Welp. That was...something. Fun for a while, frustrating for a lot of it, but nobody can take away that it was All About the A for 100% of it. A lot of memories were forged from this season of forced reality reassessment , none so more touching and bad ass than Adam Foote's final game, final shift, final victory and, ultimately, his final goodbye.
And so we all said goodbye to one of the more famous Avs as well as one of the more infamous seasons in franchise history. Moving forward, on a more personal note I want to use this tiny space not to talk about gaming, comics, or even hot chicks. Rather, I just want to use it all up to say thank you to MHH for continuing to be an outstanding overall community to be a part of and, more specifically, not running me out of this little internet space despite my blatant laziness.
MHH has been and will hopefully continue to be a fairly significant portion of my life and I look forward to an off-season full of snark, hilarious photochops and BiB accusing me of hating good alcohol and women altogether (only half right, BiBster) as we eagerly await seeing our favorite hockey team once again hit the ice for what hopefully will be the next positive step forward in the rebuilding process and not a sideways step signaling stagnation.
At the end of the season, thank Roy (suck it, Howard) I'm lucky enough to be an Avalanche fan and have such a great group of people to indulge my hockey junkieness with.
Team capsules after the jump...
All standings related info taken from NHL.com...
Calgary Flames (82 GP 41-29-12 94 Pts)
Last Week: 1-0-1 6-1 W vs. EDM, 2-3 OTL vs. VAN
Conference Standing: 10th place, 3 points behind 8th place Chicago. Owned.
Overall Rankings:
- Goals For: 2.9 (7th)
- Goals Against: 2.8 (19th)
- Power Play %: 19.4 (8th)
- Penalty Kill %: 81.2 (21st)
This Week: Exit interviews.
News: Jarome Iginla shares his thoughts on the recently completed failure of a season.
The Flames season in rewind!
Calgary played two very different seasons this year. Sound familiar?
Holy hell this is a cool statistical analysis that reminds me we haven't been bad for very long.
Heroes, villains, and Sedin hate. Hell yes.
Transactions: F Lance Bouma and F Greg Nemisz assigned to Abbotsford on April 7.
Injuries: Kind of irrelevant now, aren't they?
Colorado Avalanche (82 GP 30-44-8 68 Pts)
Last Week: 1-3-0 1-3 L @ STL, 2-4 L @ DAL, 2-3 L vs. DAL, 4-3 W vs. EDM (Farewell, Footer)
Conference Standings: 14th place. ogod we're bad
Overall Rankings:
- Goals For: 2.7 (18th)
- Goals Against: 3.5 (30th)
- Power Play %: 18.5 (11th)
- Penalty Kill %: 76.1 (30th)
This Week: Draft lottery tonight YEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! If that 1.5% chance of St. Louis winning the draft lottery actually happens, I will burn something relevant to the ground, damnit. Avalanche luck turns tonight.
Fun Fact: Trying to chat with an Avalanche season ticket rep at 2 AM doesn't work. Just FYI.
Edmonton Oilers (82 GP 25-45-12 62 Pts)
Last Week: 1-2-1 2-0 W vs. VAN (lolwat), 1-6 L @ CGY (aaand we're back), 1-3 L vs. MIN, 3-4 OTL @ COL (hahahah enjoy last place, suucckkkaaaa)
Conference Standings: 15th place. lol@u
Overall Rankings:
- Goals For: 2.3 (27th)
- Goals Against: 3.2 (28th)
- Power Play %: 14.5 (27th)
- Penalty Kill %: 76.9 (29th)
This Week: The Oilers put their recent losing history to test against last year's victory in the draft lottery. Which seat should they take?
News: The final Team Today of the season (I hope).
If you haven't read the Copper & Blue recap of Sunday's finale, you seriously have to. I lol'd super hard.
Yes, I am seriously reaching for Oilers content to link to. I'm hoping somebody only reads the linked words and thinks "What?? The Oilers are content?" and skips the rest of this.
With the explosion of draft talk around here since the conclusion of the season, this is required reading.
Transactions: Forwards Linus Omark, Chris VandeVelde, Ryan O'Marra, Teemu Hartikainen and Defensemen Jeff Petry assigned to Oklahoma City immediately following us beating them in the finale.
Injuries: Derp.
Minnesota Wild (82 GP 39-35-8 86 Pts)
Last Week: 2-1-0 0-5 L @ VAN, 3-1 W @ EDM, 5-3 W vs. DAL (Chicago thanks you)
Conference Standing: 12th place. Their late season collapse allowed St. Louis to finish in the perfect spot for us to get the 11th pick.
Overall Rankings:
- Goals For: 2.5 (26th)
- Goals Against: 2.8 (16th)
- Power Play %: 18.2 (13th)
- Penalty Kill %: 82.8 (14th)
This Week: Searching for a new coach!
News: Todd Richards was fired as head coach but his staff remains in place for the moment.
Locker room reaction of the Richards firing. I love how respectful hockey players are.
I might have mentioned this last week but it deserves more recognition as Pierre-Marc Bouchard is the Wild's nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.
The Hockey Wilderness reaction to the firing.
Transactions: F Carson McMillan, RW Jed Ortmeyer, and D Drew Bagnall recalled from Houston. Ortmeyer and D Justin Falk were later reassigned to Houston.
Injuries: Roar?
Vancouver Canucks (82 GP 54-19-9 117 Pts)
Last Week: 2-1-0 0-2 L @ EDM, 5-0 W vs. MIN, 3-2 W @ CGY
Conference Standing: 1st, President's Trophy winner for best record in the league.
Overall Rankings:
- Goals For: 3.1 (1st)
- Goals Against: 2.2 (1st)
- Power Play %: 24.3 (1st)
- Penalty Kill %: 85.6 (3rd)
This Week: The only team from the Northwest Division to make the postseason this year, Vancouver forges ahead with a tough first round series filled with bad blood and plenty of recent history as they take on the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. The best-of-seven series kicks off Wednesday night in Vancouver.
News: Alex Burrows and Rory McIlroy apparently have something to do with each other and Rory's epic collapse the Masters Sunday caused Burrows a heavy heart? Wat.
Brian Hunter goes super in-depth with approximately 500 words about why the Canucks will win the Cup. Again, wat.
Beards! Fyeah =D
Manny Malhotra released a statement to the media this week.
Nucks Misconduct reacts to the Raffi Torres suspension. I find threads like this fascinating.
Transactions: D Yann Sauve and Chris Tanev were reassigned to Manitoba, F Cody Hodgson and Victor Oreskovish were recalled from Manitoba, and D Adam Polasek was signed to an entry-level contract.
Injuries:
- Chris Tanev is day-to-day with an upper body injury..
- Lee Sweatt is week-to-week with a foot injury
- Andrew Alberts just had successful wrist surgery and is out for a long time because that really hurts.
- Manny Malhotra will miss the remainder of the season with after sustaining an eye injury against Colorado.