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PostPosted: Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:22 pm 
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Regular season schedule:

https://www.nhl.com/avalanche/schedule/2016-10-01/MT


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:25 pm 
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Bednar took some time before naming alternate captains, they were named today.

Wearing the A's (other than the logo): Francois Beauchemin, Matt Duchene, and Nathan MacKinnon

https://www.nhl.com/avalanche/news/avs- ... -282624108

So it is possible the Avs could ice an "All Letters" line (called the Nines Line last season).

Works for me. I've been told MacKinnon has never worn a letter in his pro career. This should be interesting. Duchene has deserved the honor for quite some time. Yeah, I get it, it's just a piece of fabric, but it's cool nonetheless.

Now if they could just fix those regular home-and-away jerseys I could finally buy one. I may still buy an alternate with Duchene's number and letter on it.


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 5:31 am 
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Hey AV, any juicy insider info you could pass along about Skille? He made the Canucks roster this year on a PTO and signed a one year, one way deal @ $700,000.


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 11:56 am 
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Logical Progression wrote:
Any juicy insider info you could pass along about Skille AV? He made the Canucks roster this year on a PTO.


Good for him. He actually was a welcome addition to the Avs, the season before they had iced the worst 4th line in the league, and while McLeod-Mitchell-Skille was hardly the best it was at least a capable enough trio to be trusted with the occasional defensive zone draw. One of the very few bright spots in an otherwise dismal Avalanche season. Plays hard on the forecheck and has enough skill to score the occasional goal. Everything you'd want in a grinder, basically. Willie Desjardins is gonna love him. Reportedly he really loved playing in Colorado and waited around as long as he could for a phone call from them until it was clear the Avs weren't interested.

The general trap with Skille that Willie may fall into is being so impressed with his play that he'll bump him up a line or two. That's when he'll show everyone why he's a first-round bust.


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2016 7:12 pm 
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http://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/14/mi ... n-antonio/

Mikko Rantanen headed to San Antonio for a rehab stint. I'm guessing Ben Smith gets a whirl at centering either the 3rd or 4th line in that case.


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 1:36 am 
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Avs waive Ben Smith, which must mean Johnny Malkin is good to go, and Mikko Rantanen is ready to be called up to the parent club after his rehab stint in the AHL. And they need both players. Anyone's guess as to where Bednar puts Rants to start. He's played all three forward positions in both the NHL and AHL. It'll probably be something like 3rd line C and then once he gets acclimated Bednar will try him on the top line with MacKinnon and Landeskog, which would be a dominant line out the gate if we were playing NHL 17.


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 3:51 pm 
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Well this is rather surprising. Smith gets claimed by Toronto the same day they waive Milan Michalek. Didn't think they'd need or even want a guy like Smith given that they still haven't found a spot for Griffith yet, but there ya have it.

Avs I believe are now at 45 contracts.


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 6:05 pm 
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MIKKO CALLED UP!!!!!

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/24/be ... ple-leafs/

:shlick" :fap: :yayyy: :snoop: :cthulhu: :kraken: :viking: :beer: :woop: :D:respek::geek: :mrgreen: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :Butch: :mulletbutch:

So the Avs played last Saturday, they don't play at all this week and then have a back-to-back (home and away) on Friday and Saturday.

Uh...WTF NHL schedulers!?


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 9:19 pm 
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All team schedules are wonky due to the WCH causing delays. Canucks just played 6 in 9 nights - 7 in 10 as of tomorrow and their opening night was 4 nights after season started so a lull to start. Goofy. Hate to think how the players who played in WCH will hold up......


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 1:30 pm 
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from twitter:

Quote:
Mike Chambers Verified account ‏@MikeChambers 19m19 minutes ago Centennial, CO

Avalanche lines this morning w Rantanen in mix: 92-9-12, 25-29-96, 27-7-8, 17-34-14. Extras: 55, 57 #Avs


so looks like they may break up Landeskog & Mackinnon and drop Soderberg from the top 6(if these combos hold for next game)?

landeskog - duchene - iginla
grigorenko - Mackinnon - Rantanen

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 5:09 pm 
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hammer wrote:
from twitter:

Quote:
Mike Chambers Verified account ‏@MikeChambers 19m19 minutes ago Centennial, CO

Avalanche lines this morning w Rantanen in mix: 92-9-12, 25-29-96, 27-7-8, 17-34-14. Extras: 55, 57 #Avs


so looks like they may break up Landeskog & Mackinnon and drop Soderberg from the top 6(if these combos hold for next game)?

