November 16, 2007 {{pre}}
It’s the Dallas broadcasters tonight, Ralph Strangis and Daryl Reaugh. I think DirecTV just stopped showing the Altitude feeds altogether, which annoys me a little bit; it looked like almost all the other games around the dial tonight had two feeds. Anyway Strangis and Reaugh are screwing me up because Strangis, the pbp guy, is on the right during the introduction – ass-backwards to what I'm used to. It's like the cameras on the wrong side of the rink in Edmonton; something minor that just annoys me.
Jose Theodore vs Mike Smith tonight. I recall Smith as a guy who can move the puck a lot like Turco can.
I'm unveiling some new flashy title bars tonight. I hope they work…
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{{1st}}
20:00 Sakic, Brunette and Smyth start the game.
18:58 Can you believe it: Mike Smith is not related to Ryan Smyth.
17:55 Liles falls going back for the puck and turns it over
17:34 Arnason was out with Svatos on the 3rd. I couldn't see the winger
17:26 Fourth line is Parker, Guite and Hlinka. Brad Richardson was called up today, but I figure Smith got the nod instead. Can't tell yet, though.
16:48 Parker gets called for interference. A totally unnecessary move (the Avs had the pucks and were on the break). Dallas goes on the PP…neither team has a shot yet.
15:38 Eek. The Avs clear the puck and get a chance. Zubov goes back for it and lazily skates back. Just before hitting the red line, he finds Jussi Jokinen at the Avs' blueline, finding a seam between the 4 Avalanche defenders. Jokinen shakes off Jeff Finger, takes a few strides, and blasts on past a sleeping Theodore. Ugly play all around for Colorado. You know, I think that's Finger's first shift as a pro – what a bummer to give up a goal on his first shift like that. Enough sarcasm. Dallas leads 1-0. Avs PK have given up 3 goals in the last 5 chances. And the 3 goals have probably taken about 90 seconds collectively.
14:17 Wolski's lousy clearing attempt is taken away before getting out. The Avs are looking a lot like the Wild did on Sunday after a long layoff – not much jump, tons of sloppiness in their own zone.
13:12 It was indeed Smith out there, so Richie is a scratch.
12:31 Avs are going on the PP. Morrow, high sticking.
10:09 The Avs barely got past the blueline on the PP. No offensive pressure at all.
9:08 Mike Smith shows that puck moving skill I mentioned early – he launches his second 100' bomb to put the Avs on their heels.
7:02 Smith launches another one, this time just missing breaking Loui Eriksson (Eriksson is offsides on the play). Colorado will need to make crisper changes, which is not their strong suit.
5:27 Clark saves a goal. Someone had a wide open net. Clark blocks a shot that would have been an easy goal.
3:50 The Stars block a Cumiskey shot and break out 2 on 1 with Cumiskey the only D back. He makes a great play to break up the play at the blueline and get the puck out. Excellent.
3:27 Smyth is out there with Stastny and Hejduk. I mentioned the other day that I like this line.
2:30 Wolski, out with Sakic, turns the puck over for the 2nd or 3rd time tonight in his own zone. Easily his worst period of the season.
1:33 Ott smashes Brunette into the side boards in the neutral zone.
0:00 The first period comes to a merciful end. The Avs are extremely lucky to be down just 1-0 – they've looked pretty uniformly awful in the first 20…
{{2nd}}
20:00 Smyth is out again with the Stastny line. Cool.
19:40 The Avs' first clearing attempt is…successful!
19:09 Cumiskey may be the one bright spot so far – he's made several sensational plays tonight, including one here to weave between two Dallas forecheckers and then passing to Sakic to start a rush the other way.
17:18 The Arnason line creates a few chances with an aggressive forecheck. Svatos' backhander goes just over the net. The Avs are off to a MUCH better start in the 2nd.
