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PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:28 pm 
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What a difference a year makes. Here we are creeping toward the deadline, the Avs, mathematically, have a shot at making the postseason, but realistically should have pulled the plug about a month ago. I have absolutely no idea what the current brain trust is trying to accomplish. They continue to ice a blueline that features Brad Stuart, Nick Holden, and Nate Guenin, while Stefan Elliott stews in the press box. What exactly is the point of bringing him up if you're not gonna play him (and Roy clearly said to the press that Elliott would play, just didn't add it would be "sparingly"). In addition, instead of mercifully taking Tyson Barrie off Nate Guenin's pairing and putting him with Hejda, he thought it would be better to keep two completely ineffective pairings together while taking third-pairing puckmover Zach Redmond and putting him on the top pairing with Hejda, which of course has Redmond playing completely over his head. Redmond has been one of the few GOOD moves the Avs made this offseason and provides plenty of offensive spark, but has to be deployed correctly. Even Roy has repeatedly stated that Redmond is the "7th guy" even though he's worlds better than at least half of the guys "above" him on the depth chart. But regardless, how in hell does he think it's a good idea to take his self-proclaimed 7th guy and ice him against the opposition's best? It doesn't help that Hejda, who really isn't a top-pairing guy anymore, is clearly playing hurt.

A season of elation followed by pure frustration. This is the Roy I feared would manifest his first season. Not sure what happened between his rookie year behind the bench and now. I think the playoff loss to the Wylde really rattled him, which is now leading him to go down the same rabbit hole that ruined the Buffalo Sabres: WE NEED TO GET TOUGHER.

I'm pretty sure I will be calling for Roy's head if the deadline passes by and they decide to keep Hejda and Briere. This team should be casting off whatever spare parts they have NOW, and play whatever rookies/kids they can.

At least in one area, they appear to be on the right track--the players acquired by the new brain trust to bolster the system: Noreau, Rendulic, Henley, and especially Everberg appear to be real finds. A shame two of them suffered season-ending injuries.


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:07 pm 
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Well, shit, I just can't figure this team out.

Right after dropping a game to the Kings, where they actually WON the possession game and made Johnny Quick steal the game for LA, they turn around and beat two of the best teams in the league at Chicago and then home against Tampa Bay (Nathan MacKinnon hat trick to boot!).

I don't know what it is though, but any "dominant" wins against good teams by the Avs this year usually features a very, very bad game by the opposing goaltender. That's definitely the case with Corey Crawford, who committed one of the worst goalie gaffes I think I've ever seen.



You can't even make the argument that the puck "took a weird bounce," he had it on his stick and just completely mishandled it. They're paying THIS guy $6 million!?!?

Vasilevsky was also pretty bad, but not THAT bad.

This team should still be looking to unload though, still way too much ground to make up and LA appears to have bounced out of their brief funk. But I suppose it's nice to have MacKinnon score a few during an absolutely snakebitten season.

Also, Dennis Everberg rocks. And I'm not just talking about his hair.


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2015 4:21 pm 
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Don't know how much to put into this, but the usually-reliable Eurolanche site said Bergevin was kicking the tires (gently, Mark, gently) on Jan Hejda. I'd like for Hejda to get a shot with a contender before his time's up, and the Avs are going nowhere this season.


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 3:04 am 
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Welp. the Avs make some moves but none of the ones fans were hoping for. Upcoming UFAs Jan Hejda and Danny Briere are still on the team. Not like either was a coveted pieces, but surely SOME kind of deal could be swung for either player, even if it was "future considerations."

Some minor trades took place though, which I suppose is better than nothing. The "biggest" deal was Max Talbot and AHL prospect Paul Carey heading to Boston in exchange for Jordan Caron and a 6th rounder. I thought this was a halfway decent deal until I read that Colorado's also eating half of Talbot's salary. Not a horrid deal but not really a great one either. Just...meh.

Also, Dougie Hamilton's brother Freddie gets dealt from the SJ Sharks in exchange for career AHL d-man Karl Stollery.

Lastly, another career AHLer, Michael Sgarbossa, gets dealt to Anaheim for big D-man Mat Clark. I'm actually happy about this deal since Clark was born in the same town as me, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. I believe he's the first native Coloradan to be in the Avs organization, though I could be wrong. Overall this guy is big and hits people, which already makes him 10X better than Nate fucking Guenin.

