Avalanche Punked by Flames, Lose 1-0

Once again, Peter Budaj showed up and the rest of the team decided to take a vacation. How does that saying go? Fool me once, shame on...shame on you. But fool me can't get fooled again. Or something like that. Either way, the Avalanche are looking like fools with their latest efforts.

How is it that a team can come out with the same piss-poor effort two games in a row? Players can keep calling it an accountability issue all they want but at some point they have to *bleeping* do something about it. Talk is cheap, actions win games.

And where has Tony Granato's "up-tempo" offensive style been? I see no life from the offense. They look like they're going through the motions. The wrong motions. This is what was such a sure hire that no other candidates were even interviewed for the job?

And how about the defense? Can I get a clear? Or a rebound clear? Or a time when you're not all overloading one side of the ice? Or a time where you don't look as confused as a pee-wee team on what your defensive assignments are?

If I was Peter Budaj right now, I'd be right pissed off at my teammates. At one point midway through the third, Curtis Glencross coasted past Scott Hannan - and it wasn't hard to do - forcing Budaj to make a big save. You'd think that would spark the team right? Nope. TJ Hensick picked up the rebound in the corner and promptly turned it back over to the Flames.

Where is the emotion? Where is the will to win? They're playing like they could give a rats ass about being in the NHL right now and it's completely unacceptable. And it shouldn't require some giant movie-style speech from the coach or captain. It requires the players to wake the hell up and play some damn hockey.

If things don't change soon, then things are going to change. Whether it's a roster shakeup, a staff shakeup or just a good, hard kick in the ass for every player in the room, this team needs something to wake them up. You'd think their pride would do it but apparently not.

And in keeping with my angered mood, I once again have to get annoyed at the Flames announcers. Not for being overly biased - they were as biased tonight as any other home announce team - but for saying things that make no sense. The ultimate one was when they stated:
"You can tell how disciplined the Flames have been by the number of penalties they didn't take".

Yeah, ok, umm...NO SUCH NUMBER EXISTS! if you really must put a number on it, your best choice is infinity. As an example, I ate 4 eggs today but there were INFINITY EGGS I DIDN'T FLIPPIN' EAT!

Damn the Avs for putting me in this foul of a mood.

Notes
- Svatos left with an abdominal injury midway through the game
- the Avalanche fired off a gigantic 18 shots on the night
- the Avalanche won 31% of their faceoffs
-the Avalanche are directly responsible for global warming

- Joe Sakic skated in practice but was out of the lineup for the fourth game in a row

Avalanche Crunched by Flames Again, Lose 4-1

51 shots against, 23 shots for. Do I really need to go any further?

Good, because I'm tired.

Related Links
NHL.com Event Summary

Paul Stastny Signs Five-Year Extension

Adrian Dater just reported that Paul Stastny has signed a five-year contract extension. This is huge and somewhat unexpected news. Not unexpected that he would re-sign, but unexpected that it would be so early in the season.

Maybe Francois Giguere seized on a downturn in Stastny's production - 4 assists in his last 9 games -to drive the cost down a bit.

And that cost? $33M over five years for a hit of $6.6M/year. I think those are excellent numbers when compared to similar contracts.

As DD noted when Kopitar signed, that set the bar and Giguere managed to limbo under it but not by an amount that would be insulting.

Does it mean Stastny won't be an Avalanche for life? No, it just means he'll get a raise for the 2014/15 season.

An excellent signing IMHO.

Related Links

Avs sign Stastny to long-term deal

Avs give Stastny five-year contract extension

Stastny signs five-year extension

60-seconds with Paul Stastny (unrelated to extension)

Never trust in hope

At least not when it's hope instilled by the Avalanche medical team.

In the DP and RMN recaps from last night's SO win over the Oilers, it was mentioned that the Avalanche were hopeful Joe Sakic would join the team for their game against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. I mentioned that they were also hopeful he would be with the team last night and we saw how that worked out.

My pessimism - I like to call it realism - was the correct way to go as Joe Sakic will miss Tuesday's game.

He skated yesterday and it "went well" according to Avalanche vice-president Jean Martineau. And by "went well" I assume he means "he didn't break any appendages"

Related Links
Sakic out Tuesday for Avs
Sakic to miss Tuesday's game

Avalanche Streaking Again, Down Oilers 3-2 in Shootout

(Associated Press)

When I woke up this morning I had a great opening line for this recap. Unfortunately I promptly fell back asleep and forgot it. Something about wanting to be called Ishmael while a man in black fled across a desert.

