We've all done it. When we see a player that used to wear the Burgundy and Blue skate out against out team in a different jersey, we cringe in fear. We know what's coming: another night of Av killing.
But does the "Curse of the Ex-Av" actually exist? Does playing in a Avs jersey somehow make it easier to score against them later in one's career? Does the universe actually hate the Avalanche?
A bit of analysis after the jump...
I started by finding all the the Ex-Avs still playing in the NHL. Even though it's not a full analysis of every former player the Avs have ever had, it focuses on the ones still under contract with a NHL team. So basically, it looks at all the ones we still have to be worried about.
There's 36 of them.
Of those 36, a 8 of them haven't played against the Avs yet. That includes Kyle Cumiskey (ANA), Colby Cohen (BOS), Tomas Fleischmann (FLA), Brian Willsie (MTL), T.J. Hensick (STL), Mike Verance (TBL), Brian Elliott (STL), and Peter Budaj (MTL).
Of the skaters left, there are 8 players who have never scored a goal against their former team - Cody McCormick (BUF), Scott Hannan (CGY), Ian Laperriere (PHI), Ben Guite (SJS), Jordan Leopold (BUF), Johnny Boychuck (BOS), Jean-Michael Liles (TOR), Phillipe Dupuis (TOR), and Kurt Sauer (PHX).
That leaves 15 skaters and 3 goalies.
(The table looks best in the wide view - you can change it by clicking on "Wide" at the top right hand side of this page. Also, the colors correspond to the positions that they play: Gold = Right D, Red = Left D, Blue = Center, Purple = Right Wing, Orange = Left Wing, Green = Goalie.)
| Skater Last Name | First Name | Pos | Cur. | vs COL GP | vs COL GPG | vs COL G | vs COL A | vs COL Pts | vs COL S | vs COL Sh% | Post COL GP | Post COL GPG | Post COL G | Post COL A | Post COL Pts | Post COL S | Post COL Sh% | GPG Dif | Sh% Dif |
| Finger | Jeff | D | TOR | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | 105 | 0.076 | 8 | 25 | 33 | 97 | 8.2 | 0.924 | 91.8 |
| Hendricks | Matt | F | WSH | 1 | 1.000 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 20.0 | 79 | 0.114 | 9 | 16 | 25 | 114 | 7.9 | 0.886 | 12.1 |
| Wolski | Wojtek | F | NYR | 3 | 0.667 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 28.6 | 92 | 0.196 | 18 | 35 | 53 | 174 | 10.3 | 0.471 | 18.2 |
| Richardson | Brad | F | LAK | 9 | 0.556 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 28 | 17.9 | 182 | 0.099 | 18 | 34 | 52 | 291 | 6.2 | 0.457 | 11.7 |
| Stewart | Chris | F | STL | 2 | 1.000 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 50.0 | 28 | 0.571 | 16 | 8 | 24 | 84 | 19.0 | 0.429 | 31.0 |
| Shattenkirk | Kevin | D | STL | 2 | 0.500 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 33.3 | 28 | 0.107 | 3 | 15 | 18 | 42 | 7.1 | 0.393 | 26.2 |
| Selänne | Teemu | F | ANA | 18 | 0.778 | 14 | 10 | 24 | 64 | 21.9 | 302 | 0.480 | 145 | 154 | 299 | 916 | 15.8 | 0.298 | 6.0 |
| Vrbata | Radim | F | PHX | 21 | 0.476 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 61 | 16.4 | 546 | 0.247 | 135 | 169 | 304 | 1624 | 8.3 | 0.229 | 8.1 |
| Reinprecht | Steven | F | FLA | 23 | 0.348 | 8 | 12 | 20 | 35 | 22.9 | 438 | 0.201 | 88 | 161 | 249 | 624 | 14.1 | 0.147 | 8.8 |