Boy we're a long ways removed from the annual Pierre Lacroix blockbuster. Anticipating those made deadline day fun as hell, even when Lacroix made those deals he probably shouldn't have.

Oh, and long-suffering prospect Joey Hishon was called up to take Talbot's place. No idea what Sakic and Roy will end up doing with him and Stefan Elliott, since both are on expiring deals and don't seem to factor into the Avs' plans. I would think both of them would've been dealt, but apparently not.


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:17 am 
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Hejda is like the prototypical deadline defenseman deal.

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:20 pm 
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MacKinnon out 6-8 weeks with a fractured foot. There goes his season.

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:43 pm 
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And right after he outplayed his fellow Cole Harbourite.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 5:29 pm 
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http://www.denverpost.com/frei/ci_27714 ... ection-has

Quote:
Here's another example of how it can work in hockey: Hartley's Laval assistant worked for the telephone company, and often was on a telephone pole when he and Hartley talked about practice plans. Today, that Laval assistant, Michel Therrien, is in his second stint as head coach of the Canadiens, and Montreal general manager Marc Bergevin chose Therrien over Roy in 2012.


You're welcome, Montreal.


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 2:31 pm 
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Not sure if there is a situation of a single player absolutely dominating a team right now as much as Taylor Hall killing the Avalanche. Dude just eviscerates them every time.


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 8:14 pm 
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Avs officially eliminated from playoff contention today, but really they were out of it before the All-Star break.

Let's hope this was merely a transition year and they trim the shit off this roster. Unfortunately McLeod and Stuart will be back.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 3:43 pm 
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I've tried like three times to write this post, and end up just too damned ambivalent to finish it, so I'll just make this one quick summary since I usually just talk to myself in here anyway.

Avs had an offseason where they had very little room for error, what with suddenly limited cap space and a prospect base that wasn't going to bail them out with even cheap depth players. Well, they erred. Big time.

The biggest mistakes? Nick Holden and Brad Stuart definitely top the list. I can't speak poorly of the Iginla acquisition, but when you have limited cap space, blowing nearly all of it on an aging scorer probably wasn't the wisest course of action. But hey, dude showed he's still got and then some. Too bad it's a lost year for him when he doesn't have many left.

Injuries definitely took their toll, but again, the team took too many gambles, spent too much money in far too few places.

One big highlight of the season? The team might FINALLY have a legit goaltending prospect in Calvin Pickard. I was thinking for sure The Guy would end up being Sami Aittokallio but it looks like after getting busted down to the ECHL that he's done.

With Ryan Wilson, Danny Briere, and Jan Hejda all UFA this offseason the team gets some much-needed cap space. No telling what they'll do with it, if anything.

Prospects to watch next season: Chris Bigras (D), Joey Hishon (C/W, if he's retained), Duncan Siemens (D), Calvin Pickard (G), Bourna Rendulic (W). If just ONE of the team's many defensive prospects can make an impact in the NHL, that'd be a godsend for the organization. They've sputtered with bargain bin depth guys for far too long. Unfortunately, Siemens didn't have a great year in the AHL and once again lost significant time to injury.

All in all, I just hope to hell Sakic and Roy have learned their lessons. Roy once again proved he's a tremendous motivator, but he also made some egregious errors, especially with his managerial decisions. Reportedly it was he who pushed for the Brad Stuart trade. Oops. Unfortunately, I don't see this team embracing analytics anytime soon, which will put them far, far behind about 70% of the NHL, if not a larger portion.

Biggest question going into the offseason is pretty much the same one that's been asked for the last three years or so--will the team sign Ryan O'Reilly long-term or not? They definitely want to, but O'Reilly's camp seems dead-set on either getting an extremely lucrative deal or testing the market once he's UFA. Either way, it'll be shit-or-get-off-the-pot time around next season's deadline if the team fails to re-sign him before then.

Ownership pretty much gave Sakic and Roy carte blanche once they were hired, but you can rest assured they'll be plenty mad if the team goes through another season of bad hockey with a bloated payroll. The team will be showcased in Coors Field for a Stadium Series game against the Red Wings, and if the Avs go limping into that matchup, I can't imagine Kroenke the Younger will be pleased. Heads will definitely roll if they get off to another bad start. Maybe not Sakic's and Roy's, but others for sure (Greg Sherman, I'm lookin' at you).

