s broken his slump!!

they finally score more than one goal but then they allow five. Going to be a very long season for them. Its almost like AHL version of the 09-10 Leafs. You can only use so much smoke and mirrors to cover up the fact you have barely any quality top 6 AHL forwards on your team.

The Avs are all I live for right now.

Brilliant spin by the Doctor. Even better was him keeping his balance for the goal.

Look out. It a Clash of the Titans on Monday in Toronto. Colorado is riding a 4 game winning streak and Toronto is unbeaten in their first 3. Eh, who am I kidding. It’s October.

Duchene’s line was just plain handled tonight.

O’Byrne was bad. O’Brien was worse. Dumb penalty led to a power play led to another dumb penalty led to goal.

Can’t believe you can score 5 on Varly and I’m still sittin here saying he’s the one who kept the Avs in this game, I mean, hard to say that about Price right Subasew?

I thought Jones looked like the 30-scorer we need him to be tonight. Best game of the year.

Same for Johnson. You’ll notice he didn’t try to do a whole lot, just kept it simple, kept his poise with the puck in his own zone and made good, calm, crisp first outlet passes.

Good God the Desharnais goal was a thing of beauty.

" " " Quincey power play goal " " " " ".

My other thoughts are that the Stars have total shit in the pipeline in net. 10-1 Barons tonight over the baby Stars. Just flat out shocking goaltending.

The Avs have won 13 of their last 14 shootouts.

Presuming that is true, that’s ridiculous.

Stastny’s goal was the 106th of his career, moving him into a three-way tie for sixth overall in Avalanche history with Claude Lemieux and Valeri Kamensky.

Just finished watching tape delay without knowing the result. D was a bit loose. Left Varly to sink or swim. He did well, considering. As for taking penalties around our goal, I don’t mind as long as they’re not dumb. The face-wash penalty was a bit ticky-tacky and it led to a goal. Varly needs to know our D will do whatever it takes to clear the crease area of the enemy.

Sacco should have called a TO when Montreal tied the score 4-4 in the 3rd. I was thinking during the commercial break Sacco should settle everybody down and slow the game a bit. Sure enough, 20-secs later, Habs scored the go-ahead goal.

WE ARE CLUTCH IN SHOOTOUTS! I like it. We have a bunch of players who can finish. Going to be hard for anyone to shut down all four lines. Just keep rolling those lines boys right into the playoffs . . .

But, this is a good Montreal team and most of those goals, except for Coles’, were amazing shots. No goalie will likely stop those. Defense had some break downs, as any defense is going to do, but now the SoS-Jones line is awake and can make up for it.

Some interesting comments in the bar:
-I met a Norwegian who only cheers for teams with Norwegian players. So he cheers for Zuccarello and the Rangers. He said Holos was nothing special and was surprised he even made it to the NHL.
-Every Islanders, Rangers, Penguins, and Flyers fan in the bar I talked to said the Avs’ looked amazing: “Fast, Big, Controlled, and Deadly.”
-I mentioned in the game thread, but there were four Islanders fans with Tavares jersey’s on. I asked them who would have more points between him and Duchene and they all said Duchene. They said he was the best player in that draft and is a top 5 center in the league.
-A russian guy bought me a shot of Vodka for every period because he likes Varly so much.

Dear Driver

As I’m sure you are aware, the Colorado Avalanche are on a winning streak. Yes, it’s early in the season. Yes, they lost to the Red Wings. But, they haven’t lost since. I am sure you are also aware that the remaining major sports organizations in Colorado are in a shambles. The Nuggets are not playing at all. The Broncos simply suck. All three of the major college football teams were pummeled yesterday. Denver is a sports town, and there’s only one winning game in town.

Expect a crowd at your next stop.

I respectfully request that you stock up on oats for the horses, have the band tune their instruments, and unfold the temporary seats. Hopefully it will be a long ride.

Sincerely

Twiggy

I was just visiting Pension Plan Puppets on a Maple Leafs virtual scouting trip, and I noticed they are doing something with their game day threads that I like. They are breaking them up by period. Their volume is just slightly higher (1700 comments to our 1400 last game), so it seems to me like MHH might consider something similar to deal with the volume. Honestly, the in-game threads are getting too big.

Toronto beat them 3-0 already in the first period.

Former Avs Jeff Finger has a goal for Toronto.

Dater implying that Muellers issues are concussion related. I wonder how long it is until we see a trade of some sort

1) SOB I thought had his first non great game. I still love the fact that he creams whoever comes skating up on our goalies. I love how he has been such a great influence for Quincy, also. His first penalty was total BS. The refs saw that guy come shower Varley well after the play was dead. Of course he is going to get a face full of glove, if that was going to be roughing then give both guys, but that was not roughing. The second penalty, well that was legit, and he took a legit goal threat with him. I am glad you are here SOB.

2) Quincy’s and Johnson’s best game this year. They were tough and had great vision. Wilson had a great pass to Jones. Although it was a bad 20 seconds in the third and not the best the rest of the time good job on the other end.

3) DID perspective here. 1st line had 1 shot and that was on the first shift. I didn’t even realize Duchene was playing until the shootout. I know it is one week and he is always a slow starter, but we need more then 0 shot from him. That needs to be better.

4) SOS and Jones were studs, and Kobasew kept up. This line is really going to need this type of production when the other line plays like what they are.

5) Proud of this team, finding ways to win and I love it. Keep it up. Making me look good so far when I called a 104 point season.

Long time no chat. Missed the game due to work (got to watch Boise State beat CSU 63-13). Anyways made it home in time for the shootout. Duke and Duchy are money. Duke makes it look so easy i freakin hate it. Anyways can’t give much input here other than sweet win and keep em rolling. Also grats to Stats for getting his first goal. Watching the goal I must say it was pretty sweet. Keep it rollin Avs!

Mueller talking about his concussion on CBS in 5 minutes