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PostPosted: Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:54 pm 
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Un-Tenured Professor of Hockey
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...or "Auston City Limits," take your pick.

http://torontosun.com/sports/hockey/nhl ... -avalanche

So the running joke is that the Avs always struggle against backups, and that former players always come back to haunt them. Well, the Leafs now have an ace-in-the-hole if both hold true because Calvin Pickard, lost this summer in the expansion draft, then waived, then dealt to Toronto, has been called up on an emergency basis and will likely start tonight. Ugh.

Kadri out for the Leafs on this one, Barrie out for the Avs, who probably played their worst game of the season in a 3-1 loss to the lowly Coyotes, a team the Leafs absolutely thumped last night.


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PostPosted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 2:12 pm 
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Good win after the worst loss of the season to the Coyotes the other night. Without Kadri the Leafs went top line against top line and the Avs won that contest by a fair margin. MacKinnon and Rantanen especially were all over the ice. Pickard was okay but not great in his long-awaited return to the NHL.

Two fluke goals by Matt Martin and Roman Polak (plus a good one from van Riemsdyk) force OT.

I don't get why Babcock is so bent about the call that led to the OT power play and eventual game-winner. MacKinnon had a clear path and didn't have the puck. Brown got in the way. You're not allowed to do that. Ergo, penalty. And fact remains, his teams continue to get away with a criminal amount of obstruction.

First game I think I saw Auston Matthews look less-than-stellar. Even noted Avs-killer Patrick Marleau wasn't much of a factor.

Leivo is good. No idea why Babcock hates him so much.

In other news, two of last night's three stars of the game were the products of the O'Reilly trade (Zadorov, Compher). Zadorov in particular is playing some of the best hockey of his young career thus far. If he continues this upward surge he may yet be exactly what the Avs were hoping--a top-pairing shutdown defender.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 2:28 pm 
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A 4-2 win in Toronto to sweep the season series. Of course this one has everyone buzzing for all the wrong reasons--a TERRIBLE goal review goes in the Avs' favor because of "goaltender interference".

Maybe now that Lou's team got screwed in this he'll lend his voice to getting things fixed.

Overall the Avs did okay. Played absolutely dominant hockey in the first that should've resulted in more goals if not for Freddy Andersen, but then let the Leafs more or less dictate play in the latter two periods. The 2nd pairing of Nemeth-Barberio got pretty badly railroaded by the Matthews line, especially Willie Nylander. Nemeth had two really bad gaffes in particular that led to huge scoring chances against that line, thankfully they only converted on one.

First time since he entered beast mode that MacKinnon looked human. The Leafs dogged him like crazy all night, knocked him around a lot and he looked like he didn't really know how to respond. Now we'll see if he can do what other superstars have done in the past and produce even when he has the full attention of the opposition's checkers.

BUT...other players did step up and get the scoring done. All four lines accounted for a goal last night, including Gabriel effing Bourque again.


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