landeskog - duchene - iginla
grigorenko - Mackinnon - Rantanen


Damn, beat me to it! Anyway here's Rick Sadowski's article. He may work for the dreaded Hockeybuzz but he's still the best beat writer the Avs have ever had.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Rick-Sad ... /188/80183

We'll see how long the separating Landy and MacK lasts. Basically they're the most dominant forwards out there on any given night for Colorado, and Iggy's been a passenger. Pretty tough seeing Jarome Iginla looking every bit like the 39-year-old man that he is, but not everyone can be Jaromir Jagr. I still want to see what Landy-MacK-Rants can do together. I think that trio would be deadly.

I'm glad they're putting Duchene and MacKinnon back at center though. I don't think they're as good on the wing but have been moved there off-and-on due to lack of depth and their respective struggles over the years. Soderberg has been surprisingly good after a rough start last season but really, he was hired to be this team's 3rd line C. The one thing is...I kinda like Grigo at center too.

So those bottom two lines appear to be Martinsen - Mitchell (returning from injury) - Colborne and R. Bourque - Soderberg - Comeau. I have no idea which one of those is the 4th line. Maybe it doesn't matter. Frankly I'd like to see Colborne get that RW spot next to Duchene and Landy and move Iggy down. I feel like he and Dutchy would have great chemistry, especially since Colborne's bread and butter is scoring dirty goals in front of the net and Duchene likes to buzz around behind the net and down low. Duchene also likes to have wingers who can play center, so they switch it up while in the attacking zone.

It's gonna take a while and some more experimentation though. Bednar doesn't have the advantage Roy had his first season in having both Stastny and O'Reilly in the lineup. Both those guys offered a ton of stability/reliability to the degree that Roy had a free hand to do pretty much whatever when it came to lines. Once those guys left the whole thing just kinda fell apart, and Bednar is still getting to know who can do what.


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 2:27 am 
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Avs fall tonight 1-0 to the Juts. While it was a pretty good goaltending effort, I just didn't feel like he was challenged as much as the shot counts would have you believe.

I saw a stat flashed on TV tonight--Avs are dead last in the league in shot attempts. Not sure what specifically is causing that. Could be them being a little too fancy, could be that they're still finding difficulty sustaining attacks, just not sure.

The real highlight of this game for Avs fans though was the reigning AHL Rookie of the Year, Mikko Rantanen, making his 2016 NHL debut (he played a few games in 2015 before being sent down to the minors). Skating on the 2nd line at RW with Grigorenko and Duchene he showed some real sparks of brilliance. With the right linemates I could see him being a dominant presence...and yes I know it's just one game but you just needed to see him flat-out take over anytime the puck landed on his stick.

Bednar is still struggling to find the right mix. Such an odd mix right now, especially up front. He made some strange moves tonight--sheltered the hell out of the "top" pairing of EJ and Zadorov, and made Iginla and Rene Bourque major fixtures on the power play. Seems very strange given how much success Joe Colborne gave the power play early on this season.


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 1:51 am 
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Much-needed 3-2 win against the Coyotes. Goals from Duchene (2 of 'em) and Rene Bourque.

Still a work in progress, but...not a ton to complain about.

Patrick Wiercioch had an 85% CF adjusted tonight. :shock:


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 1:59 pm 
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Interesting, the Avs go from three Borks at camp to just one. Gabriel sent down to San Antonio.

Not sure what move this precipitates, they're likely going to wait as long as they possibly can just to save the cap space, but speculation abounds that Tyutin's groin injury might be a little worse than originally thought and they want to call up an extra blueliner. Top defensive prospect Chris Bigras got hurt in a recent Rampage game, so the next guy in line is probably Anton Lindholm, aka the lone pick remaining (rd6, 144 overall) from Colorado's disastrous 2014 draft.

In other news...

https://twitter.com/mirtle/status/793136470299021312

And if we look at SA/SF and y'know, based on what I've seen thus far, the Avs are doing a much better job at suppressing shots and keeping the opposition boxed out, and they're also moving the puck out much more efficiently. You're not seeing nearly as many instances where they let a single d-man hang back and try some crazy long pass through traffic, and yes, there are more dump-ins, which is fine. Where they're struggling, and I think this will change in due time, is in sustaining the attack. They don't keep possession in the offensive zone nearly as well as a team like this should. Too many turnovers and too many dumb offensive zone penalties. No excuse for either. However, they played the majority of the season without John Mitchell and Mikko Rantanen, and while the former isn't necessarily a huge impact player, Rantanen's game is kinda built for driving play. With those two in the lineup they've done a pretty good job generating shots...but the trend needs to continue.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 2:34 am 
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Avs lay a bit of an egg tonight against the Preds. Figures that Nashville would decide to turn it back on tonight of all nights. They put their top line of Forsberg-Johansen-Neal back together and they did pretty well.

