Today, sometime Denver Post columnist and ESPN talking head Woody Paige submitted for our approval a 'piece' detailing Andrew Raycroft's first game in net for the Colorado Avalanche. He apparently didn't watch the game of which he writes, because he has officially jumped behind the wheel of the "Let's Ride Raycroft" bandwagon-o-hilarity.
He actually states that:
Raycroft earned another start.
How a 16-of-18 performance with a total of 7 shots on goal in the first and third periods (none at even strength) warrants sitting Budaj so that Raycroft can get shelled in Dallas tomorrow night boggles the mind. Raycroft didn't do anything remotely spectacular in that game, his puckhandling seemed out of sorts, and the Avs finally played like something resembling a cohesive unit at times. Somehow that results in Raycroft being given the reins despite everybody from Pierre Lacroix to the hotdog vendor at Le Can stating that Boots is unequivocally the starter.
Then he joins his mainstream media brethren in throwing Peter Budaj under a large yellow school bus for his performance so far this season stating:
Budaj has been uptight, out of sorts and out of position, and what is telling is that none of his teammates were saying: "We haven't lost confidence in him." Nobody seemed to be saying anything.
This reeks of a writer trying to create a story so that he can have something to write about in the weeks to come. I haven't heard anybody state anything negative about Boots' play or dodge the issue by saying nothing. All I've read from the Avalanche players is that the whole team is having issues and Budaj's play is just another symptom of those problems. Why Woody is hearing, or not hearing, things that nobody else is saying, I don't know. I could be that all that screaming he does for the four-letter has made it difficult to have conversations and actually hear responses. Let me know, am I out to lunch here? Have there been rumblings, or lack of rumblings, to indicate that the Colorado players have shunned Budaj?