| Brunette | Andrew | F | CHI | 18 | 0.389 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 34 | 20.6 | 246 | 0.268 | 66 | 92 | 158 | 367 | 18.0 | 0.121 | 2.6 |
| Morris | Derek | D | PHX | 22 | 0.182 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 31 | 12.9 | 612 | 0.070 | 43 | 152 | 195 | 949 | 4.5 | 0.112 | 8.4 |
| Smyth | Ryan | F | EDM | 8 | 0.375 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 28 | 10.7 | 150 | 0.300 | 45 | 55 | 100 | 401 | 11.2 | 0.075 | -0.5 |
| Parros | George | F | ANA | 16 | 0.063 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 11.1 | 312 | 0.045 | 14 | 10 | 24 | 153 | 9.2 | 0.018 | 2.0 |
| Tanguay | Alex | F | CGY | 23 | 0.217 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 27 | 18.5 | 370 | 0.238 | 88 | 230 | 288 | 520 | 16.9 | -.020 | 1.6 |
| Rolston | Brian | F | NYI | 32 | 0.219 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 125 | 5.6 | 790 | 0.311 | 246 | 295 | 541 | 2688 | 9.2 | -.093 | -3.6 |
| Goalie Last Name | First Name | Cur. | vs COL GP | vs COL W | vs COL OT | vs COL GAA | vs COL SA | Vs COL SV | vs COL SV% | vs COL SO | Post COL GP | Post COL W | Post COL OT | Post COL GA | Post COL GAA | Post COL SA | Post COL SV | Post COL SV% | vs COL SO | GAA DIFF | SV% DIFF | %SO vs COL |
| Anderson | Craig | OTT | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 39 | 32 | 0.821 | 0 | 23 | 12 | 1 | 58 | 2.52 | 738 | 680 | 0.921 | 2 | 4.478 | -.100 | 0 |
| Raycroft | Andrew | DAL | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2.5 | 63 | 58 | 0.921 | 1 | 41 | 17 | 1 | 83 | 2.02 | 914 | 831 | 0.909 | 3 | 0.476 | 0.011 | 33.33 |
| Théodore | Jose | FLA | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2.0 | 96 | 88 | 0.917 | 0 | 140 | 80 | 36 | 369 | 2.64 | 4012 | 3643 | 0.908 | 5 | -.636 | 0.009 | 0 |
Facts Supporting the Curse of the Ex-Avs:
1. Every single ex-player that has more than 5 post-Avs SOG against their former team has a goal against them. Even the defensemen!
2. Almost all of the skaters have better Goals Per Game averages and Shooting % against the Avs than other teams.
3. Brad Richardson. WTF man? 5 of his 18 (28%) post-Avs goals have been against the Avs!
4. Raycroft has 3 shutouts since he left Colorado... and 1/3 of them are against the Avs.
Facts Against the Curse of the Ex-Avs:
1. Other than Raycroft's shutouts, none of the other goalies have played consistently better against the Avs than the other teams in the NHL.
2. Small Sample size. If you take out everyone that's played less than 5 games, the numbers even out considerably (except for Richardson):
| Last Name | First Name | Pos | Cur. | vs COL GP | GPG Dif | Sh% Dif |
| Richardson | Brad | F | LAK | 9 | 0.457 | 11.7 |
| Selänne | Teemu | F | ANA | 18 | 0.298 | 6.0 |
| Vrbata | Radim | F | PHX | 21 | 0.229 | 8.1 |
| Reinprecht | Steven | F | FLA | 23 | 0.147 | 8.8 |
| Brunette | Andrew | F | CHI | 18 | 0.121 | 2.6 |
| Morris | Derek | D | PHX | 22 | 0.112 | 8.4 |
| Smyth | Ryan | F | EDM | 8 | 0.075 | -0.5 |
| Parros | George | F | ANA | 16 | 0.018 | 2.0 |
| Tanguay | Alex | F | CGY | 23 | -0.020 | 1.6 |
| Rolston | Brian | F | NYI | 32 | -0.093 | -3.6 |