"They haven't competed like they've needed to." That's Flames color guy Ryan 
Walter describing the play of the Colorado Avalanche. That sums things up rather succinctly.
With a chance to earn two key division points, the Avs played poorly in just about every facet of the game. The defensive focus of recent weeks has been replaced by guys playing out of position and letting opponents roam freely in front of our net. Penalty killing wasn't very good, and was exacerbated by the Avs taking stupid, stupid penalties (Marek Svatos, what are you thinking there?). The powerplay? I'm well past the point of being able to talk about that train wreck rationally. Offense? The top line of Sakic, Svatos and Brunette managed 4 shots...which is 2 more than the Arnason and Richardson lines managed together. Colorado forwards mustered just 13 shots, while the Avs as a whole were outshot 37-25. And while the game certainly wasn't the fault of goalie Jose Theodore, we was outplayed by Mikka Kiprusoff tonight by a wide margin.
The Lines
- Sakic, Brunette, Svatos. 4 shots, 11:36 ATOI, Even
- Arnason, McLean, Laperriere. 1 shot, 11:01 ATOI, Even
- Stastny, Wolski, Hejduk. 7 shots, 10:37 ATOI, Even
- Richardson, McCormick, Rycroft, 10:04 ATOI, -1
Quick Hits
- Ian Laperriere has all 6 of Colorado's fighting majors this year. More often than not, he fights to fire up his team...but he might want to re-think that strategy. Colorado has lost every game he's taken a major in.
- Colorado is 11-5-2 when they don't allow more than one powerplay goal and 0-5 when they do.