Game 22: Flames 5, Avalanche 2

photo courtesy of David Zalubowski/AP

I didn't watch this game last night, and I'm pretty sure that's a good thing.  Between the game thread and the AP recap, I can tell I wouldn't have liked what I would have seen.  

Because there's just so much that the Avs did poorly, let's focus on the very few good things that happened, shall we?  For one, Joe Sakic finally scored a goal, and Brad Richardson scored one too, his first of the season.  Scott Parker cross-checked the crap out of Dion Phadouche and then he kicked Eric Godard's ass, earning for himself a grand total of 22 penalty minutes.  And poor Godard has been the personal punching bag of Lappy, Parker and Cody McCormick this season---Godard has yet to win a fight against an Avalanche player.  

Also good, the Avalanche out-shot Calgary 16-5 in the third period.  I won't mention the rest of the game, though.

As for the bad, well, I'll let Sakic do the talking for me:

"The way we lost and the way we came out and played is unacceptable. It was just an embarrassing performance for us."

And Quoteless Joe wasn't done there:

"This is the first time in a long time that we were embarrassed in our own building. Post-lockout, for sure. It was just an unacceptable effort."

I didn't want to say anything, but since he mentioned it, yeah, it was pretty horrible.  It's difficult to comprehend how such a talented team can play so poorly so often.  And it's like night and day between the Avalanche from the first eleven games of the season (7-4-0, 36gf, 33ga) to the Avalanche from the last eleven (5-5-1, 27gf, 35ga).  The only team Colorado has beaten in the last five games is Edmonton, and then only barely.

Speaking of, the Avs next face the Oilers on Wednesday at the Pepsi Center for Colorado's final divisional matchup until January 24th.  After Wednesday, the next 26 games will be played against teams from outside the Northwestern division.  Colorado will probably be pretty grateful for that.

Stars of the Game:

1. Matthew Lombardi (1g, 1a)

2. Cory Sarich (0g, 2a)

3. Adrian Aucoin (1g, 0a)