Okay, there. A summary...by my standards at least. Pretty big letdown after what I still consider the most fun hockey viewing season of my life. But hope springs eternal, and if I can tolerate the bullshit the Rockies pile up every year, I can tolerate this. For now.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 4:24 pm 
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Personally I thought last year was bit of a fluke and set expectation too high, on the other side they did worse than I expected this year. They should be a better team than the Flames, certainly a Flames team sans Giordano..............really the difference there is probably coaching. Good luck with that. ;)

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 7:06 pm 
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Fogghorn wrote:
Personally I thought last year was bit of a fluke and set expectation too high, on the other side they did worse than I expected this year. They should be a better team than the Flames, certainly a Flames team sans Giordano..............really the difference there is probably coaching. Good luck with that. ;)


Well...in the Avs' defense, they too lost their top defenseman, who, while not playing Norris-caliber hockey like Gio, was having a career year and was for most of the season the team's best player. And the Avs losing Erik Johnson hurt way, way more than the Flames losing Giordano. The Flames don't have Nick Holden, Nate Guenin, and Brad fucking Stuart rounding out their bottom six. That's expansion-era talent right there.

And while he wasn't have a stellar season, losing MacKinnon down the stretch didn't help matters.

As for coaching, well, Hartley is Roy's mentor, so we can at least hope more of the former rubs off on the latter. Incidentally, Hartley is about as old-school as they come, though he's a lot quicker to adjust strategies/gameplans based on whatever roster he has more than most coaches.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 10:23 pm 
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We saw this coming for a while: The Avs and Lake Erie Monsters are parting ways.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/avs/2015/04 ... ers/21275/

Avs get the San Antonio Rampage, formerly affiliated with Florida, and Lumbus takes over in Cleveland.

I read some strange things about the relationship between the Monsters and their parent club. Reportedly the Avs didn't specify which players to call up, the Monsters told them which ones were ready and sent them based on need. I really don't know how much truth there is to that, but it would explain to some extent some of the weird callups we saw this year. Roy was very, very reluctant to call up any legit prospects to fill depth roles, and only did so when injuries started piling up.

Opinions on current (and possibly former) head coach Dean Chynoweth were mixed. Apparently he's a very old-school dump-and-chase guy, but from what I hear the AHL is largely a dump-and-chase league. I suppose that's why more forward-thinking bench bosses like Eakins and Cooper stood out. No word on whether he will move to Texas as well.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 11:51 pm 
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I'm sure Lake Erie's fanbase in Cleveland is going to love being Columbus' minor league affiliate. I'm sure there's some sort of rivalry between the Ohio cities.

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2015 11:01 pm 
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Avs will pick 10th in this year's draft. If they don't snag a d-man THIS time around, the fans will be rather displeased.

Damien Cox has them taking Werenski. Hey, he's a lefty on top of being good, I'll take him.


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PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 2:08 pm 
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Some shakeups.

Lumbus Assistant GM Chris McFarland jumps ship and takes the same position with the Avs. No word on what this means for Greg Sherman, who is the current Assistant GM in Colorado.

And here's a surprise: Assistant Coach Andre Tourigny and video coach Mario Duhamel have both left the organization.

So that's two people and one farm organization summarily dumped so far this offseason.


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PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2015 12:19 pm 
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Avs fan site Eurolanche is reporting that Patrick Roy has reached out to Alexander Radulov about returning to the NHL. Stay tuned...


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PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2015 1:03 pm 
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Av-merican wrote:
Avs fan site Eurolanche is reporting that Patrick Roy has reached out to Alexander Radulov about returning to the NHL. Stay tuned...


Does anyone own his rights? The Avs would be pretty far down the waiver pecking order. Would he refuse to report to any team but the Avs?

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PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2015 1:10 pm 
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Bosc wrote:
Av-merican wrote:
Avs fan site Eurolanche is reporting that Patrick Roy has reached out to Alexander Radulov about returning to the NHL. Stay tuned...


Does anyone own his rights? The Avs would be pretty far down the waiver pecking order. Would he refuse to report to any team but the Avs?


He doesn't have to pass through waivers unless he starts the season in the KHL, right? If he does there's no way in hell he's gonna make it to the Avs.

Not sure how contracts in the KHL work. It seems pretty easy to terminate them, and now that the whole league is in financial turmoil, I'm not sure they can even afford to pay him.


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