Anyhoo...last night the Avalanche grabbed their fourth of six possible points on their current road trip - and third win in a row - with their 3-2 shootout victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Heading into the third period, the Avalanche were down 2-1 and didn't appear poised to score the tying goal any time soon.

But then the rarest of rarities happened. The Oilers took two penalties leading to a 6-on-3 advantage for the Avalanche with just 25 seconds left.

It started when Fernando Pisani got called for hooking at 18:01. The Avalanche pulled Peter Budaj for the 6-on-4 advantage but couldn't get anything together.

Then Marek Svatos decided to take matters into his own hands and stickhandled past half a dozen Oilers and their moms leading to an Ethan Moreau tripping penalty.

So in a smart - if not obvious - move, Granato sent out Smyth and Tucker to stand in front of the net and annoy Roloson. Roloson was frustrated and distracted by Smyth all game long so why not toss an extra body in front of him and see if he snaps.

It worked superbly as Jordan Leopold fired a shot from the point and while Roloson was hacking, slashing and punching at the pesty pair, Tucker managed to get a stick on it and tip it past Roloson.

Roloson quickly went screaming over to the refs to protest the undoubtedly legal goal. Smyth and Tucker stayed out of the crease, the tip in happened well below the goal line and nobody had touched Roloson.

Seriously Dwayne, grow some stones and quit whining to the refs whenever opponents get within a meter of you. And don't think we didn't notice your dive when Smyth breathed on in the third period. We noticed and we loved it.

That tied the game with 11 seconds to go and as OT solved nothing, it was off to the shootout.

Wojtek Wolski and Sam Gagner both scored to start things off but the next six shooters couldn't get anything past the keepers.

Then Darcy Tucker stepped on the ice. And I said "WTF?" Then Tucker scored. And I said "WTF?" Then Budaj stopped Horcoff. And I said "Yippee!"

The Avalanche now head into Calgary to complete their trip. The Flames got spanked 6-1 by the Sharks on Thursday and don't play again until Tuesday. I think it's safe to say that they will come out pretty fired up. Of course you never know what Iron Mike has up his sleeve.

Notes
Peter Budaj stood tall in net once again. He has allowed just three goals in his last three games. Coincidentally, those all equated to wins. He is on his way to proving what many believed all along - he has the technology. He can play bigger, stronger, faster.

Liam Reddox drew in tonight as Dustin Penner and Kyle Brodziak were in street clothes. And in true Avalanche fashion, he scored the first goal of his NHL career. Is somebody willing to look up how many players scored their first career goal against the Avs? Because offhand...it feels like a lot.

Ryan Smyth got his first goal against his former team as he drove the net hard and banged in a rebound. Remember kids, it's never a bad idea to go hard to the net. And it's always fun to score against your former team no matter what anybody says.

Darcy Tucker is getting back into everyone's good books as he scored the game tying goal as well as the winner in the shootout.

Joe Sakic sat out for the second straight game. The Avalanche are hopeful he will join the team in Calgary. But don't worry, they were hopeful he would join the team in Edmonton too.

Brett Clark was the ice-time leader with 24 minutes last night. He shouldn't be playing that many minutes as it became evident late in the game that he was gassing and making poor plays.

Late in the third, he was circling behind the net being chased by an Oiler when another Oiler started coming at him from the other direction. Rather than dump the puck past the oncoming Oiler, he tried to cut out in front of Budaj which was nearly disastrous. Mostly because my eyes nearly fell out of their sockets.

David Jones spent a grand total of 6:41 on the ice tonight, most of that in the first and second periods. What happened to the dynamo from the preseason? If he doesn't wake up soon, he'll be heading back to Lake Erie to hopefully regain some confidence. He's got none at the moment.

Milan Hejduk took the draw to start off the 6-on-3 advantage and won it handily. Paul Stastny was on the ice but had only won 8 of his 20 draws while Hejduk was a perfect 3-for-3 leading up to that crucial draw.

Ian Laperriere, Cody Mcleod, Cody McCormick, Zach Stortini, Jesse Boulerice...and no fights? Bizarre.

Game highlights


Post-game Comments


Related Links
NHL.com Event Summary
In the Cheap Seats Recap
Rocky Mountain News Recap
Denver Post Recap
Budaj, Avalanche stun Oilers in SO
Avalanche defeat Oilers in shootout