This is a much, much better start than the last two seasons, so there's that. Avs have way too much cap room doing a whole lotta nothin' though, Sakic has his work cut out for him.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:54 am 
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That one looked a little nasty going by twitter.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 2:32 pm 
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Bosc wrote:
That one looked a little nasty going by twitter.


They had a promising first followed by a ridiculously bad 2nd and a not-great 3rd. Nashville on the other hand just completely took over in the latter two thirds of the game.

A quick overview of the problems currently plaguing the Avs.

1. Nathan MacKinnon is letting the fact that he has 1 goal in 8 games get to him, and he's trying waaaaay too hard to get his 2nd. Flinging point blank shots wide, and he gets visibly frustrated after he misses. Also at times he's trying to do too much on his own, trying to stickhandle around three guys all at once when he should either be dishing or dumping the puck. Last night he and Landeskog got a 2-on-1 break shorthanded and instead of just taking the damned shot he set up Landy for a one-timer, who then promptly whiffed. He should've just taken the shot and pounced on the rebound, of which Rinne was giving up plenty. Pressure is on and there's some hand-wringing after he's turned in two somewhat uneven seasons after a fantastic rookie campaign. Advanced stats-wise, he's driving play better than anyone on the team (except for Johnny Malkin, who has gotten off to a ridiculously good start) and it's not even close, he's just gotta settle down a bit. He's an elite talent, he just has to realize it.

2. Adrian Dater has turned into a Roy Defender of Trump-like proportions. I like to give him the benefit of the doubt even when he's at his Hot-Taek-best, but he's being ridiculous. Last night I called him out on Twitter when he called out the core. The core is fine, apart from some early struggles from MacKinnon. But the same problem abounds as last season--the talent surrounding the core is failing miserably. Two key pickups from 2015--Soderberg and Beauchemin--have been the team's two worst players. Soderberg had an especially awful night last night, magnified even more by the fact that when he got kicked out of the faceoff circle on a d-zone draw, he didn't cover his man properly on the point, who then scored. You can't expect MacKinnon, Landeskog, Duchene, Johnson, and Barrie to carry this team night in-night out, some of these supporting cast member need to get their shit together.

3. Maybe it's just me but IMO offensive zone penalties are inexcusable. And Blake Comeau keeps committing them. He has definitely been the fans' whipping boy thus far, and with good reason. Keeps committing stupid penalties without contributing much else. I get that he missed most of camp/preseason with an injury but this is just ridiculous.

4. Bednar is making some curious lineup choices, and IMO he's treating Jarome Iginla with the kid gloves. Give him a 3rd line role at even strength along with some time on the power play, that's it. He can't do top six anymore. Bednar exiled Colborne to the 4th line which is a complete waste of time, but then bumped him up to play alongside Duchene, which I thought was the whole point of bringing him aboard in the first place. Bednar is a rookie coach despite his wealth of experience behind the bench. Needs to start making the tough choices though. He needs to use Colborne more, and guys like Iginla, Comeau, Bourque, and Soderberg less. Not sure what in hell he can do about Beauchemin though, he's already been relegated to the third pairing and is still stinking up the joint.

5. Goaltending has been uneven, but hey, it's been uneven pretty much everywhere. The good news is that it hasn't really been the reason why the Avs have lost games, last year or the years before that wasn't a possibility. They're at .500 now with somewhat shaky netminding, that's a silver lining.

Sakic has his work cut out for him in the next twelve months or so. They're in a bit of a cap crunch, they have some bad contracts, and the expansion draft is coming up in 2017. Avs have to leave a d-man unprotected, and the only guy they have signed past 2017 who probably should be that guy has a NMC. They either gotta ask him to waive (which will definitely not go well as Beauchemin signed because the Avs promised him security with the term and the NMC) or somehow find a warm body to be the sacrificial lamb. What will be interesting is which goalie they decide to protect. My money's on Pickard because I believe they want to cut ties with Varly for various reasons.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 07, 2016 3:09 pm 
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Woof. A string of really bad losses and Avs Nation is in full meltdown. Four games, three losses, and outscored 14-2. A lot of bad things going on, and a lethal combination of terrible defensive breakdowns and mediocre goaltending from one Semyon Varlamov.

