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SUMMARY
Well, my internet went out and I lost my whole recap 15 minutes ago, but after throwing some pillows across the apartment, let's see what I can do in a hurry.
Both teams came out with a strong start tonight, but the Blues came out and played in the second. The Avs seemed to get startled and let the Blues walk all over them in the first five minutes of the second. The first goal was a bit of a bad bounce, but the second was awful defensive play by Danny Briere.
The Avs pushed back for a bit near the end of the second, coming close to scoring on their lone power play, but the Blues got real aggressive on the kill (a little borderline aggressive if you ask me).
The Blues went into the old fashion shutdown mode in the third and gave the Avs no chance to get back in this thing. What little hope the Avs had went away after MacKinnon made a bad pass that Tarasenko intercepted and fired past Varlamov for his 22nd of the year.
Marty Brodeur earned the shutout for number 125 in his long career, but as Roy said after the game, it was probably one of his easiest shutouts. The fact is the Avs' top guys are just struggling big time this year and something needs to happen soon to get them out of this funk if they're going to consider themselves anything close to a playoff contender.
But hey, at least I'm not the only one that had a bad night...
LINES
Talbot-Duchene-MacKinnon
Tanguay-Mitchell-Iginla
Landeskog-O'Reilly-Briere
McLeod-Cliche-Holden
Hejda-Johnson
Guenin-Barrie
Stuart-Redmond
Varlamov
Berra
HIGHLIGHTS
Meh.
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THREE STARS
1st- Paul Stastny: He put up two assists against his old team and his line was the best one on the ice. The Avs are still missing him.
2nd- Ryan Reaves: The lone member of the Stastny line to not get a point, but he made his presence felt physically, especially in the first.
3rd- Marty Brodeur Semyon Varlamov: Though Brodeur got the shutout, Varly got the saves. This could have been a 6-0 game without Varly. Sorry Marty, 16 saves doesn't get you a star.
NEXT UP
Flyers @ Avs
Wednesday December 31st, 2014
Game time: 7pm, MT
TV: ALT
Happy freaking New Year.