OffThePost.org

Giguere follows up, and some reactions from teammates.

http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_ ... tid=463964

This is my favorite part:



At least Jiggy understands what's broken. It's not the players, it's not even the coach (even though at this point, it is). It's the culture. I hope ownership takes a look at this and makes major changes in the hierarchy.

Culture is illusive and hard to pin down but when players don't trust the management things get real ugly fast. Hopefully for your sake you get your Galchenyuk/Bergevin/Therrien type equivalents and you put this year behind you as fast as possible.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Unfortunately a "Therrien" equivalent would probably be Tony Granato or Marc Crawford. Funny how well he's working out for you guys right now.

That is most certainly a coaching issue...

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Oh it definitely is...I should've said coaching is not the BIGGEST issue regarding this club. It goes far deeper than that.

Between Dustin Penner and the Kings official feed, LA might be the funniest team on Twitter.

Anyone catch Penner's bit of smack talk following the game?

Reportedly Lacroix has been spotted lurking more and more around the Pepsi Center...I'm guessing the axe will be swinging in full force this offseason.

Kinda sad that the freakin' Edmonton Oilers look more decisive than the Avs do at present. Both are in similar situations, though at least Lacroix has the resume as a front office exec to back up the arrogance. Unfortunately I don't think that makes it any better.

AV you might find it interesting that Kroenke is also pissing off the people of Merrit as well. Seems his royal dickishness is large enough to fill the whole area of the worlds largest ranch as well.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-residents-take-on-ranchers-over-access-to-fishing-lake/article2002874/?service=mobile

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

I read on Twitter somewhere that even Piers Morgan took Kroenke to task for his mishandling of Arsenal. It seems like the old man has made quite a few enemies around the globe.

The Denver Post's best writer weighs in on the current situation:

http://www.denverpost.com/frei/ci_23076 ... -days-seem

More of the same, really, but it's nice to see someone finally addressing the real problem concerning the Avs: Lacroix. Even if ownership really is pulling the purse strings tight, the O'Reilly debacle and other blunders have convinced me that Lacroix is the main perpetrator here. This organization won't ever climb out of the pit with him holding it down.

The best writer for the Denver Post covers not just sports, but hockey? Man, that must be a shitty paper.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Glad that's finally over.

The plusses:

Matt Duchene proved that he is indeed a franchise player.

Ryan O'Reilly proved again that he too is a franchise player.

P.A. Parenteau was worth every penny this year.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere is a better coach than Joe Sacco.

Stefan Elliott and Tyson Barrie resisted the Avs' best efforts to marginalize them.

We are guaranteed no lower than 3rd overall. Again.


The minuses (some, not all, or I'll be here all night):

Lacroix is still in charge when he should be riding off into the sunset.

No guarantee Sherman or even Sacco will be fired when better coaches/GMs have already been kicked to the curb.

Wearing the C took a toll on Gabriel Landeskog's play.

The Avs have now completely wasted two years of the three year deal they signed Semyon Varlamov to after trading a 1st and 2nd for him, and given their past track record with RFAs...

Erik Johnson was above average at best, while Chris Stewart and Kevin Shattenkirk were major factors behind the Blues' success this season.

Even the Ty Rattie/Duncan Siemens aspect of that trade looks like a wash.

Greg Zanon and Matt Hunwick played meaningful minutes nearly the entire season, and no one in the organization seemed to have a problem with this.

Meanwhile it'll likely be Shane O'Brien heading out the door, even though he played better than either of them.

Even if Sacco/Sherman get fired, it won't solve the underlying problem.


Hope springs eternal. I'll be donning my burgundy and blue once again next year. If even the Blue Jackets and Islanders can figure it out, I think the Avs will as well. Just a matter of when, I guess.

So Sacco is sacked, Eric Lacroix has departed the organization, and our draft guru Rick Pracey will be representing the Avalanche at tonight's lottery. Methinks the axe hath not finisheth swinging. Of course it was Sherman who announced Sacco's firing, so I'm probably reading too much into this.

SETH JONES IS OURS!!!!!!

Assuming he makes the team next year (not a definite of course, but given how crappy this blueline corps is I'd say it's likely) it gives the Avalanche four right-handed puckmoving defenders with him, Elliott, Barrie, and Johnson.

Left-handed blueliners currently on the roster are: Jan Hejda, Ryan Wilson, Shane O'Brien, Greg Zanon, and Matt Hunwick Given how things went down with SOB this year and the fact that he's good friends with Ryan O'Reilly, I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest to see him traded this offseason. There's also Duncan Siemens, but I can't imagine he won't need some AHL time (probably reunited with his old Blades partner Stefan Elliott in Cleveland).

