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You now what? The Avalanche have had better days, but this week wasn't all bad. On Wednesday they started a 2-game road trip in Calgary, the return of a now-healed-and-freed Hero, and fell by the deceptively close score of 3-4 to the Flames on Jerome Iginla Sweepstakes Night. The next night the team finished off the trip by losing to the Canucks 4-1, in a game that was close to the end but looks bad because of 2 ENG for Vancouver. Saturday saw Nashville come to Denver for another matinee with the Predators; it was the total opposite of the last time that happened as the Avs won in overtime, 1-0.
Mile High Hockey Hero of the Week: Tyson Barrie
What a wonderful game he had against Nashville. Barrie already has 2 points since returning from a mild hip injury and nonsensical demotion to Cleveland. One of those points was the game winner against Nashville, a really smart play by Barrie as he anticipated Greg Zanon's slapper rebounding out in his direction and slipped the puck behind Pekka Rinne when it did. OT hero? Only win of the week? HERO OF THE FUCKIN WEEK DAWG.
Honorable mention: Joey Hishon scored his first pro goal this week, and we don't even have to drink because I said his name! (but don't let me stop you)
| 3. Ryan O'Byrne (8GP, 22 hits, 17:54 ATOI) |
Cold | Has started seeing his time as a healthy scratch, and his ice time dwindle. Is readjusting from the ECHL speed to blame for this season, or was his good season an aberration? |
| 4. Greg Zanon (8GP, 10 hits, 3A) |
Meh | ZANON HAS NOT BEEN TERRIBLE. I REPEAT: ZANON HAS NOT BEEN TERRIBLE. since the return of Tyson Barrie. COINCIDENCE I THINK NOT. |
| 5. Shane O'Brien (7GP, 15:33 ATOI) |
He played less than 9:00 against Calgary and hasn't been seen since, and there's been no news to this effect but I kind of think he was injured in that game. No proof of that that I can find though. |
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| 6. Erik Johnson (10GP, 2A, all of the ice time) |
Meh | EJ finally got top pairing minutes in Canuckistan and Iginlagary, over 24 minutes in each, but was back to 20:26 against Nashville. He and Matt Hunwick have been pretty good together lately. |
| 7. John Mitchell (10GP, 1-2-3, 15:31 ATOI) |
Cold | Mitchell has struggled offensively since Paul Stastny (spoiler) went down, failing to so much as register a SOG in 4 games and averaging only a single attempt per game in that span... and his TOI is falling too. |
| 8. Jan Hejda (9GP, 2A, 17 hits) |
Meh | Not too bad, not too bad. Not blowing us out of the water, but not too bad. |
| 9. Matt Duchene (10GP, 2-5-7, 46 shot attempts) |
Cold | Duchene has 1 goal and 1 assist in the last 6 games. He's shooting 4.3% in that span despite taking 35 shot attempts (23 SOG). For every good luck streak there has to be a bad luck streak, no? |
| 11. Jamie McGinn (9GP, 2-0-2, 39 shot attempts) |
Meh | After his surprise scratch last week, McGinn looks to be back to playing his game: shoot the puck a lot, hit lots of posts, get a few goals here and there, and hit people. He only saw the ice for 15:20 vs Nashville though. |
| 12. Chuck Kobasew (10GP, 2-1-3, +4 Jibbles) | Meh | We know exactly what we're getting out of Kobasew every night, and for the role he's playing, that's a good thing, because it's decent forechecking and bringing some energy. |
| 15. P.A. Parenteau (10GP, 4-6-10) |
Hot | -11 Jibble Rating in the last ten games, so obviously Parenteau is secretly horrible and needs to be sold high. OHGODI'MKIDDINGPA I<3U NEVERLEAVEEVER |
| 17. Aaron Palushaj (6GP, 1A, ∞ fals) |
Down | The Aaron Palushaj hat trick begins with being positionally dangerous offensively. The other two requirements are a shot attempt and falling down. Please improve your skating this summer. You could be a solid 2nd line winger one of these days. |
| 22. Matt Hunwick (10GP, 1A, 21:55 ATOI) |
Meh | He's played more than 24:00 in the last three games, which clearly shows that Sacco trusts him as a top-pairing D lately. Rightfully so, relative to his competition. |
| 23. Milan Hejduk (shoulder) |
Injured |
Hejduk |
| 26. Paul Stastny (foot) |
Injured | Stastny took a hard shot off the foot against Vancouver last week and didn't return. Considering how quickly the team said he would be out for "ten days" I imagine it's something minor like a bone contusion that just keeps him from being able to skate. |
| 40. Mark Olver (6GP, 1-1-2) |
Meh | GOLD STAR FOR TROLLING SHEA WEBER. THAT WAS AWESOME. |
| 44. Ryan Wilson (ankle) |
Injured | In his first game back from injury, Ryan collided strangely with P.A. Parenteau and re-injured his ankle. What a hair-pullingly maddening year for him. |
| 54. David Jones (5GP) |
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Haven't seen him in a week. That's an awful expensive body filling a suit, guys. |
| 55. Cody McLeod (10GP, 1A, 31PiM) |
Meh | Cody got beat up by Rich Clune and hasn't done a whole lot else besides hit people on the forecheck and kill penalties and all that other non-scoresheet stuff. |
| 58. Patrick Bordeleau (10GP, 1A 12PiM,) | Meh | Bordy and Brian McGrattan did their best to explode each other's faces sans defense, with varying degrees of success. Holy shit. Damage edge Bordy but he was clearly tapping out of that one. Also, pretend CTE isn't a thing. :( |
| 90. Ryan O'Reilly (10GP, 2-7-9) | Hot | He was at a point per game before the whole team got shutout for 60:50 by Pekka Rinne. Dude's workin his ass off to earn that check he got. |
| 92. Gabe Landeskog (9GP, 5-1-6) | Meh | After missing a game due to some kind of injury Landeskog's point- and goal-streak came to a screeching halt, and he's been less than visible since. Not great. |
| 1. Semyon Varlamov | updown updown updown |
I MEAN IT'S ALMOST LIKE VARLY IS A REALLY GOOD GOALTENDER WHEN HE GETS A HINT OF DEFENSIVE SUPPORT. THAT'S AMAZING. CALL SCIENTISTS TO STUDY THIS NEW PHENOMENON. |
| 35. J.S. Giguere | Loud |
Liked him calling out the team last week. Don't like his 4.19 GAA in his last 3 appearances. |
Coming up!
The Avs play a pair of back to backs this week, 4 games in 4 cities in 6 days, starting tonight in detroit (5:30 MT, national TV). Tomorrow night the Avs visit the Preds for a rematch (6:00 MT), and then the wingy wheel does the same for us on Friday (7:00 MT). Saturday the Avs visit the desert for a matchup against the Coyotes (7:00 MT).