What Have You Done For Me Lately? Avalanche update (4/2/12)

I'm writing this in a very big hurry because it's after 1:30 am right now and, after closing the Tribes beta I'd been playing for like 5 hours, I saw the Excel sheet sitting up and said "I haven't done that yet. Shazbot." So short version. Avs ran out of gas to many observers. Bad loss in San Jose (5-1) on Monday, were shut out in Vancouver Wednesday but only gave up one goal, a shorty breakaway (1-0), and then beat Calgary again (4-1) on Friday. The individual stories aren't a whole lot different than last time and not because of copy/paste problems.

Forwards

9. Matt Duchene - Cold [last week: Cold]
He has seemed to sort of look better physically, but the very limited time on ice he's getting is justified by his lack of production right now.

11. Jamie McGinn - Meh [last week: Hot]
His torrid pace seems to have calmed down now. Went two pointsless games (including a well-earned -4 for his entire line in SJ), then missed the Calgary win with a back injury he sustained carrying the team's goal-scoring hurr hurr. No really, he has a back injury.

12. Kevin Porter - Non-Factor [Last Week: NF]
Om nom nom nom. Nachos. Pressbox. That's Brewski.

16. Jay McClement - Hot [Last Week: Hot]
McC continues to play really well, including an assist and over 16 minutes of ice time against Calgary.

17. Chuck Kobasew - Non-Factor [Last Week: NF]
I'm not sure if NF is worse than Cold or Meh when you're playing and are still not a factor. Has actually played in 3 of the last 4 games but has only mustered 3 shots at net and is rarely seen contributing. Prove me wrong, I may just not be noticing.

23. Milan Hejduk - Cold [Last Week: Cold]
A goal! He's still on the bottom lines, getting low minutes with heavy proportions of them on the PP. When you're publicly considering retirement you know things aren't going well.

26. Paul Stastny - Meh [Last Week: Star of the Week]
Has had 0 points since we last checked in and was part of the Minus Four Line against SJ. Was tearing it up before then so, eh.

27. Steve Downie - Meh [Last Week: Meh]
Really not doing anything outstanding, but the fact that he's not been a liability is laudable given that he may have a slightly separated shoulder (boy is that one buried deep), one I'd guess he's been nursing since Pittsburgh threw him down in front of the net.

37. Ryan O'Reilly - Meh [Last Week: Meh]
ATOI over his last ten is over 20:00, and during the same span he's a +3 (the team is even). That's difficult to call evidence of good play but he's still causing takeaways (in both directions unfortunately).

40. Mark Olver - Hot [Last week: Meh]
The Little Ball of Hate has seen a decent jump in icetime and time with more skilled players. He was rewarded when he assisted on Jay Bouwmeester's becoming the newest inductee into Club Scored On My Own Net. Had a fight in Vancouver (got effin pummeled, but hey, David Booth didn't really do much until he found himself the only one wearing a visor). Doing what he needs and then some.

54. David Jones - Meh [Last week: Meh]
He was just plain stifled in Vancouver. 8 shots, all on goal. Nothin. Finally got a deflection goal on EJ's ridiculous play in Calgary but has mostly continued to be the unluckiest man (man man) on the face of the Earth (Earth Earth). Oh, and was the third part of the Minus Four Line. Yeesh. Generating opportunities though.

55. Cody McLeod - Meh [Last week: Meh]
Pasted from last week because it's still true: He does continue to bring energy and physicality though, it's just not been exactly special lately.

88. Peter Mueller - Cold [Last Week: Cold]
Has been a healthy scratch lately, has a goal (into an empty net), just hasn't been that effective in a while. I do hope they re-sign him over the summer. It's worth finding out if he can return to form (as long as we don't count on it).

92. Gabriel Landekog - Hot [Last Week: Hot]
Lawd. He's really just plain due another goal to be honest, but 2 assists in Calgary put him over the 50 points threshold. I really want him to hit 55. Pad dem stats boys. Play him all the PP minutes.

Defensemen

3. Ryan O'Byrne - Hot [Last Week: Meh]
Kind of been up and down this week, to the point where in Vancouver he only saw the ice for 13 minutes, but was back over 21 in Calgary. the PK has still been mostly good except for where he wrecked Varly's shutout by taking a penalty. I mean, where AJ said shutout too many times. Professor.

5. Shane O'Brien - Cold [Last Week: Meh]
He's had moments of being the Avs' worst defender, and he's had moments where he's scoring the only goal against San Jose by smartly being in the right place. But more of the former if we're being honest.

6. Erik Johnson - Star of the Week [Last Week: Meh]
Hasn't played less than 22 minutes since returning from back spasms, and has put 20 shots at net in the same time span. Just a phenomenal play with a delayed penalty coming on the Jones goal in Calgary. When he's playing this confidently, we see a stud on our hands, non?

8. Jan Hejda - Meh [Last Week: Hot]
Meh is the average of Hot and Cold. He's been both, been up and down. He had very low (for him) TOI in Vancouver as well as ROB, around 15 minutes. Gee what a thought: a d-man and his partner appear to be playing similarly.

22. Matt Hunwick - Meh [Last Week: Meh]
I do continue to be happy with his play but it's not anything awesome, except for your here and there "HUNWICK did THAT???" moment when he puts someone on his ass. Is it too late for him to try to make a Sochi Olympic team for short track speed skating?

41. Tyson Barrie - Meh [Last Weel: Meh]
Also copied because it also remains true: Barrie has looked consistently okay on defense and decent jumping into the play on offense, which is not bad for a rookie defenseman whose only other two NHL games were forgettable at best. He did only play one game this week though. And it was the Calgary one.

44. Ryan Wilson - Cold [Last Week: Meh]
Found his way into the doghouse, sadly. Om nom nom for you. Play better when you can trade the suit in for suiting up again.

46. Stefan Elliott - Non-Factor [Last Week: NF]
I don't even have numbers anymore because I only run back 10 games. Om nom nom.

Goaltending - Hot

Okay. In San Jose, the team as a whole shat the bed. Varlamov could have been better too. But he's allowed 2 goals since then, and one of those was a breakaway, with the other coming on the fifth Calgary PP of the night. This week he stopped a total of 90 of 96, for a SV% at .938 and a GAA of 2.03. Not bad when you have a 4-goal blemish on you (#5 was EN).

Coming up!

A whole lot of waiting. The Avs don't play again until Thursday against Columbus before they close out the season against Nashville. I don't think those will be particularly meaningful games aside from Landeskog's Calder chase but stay tuned to Busted Twigg's charts and the nightly rooting guides in the mean time, and we'll see how it goes. As for me, I'd rather not worry about it, it's out of our hands, and you see, the enemy still has their flag over on the Beta and that's just not an acceptable state of things. >:D