16:13 Fuck. Theodore reacts to Jokinen's shot by doing a little Irish jig. It's a great dance, but, as you can guess, not very effective at stopping goals. 2-0 Dallas. Theo must not have been around for the "wake up" speech during the intermission.
14:50 Nope, he wasn't. Dallas scores again. I'm being too harsh – this was an excellent deflection by Jeff Halpern in front of Theodore. Really nothing Theo could do about that…but it does put the Avs in a deep, deep hole. 3-0 Dallas.
13:15 This is brutal. Stastny in the box for hooking.
13:00 Well, glad we could get that out of the way quickly. Jokinen gets his stupid hat trick. Zubov fakes a shot from the point and then slides it to Jokinen on the back door. Everyone in the arena knows that the Stars are going to be looking for Jokinen. Except for the 5 guys on the ice wearing white. 4-0 Colorado.
12:39 Jokinen and Hagman get a 2 on 1. Hey, this game is fun! Theo is still in there, by the way.
11:34 Svatos makes a nice steal at center ice.
10:20 Hannan turns it over. He might have passed Wolski in the turnover department on that one.
9:15 Two on one again, Hagman and Eriksson
9:08 5-0. Theodore stops the breakaway chance. The Stars get the puck, get it back to the point, Jokinen skates in and, you guessed it, makes Theodore look bad. 4 goals for Jokinen, the Dallas player I dislike more than anyone. It's painful to sit through this. Theo's night, thankfully, is over.
7:46 Modano is off for a penalty or something. Maybe he's brushing his hair. Don't know, don't care.
6:02 Budaj's first save is a good one.
5:13 The FOX guys have been pointing this out all night – the Stars are just jumping all over loose pucks tonight. The Avs are not playing well, like, at all, but the Stars are also playing some excellent hockey this evening.
2:47 This game illustrates the major difference between Scott Parker and Ian Laperriere. Lappy can be out there in a close game working to fire up his team. Parker doesn't have the skill to do that. When this game was 2-0 or 3-0, we might have seen Lappy out there taking on someone in black to fire up his team. Putting Parker out there is much more of a risk. Plus, he's such a monster, he has a harder time finding a dance partner than Lappy does. I guess what I'm saying is that Parker might dress more while Lappy is out, but he's not going to replace him. While I'm a big fan of Richardson, I wouldn’t mind seeing a scrapper like a Cody McCormick called up to replace some of that lost toughness.
{{3rd}}
19:00 Cumiskey lined up Conner to hit him in the corner. It didn't work out very well for him – he ends up flat on his back. Good effort, though.
17:39 Not that it matters much at this point, but Wolski is back with Stastny and Hejduk. I wish Quenneville had stuck with Smyth a bit longer there.
16:32 Liles' turn for the turnover.
15:59 Reaugh just makes the point I made about Lappy in the 2nd period. I typed it first, I swear.
15:22 Hlinka's on the right wing for Stastny and Wolski. Resting Hejduk's back? Giving the veterans a breather?
12:06 Nah, just the Quenneville Shuffle. Hejduk is out now with Sakic and Bruno.
9:40 This is probably going to curse Budaj, but…if I'm not mistaken, none of the goalies appearing in relief this year for Colorado have allowed a goal. Weiman was perfect in the Nashville game, and Theodore didn’t allow any in the Calgary come from behind win.
8:29 The first whistle in eons. Conner goes off for hooking.
5:04 6-0. Lehtinen knocks down Cumiskey behind the net and rudely takes the puck. He centers to Rebeiro and Rebeiro scores. The perfect relief goalie streak is over.
4:10 Parker is now on the ice.
3:34 The Avs break Smith's shutout bid. Brunette drops the puck off to Arnason. Arnason takes a wraparound attempt, and Hlinka pokes home the rebound. Hlinka has, what, 3 points against the Stars this year?
3:00 Jokinen gets his stick up and inside the mask of Smith, dropping his goalie to the ice in pain. Smith shakes it off, though.
0:00 It’s over. Awful game.
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