FanPost

Preseason Game 1 Recap: Avalanche @ Dallas Stars

Hey guys, bare with me this is my first recap of a game. It will probably not be that in depth, but just a few different points that I saw. Duncan Siemens did not play. If you have questions ask and I will answer the best I can. Sorry this is up so late also. If I knew how to put a picture or two on here I would.

Good

Landeskog- I read that Sunnyside Mcnabb said Landy was the best player on the ice. He was. Not just the first period but really for the whole game. He pressured everyone. He closed the gaps fast. He laid some big hits. He made Souray look like a fool on several occasions. He really was the workhorse for the Avs Offense. Malone's first goal was really all Landy’s doing. Thank you to the Stars and allowing me to move my seat after the first intermission to right at the end of the Avs bench on. I saw a couple of times Souray said, "keep an eye out for 92 slippery bastard." Fristic said "F*ck, he got there fast". I don’t know what you saw, in camp, but I got a man crush on this guy now. Mind you he played against people like Daley and Souray, Eriksson and the Benn brothers, these are NHL’ers. I was in the Huberdeau camp during draft but I am all aboard the Landy express. Get your sweaters, you’re going to like what you see. Oh, he was 1st line PK and PP.

Barrie- I know what you are going to say, but I am going to express this anyways. Barrie is NHL ready now (from what I saw). This guy just knows how to play the game. He got cornered with the puck on the powerplay, made a nifty move and drew another penalty. Then scored on the 5-3. On Lehtonen, and there was nothing Lehtonen could have done. What a wicked wrister this kid has. I am sure he had a few shots get blocked but I can’t remember any that did. I love the way he gets his shot through. I was very surprised how good he was on the defense side. He plays good positional and laid a pretty nice hit on someone also. One thing I can say about Barrie, he just has amazing instinct for the game. He had his Shatenkirk falls here and there but he recovered fast and still eliminated the trailer. Barrie was on the ice for a few goals but I really do not put blame on Barrie. He does have trouble with the big guys. Benn kinda man handled him. He was without a doubt the best player on the blue line for the Avs.

Defense Play for the first two periods- Only 8 shots given up in two periods, I was getting excited.

Physical play- The Avs left the game with over 40 hits. Landy had a bunch and I think Bordello was averaging 2 hits per minute. Of course that is about how long it took him to get from one end of the rink to the other. Maybe that was why. The Avs drew a ton of penalties the first period.

Gali- He had a strong game. The first two periods he ran amuck and did some good things. He did tweak his wrist on a miss hit on the boards but he didn’t miss a shift.

Malone- Was a handful in front of the net. I see they gave the second goal to Malone, I guess Malone got a tip. To be honest, I didn't see any tip. I was kinda expecting more of a physical guy, and he was physical, but he seemed to be the one absorbing all the punishment. Strong game.

We were playing with our third line our third line defense and our 4th and 5th goalies. They played with their top goalie, 2 of their top line, and their healthiest defense (minus Golgolski and Robidas who is injured). We dominated this game for two periods except in faceoffs and the score. I feel very confident in this team this year.

The Average

ROB- I know he had a bad plus minus, but I thought he played decent. The problem was that it appeared he was the only one out of his pair that had any intrest in playing defense. Both goals he had his guy pinned on the wall and someone else came in and took the puck and ran right up crease and scored. It was so bad I never got to see who his partner was in either goal. I think it might have been Hunwick on one and Holos on the other. He did blow up Steve Ott. I mean like an atomic blow up. Dang near put Ott to the side boards and Ott was right in front of Cann.

Liffiton- He had a real strong game. He stepped in on Ott and chased Ott off when he was going after Holos. He was tough and laid a bunch of quality hits, bit of an offensive liability.

Bordeleau- He did what he does. That dude can hit. Every time he came out Ott left. He planted Oleksiak on the boards, don’t know how the glass didn’t break.

Bad

Quincy- WTF, aren’t you the veteran? Why did Barrie carry you all game! Every camp he comes out and is mean and tough in camp, but as soon as he gets to a game where he is seeing another sweater he plays like an idiot. Quincy said it best after the third goal. Barrie takes two guys out of the play and Quincy completely missed his coverage. Right in front of me he says "F*ck me". Couldn’t agree with your more big guy. If Quincy is on a powerplay, the Avs powerplay is not going to be good. He missed so many passes. He botched a couple passes to the blue line. One of which he flailed around on the ground and took a guy out. They scored within 20 seconds of the powerplay, which made the score 4-2 (in case you missed it, Quincy was pretty much responsible for the last two goals). I saw Barrie fall trying to keep the puck and he kept his calm, but Quincy was just horrible during the third. He wasn’t good for the first and second. Quincy plays like this and Elliot is better than Barrie, well it might be nacho season for Quincy

Holos- This might be a bit unfair, but if you are going to give such little offensive effort he could at least be solid on the defensive side. All I could think of with Holos was John Denver "leaving on a jett plane".

Sorry Dario, I am not going to beat a dead horse. Kobesew started out pretty good. Drew a penalty, then it when downhill. One sequence, Radar and Landy kept stealing the puck and kept centering to Kobesew but he never got a pass or a shot off. I am almost wondering if he is hurt, because a vet like Kobesew doesn’t play like that. He waits for the puck to come to him and that is always a recipe for disaster, especially when you have Hunwick (can you please try to pass the puck instead of trying to put the puck).

Goalies- Pickard doesn’t come out to meet the puck and Cann can’t stay in the crease. Mix the two and you have a good goalie. I think it was 8 times I saw a pass shot across the crease on Pickard. Cann was victimized by horrible blue line play. Still don’t like so many passes going behind the goalie.

Side note- Jamie Oleksiak looked dang good. This guy is BIG! He can skate well.

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