While I would LOVE to see Hunwick and Zanon blasted out the nearest airlock, it probably isn't a logical thing to do, especially considering that Ryan Wilson simply can't stay healthy.

So that leaves the dire need for a sniper-type winger, and possibly a checking center if the Avs go ahead and move Paul Stastny, which seems likely. Of course if Lacroix has anything to say about it, Ryan O'Reilly will be on the first plane outta town come deadline time or the offseason--I believe if the NHL participates in Sochi, the deadline then gets pushed back beyond the moratorium currently in place and they can trade him at the deadline. That said, it would be immensely stupid to hitch the wagon to Stastny and Duchene rather than Duchene and O'Reilly with no real center prospects in the pipeline.

At this point I don't believe Sherman will get canned, even though he deserves to be. He most assuredly will be if the Avs falter once again. He knows even ownership is running out of patience.

In the end, it's been said before, but if there was a year to tank it, it was this one. It was only 48 games of misery rather than 82, and we're gonna end up with the kid who was simply destined to play in Denver. That said...this season was an abysmal and embarrassing failure on so many levels, and so far only one head has rolled. Not enough. The culture is broken, and it'll take a lot more than Joe Sacco's departure and Seth Jones's arrival to fix it.

Now begins the search for a head coach. Given the fact Greg Sherman reportedly sat out the lottery ceremony because he was busy looking for Sacco's replacement suggests the Avs will actually conduct a legitimate search for candidates. We'll see. If it ends up being Tim fucking Army than Sherman's absence was nothing more than a lame smokescreen. Guys who are definitely in the mix are Jacques Martin, Steve Konowalchuk, Tim Army, Adam Deadmarsh, Dean Chynoweth, and of course, Patrick Roy. I don't see Joe Sakic taking on that role.

One thing I like about picking Jones for the Avs even though I think MacKinnon is more likely to be a stud is that the Avs have three star level forwards already on the roster. When teams are just starting their rebuild and pick a D with high end forwards still on the table it's pretty much guaranteed to go bust on them. Erik Johnson, Roman Hamrlik, Ed Jovanovski, Bryan Berard, etc. Only Chris Phillips has stuck with his team from 1st overall past free agency and it's probably because the Sens had a good stable of forwards in place at the time, which became great when they picked Hossa the next year.

They can pick Jones a bit guilt-free as a result.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Yeah...I suppose he has some cushion there, but man, that'd suck if we just ended up with another Erik Johnson. I read that Jones's game compares to EJ's, which isn't the best thing to hear since EJ turned in yet another year of mediocre hockey.

As for EJ himself, still haven't given up on him, but next year is make-or-break. Enough already--he either starts becoming an impact two-way defender, or he ends up another Eric Brewer. He definitely had legit excuses given the absolute crap he had surrounding him, but he'll be out of excuses next year, even if they decide to bring Greg Zanon back.

Not Avs-related, but it appears things are quite chaotic across the pond in regards to Kroenke's rather neglectful ownership of Arsenal:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z2S2F3OXiA

Sometimes I wonder if Kroenke's just a bored billionaire. Why go to the massive expense of buying one of Britain's most popular football clubs if you're not even going to make it competitive? Is it just so you can say you own one? Weird.

Anyway, I've maintained there are far worse owners out there than Stan Kroenke (his son Josh is more or less the de facto owner now that Stan is pursuing majority ownership of the St. Louis Rams), but as Justin Bourne put it recently, we're entering Islanders territory. Funny, since the Islanders are, for now, out of Islanders territory.

On a side note, I'm reading (on HF, mind you) that Eric Lacroix resigned because his good buddy Joe Sacco was canned. Eric was also good friends and teammates with Tony Granato, who of course also ended up being a crappy coach for the Avs. If indeed Lacroix the Younger was responsible for these two travesties of bench bosses, I say to him...GOOD RIDDANCE!

From Friedmann's 30 Thoughts:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion ... ughts.html

Dater gettin' all the Seth Jones-watching in he can before the draft.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/avs/2013/05 ... y-2/13127/

Also, according to him Dean Chynoweth is the lead candidate for the head coaching job. Ugh.

Can't find the link, but apparently there's a story by Elliotte Friedman that the Avs are waiting on Joe Sakic to make a decision on whether he wants more power in the organization. He was offered a promotion before and turned it down because he felt he wasn't ready. Once Sakic makes his decision one way or the other, I imagine the dominoes will fall pretty quickly, and some more heads could roll. But who knows?

Rumor has it (boy I say that a lot) that Craig Billington will be the next GM if Sherman is deemed to be the weakest link. I'd be okay with that so long as Rick Pracey sticks around.