People saying Roy was right, the core sucks, and while they haven't been great they're not really the ones to blame. They're all pushing play in the right direction, it's just not going in (though despite good possession #s I'd argue they haven't really challenged opposing goalies all that much. A lot of outside shots, not making goalies and defenses move side-to-side very much, guys simply not getting open, not moving the puck very well.

But really, it's the supporting cast that's bottoming out. Iginla, Beauchemin, Soderberg, Comeau, Colborne, Grigorenko, and Tyutin have all been varying levels of bad. It's astounding how all the minor moves Sakic has made in the last three seasons right now are just not panning out at all. Of the supporting cast, only Zadorov and Wiercioch have been exceeding expectations, and Wiercioch was a bargain-basement pickup who's been thrust into a tough position.

I just don't know why this team looks so abysmal right now. Admittedly it was a really tough start to the schedule, but overall this squad should be in better shape than what it's showing. They had a promising start, then they had that weird week off where they practiced like hell and oddly came out of it looking worse.

Probably time for Bednar to quit using the kid gloves. He needs to start throwing some bodies in the doghouse. Unfortunately there have been so many of them it's hard to know who stays out of the doghouse

On the prospect side, some good, some bad. A.J. Greer and J.T. Compher (Compher was a Buffalo draftee snagged in the O'Reilly trade) are currently lighting it up something good in San Antonio. Overall the farm team is looking okay, unfortunately top defensive prospect Chris Bigras has been out for roughly a week with an undisclosed injury. No other d-man is really NHL-ready at this point.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 7:22 pm 
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https://twitter.com/ChartingHockey/stat ... 9235185665

It's both comforting and extremely frustrating to see the Avs on the exact opposite end of the PDO scale. But it's better to be there than on the other end, which they have been at least twice the last few seasons, and then seeing the team make all the wrong moves thinking they're closer than they actually are.

They are a much better team in terms of fundamental defense and efficiency of puck movement. What's killing them, in addition to absolutely rotten luck on the offensive side of things, are poor starts and a rash of stupid penalties. I haven't seen them play on TV in a while

But also, injuries are starting to take their toll a bit. Avs addressed the losses of Duchene and Landeskog by calling up A.J. Greer, who's looked solid in limited minutes thus far. Duchene is back tonight, and I guess to send a message, Bednar is making Joe Colborne a healthy scratch. I'm not opposed to this but it also means guys like Mitchell and McLeod, who have been absolutely horrendous of late, stay in.

It's injuries in the AHL that are absolutely KILLING them though. The team's (arguably) top two prospects, forward J.T. Compher and defenseman Chris Bigras, have been out for roughly a month apiece, and it looks like concussions are the culprit. In fact so many injuries have occurred in San Antonio they're forcing the ECHL affiliate in Loveland to sign a PTO guy.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2016 11:15 am 
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Well, first two games of a five-game home stand and the Avs come stumbling out of the gate. A pretty awful loss to Connor McDavid and the Oilers 6-3 (did okay the first two periods and then completely collapsed in the third) and a 3-2 shootout loss to the Canucks. Pretty frustrating to watch this team right now. Too many players playing soft, perimeter hockey, too much "veteran leadership" doing very little in terms of leadership or y'know, playing the hockey, and goaltending has been okay but not great.

Concerning to see that this club's biggest missteps might not be that easy to do away with. Francois Beauchemin is signed until 2018 with a cap hit of $4.5 million (and a NMC), and Carl Soderberg is signed until 2020 with a cap hit of $4.75 million. Ugh. A buyout or trade is likely going to happen before the expansion draft with Beauchemin (I'm guessing buyout, which will not be cheap) and as for Soda...well, I suppose best case scenario is that Vegas takes him in the expansion draft.

Still wondering what to make of Mikhail Grigorenko. Big guy, not a great skater, lots of talent and hockey sense to spare, but plays rather soft and doesn't seem all that engaged a lot of the time. I doubt he becomes much more than a utility depth guy who nets a few points here and there. The thing that sucks is that the Avs acquired pretty much the same player (Joe Colborne) this offseason. They don't need two Joe Colbornes. And Bednar seems pretty frustrated with Colborne after a very promising opening night hat trick. He's been shuffled all around the lineup, even sitting in the press box for a game, and now is stuck centering the fourth line.


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