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And because the Avs just can't ever seem to get things set on Easy Mode, Nathan MacKinnon tested positive for COVID right before the goddamned season opener, and so won't be available. He joins Jared Bednar on the COVID list. Team is saying MacKinnon is asymptomatic thus far so that's good.

Avs are 100% vaccinated according to Joe Sakic, so even with a potential breakout, the effects should be short-term and not hazardous to anyone's health.

Three rookies on the roster tomorrow night: Byram, Newhook, and Ranta. Don't see that very often on the team a lot of prognosticators have picked to be the Cup winner this season.

https://twitter.com/TSN_Sports/status/1 ... 0789201922

Nate has COVID. Breakthrough infection?

Team is 100% vaccinated, so them's the breaks. The chances of it ravaging the team like it did Vancouver last season are dramatically reduced at least.

Whoa, the Avs might have the market cornered on "best-looking roster" in the NHL.

Did not realize Darren Helm had the smolder goin' on...

https://twitter.com/Avalanche/status/14 ... 6378210313

Not nearly as hot as prime-era Mike Ricci, but hey, that's a very high standard we're talking about there.

Well it wasn't high art, but the Avs come storming out the gate in the first, coast the next two periods to a 4-2 win.

A very unnecessary hit by Landeskog has led to a hearing with the DOP(e)S. We'll see if he plays the next game.

Kuemper was good, saved the Avs on at least three clean breakaways. Bowen Byram was phenomenal in his season debut, notching his first NHL goal, Ryan Murray was probably the team's worst player.

Seth Jones and Patrick Kane got absolutely buried last night.

All in all, not bad at all for a team missing their head coach, best player, and (arguably) best all-around defenseman. Cale Makar didn't play a single preseason game and it showed. He has some rust to shake off.

Gabriel Landeskog earns the first suspension of the regular season from DOP(e)S. Two games for his hit on Kirby Dach.

I'm okay with this suspension as it was a totally unnecessary hit and a potentially dangerous one. That said, any hope I have of Parros leveling consistent punishments has long since gone out the window. Someone will do something much worse than what Landy did the other night and come away with nothing.

So it looks like MacKinnon is in, two negative tests and Bednar confirmed it. Landeskog has to sit one more game.

Kurtis MacDermid proved why he's such a terrible fucking hockey player last game, but he's still in. I can see why. If he can't prove his worth going up against the Tom Wilsons of the league, then there's no point in having him in the first place.

Well, that wasn't good. Avs get blown out again, this time by the Caps. The silver lining, I suppose, is that they gave up an empty-netter to Ovechkin so they helped him toward getting the record.

Kuemper was a full-on tire fire last night. A couple horrible goals and a couple others that he just plain still should've had. I know he's not an upgrade on Grubauer but this is completely unacceptable.

Top line and the Makar/Girard pairing were also horrid, MacKinnon ended his season debut a minus-5 on the night. Yeah, that bad.

What's most frustrating is that the Avs iced 7 defensemen and yet Bednar still insisted on playing Kurtis MacDermid for more than a few shifts. Naturally, he was on the ice for at least one of those goals and completely blew his coverage. Glad most sensible Avs fans now hate that deal as much as I did when it happened.

Sam Girard was terrible! There was even a point he was so out of position EJ crosschecked him and pointed!

Then there was that play on the 2nd CAps goal where he was in deep with no cover......you could see that play developing from a mile away.

I get it for some reason Avs fans like this guy but he is a liability on D and if I had to choose it would be Makar over Girard.

Makar looked like a guy that hasn't played a lot over the summer and really likes his new money. That D split from Kuznetsov was as much his fault as well.

Bright spot for me was the play of Helm, Compher and whoever else they put out there with them. Only dudes on the team that wanted to actually work at getting the puck. As I said at the end of last year this team needs more players willing to do the dirty work and pay the price.

Might cost Bednar his job this year. We'll see..his presser was interesting.

Of note was the incessant Avs fan bitching at Cassie Campbell's ESPN + announcing....yeah she still needs delivery work and I was glad she moved to intermission analysis on SN (it fit her better). Why they insist on inserting her into live game announcing is beyond me, but it is what it is and she is extremely knowledgeable. I liked Chelly and Mess on the desk!

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The one thing I thought Cassie Campbell said that was erroneous (and really, announcers don't get it right 100% of the time, so whatever) was her implication that the Avs had to score in bunches in order to win, as if they're incapable of doing anything other than firewagon hockey. She obviously didn't know that the Avs were the third best defensive team in hockey last year, and started out the BEST defensive team in hockey. They get it done at both ends of the ice...at least they did last season. Obviously they're not doing that now, but I felt like that was a little lazy on her part. She just went with the Avs' reputation for being an offense-first club without delving into the numbers. Otherwise I have zero issue with her analysis.

Compher, Kadri, and Byram have been the team's three best players. Erik Johnson has been pretty good to start, and I think the Avs are trying to ease him into game action after missing the entire season previous.

Girard had a huge breakout season last year, I don't know why he's off to such a poor start, but he might still be a little rattled from his poor showing in the playoff series against Vegas (admittedly, he was nursing an injury then thanks to that moron Kevin Labanc tripping him into the boards near the end of the season).

Makar, in addition to shaking off a ton of rust having played no hockey the entire preseason, was spotted sporting a very substantial brace on his injured wrist. That is most obviously hobbling him up and limiting his ability to handle the puck. He can't get passes or shots off with any authority at present. Hope this isn't a long-term thing. Wrist injuries to skill players are always extremely worrisome.

The Big Line will finally get to play together for the first time this season now. MacKinnon was out until last night with COVID, and Landeskog made an insanely dumb decision in the season opener and got himself (rightfully) suspended for two games.

ugh.....Toews is hurt...but anyone putting a D pair out there with Makar and Girard is just asking to be fired. Who knows? Apparently he must know something the rest of us can't see and that's why he is playing blender mode with all of his lines. Those two can't even be trusted together in a man advantage situation. One thing, besides Florida being really good, I noticed last night was Girard and EJ together a little more. Girard needs to be paired with a stay at home man and I mean staying home...no chasing behind the net or anything. I just don't see how he is anything but a liability any other way.

I am not sure what method is being used here...the day of Bobby Orr is in the past....perhaps they are trying to create a rover position but one would imagine that also includes a sliding forward on each line who has to be just as good on D and they have to know when one of these jokers has gone balls in on O. That's one part of this but then you can't account for being soft on the puck. And you also can't account for the lack of desire to do the dirty work. IMO I could see something like the layers Cassidy employs in Boston working well for this team (Cooper does it in Tampa as well)....but that type of system requires a full team buy in and leaving most of your ego at the bench door (not sure where this team is with that).....I doubt its in Bednar's wheelhouse to implement at this point.

Its early in the season...but if I was a fan my tolerance for this hodge podge that Bednar is rolling out would be short. There are plenty of teams with talent in the league (and the Avs have more than most). It will be interesting to see if they can ascend or if like many others the last step eludes them.

Florida is going to be kick ass this year!

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To be fair, Girard and Makar, when both are fully healthy, make for one hell of a pairing. Not the greatest in the defensive zone but also not terrible. Offensively they're a force, and Bednar will often throw them out there with the top line in the event of an offensive zone faceoff. But I agree, it ain't working right now and if there's one thing that drives me nuts about Bednar's coaching style, he's extremely slow to make adjustments.

Last night was just more of the same. Top guys just didn't bring it, goaltending was better, but still not quite good enough, and the power play and even strength offense just didn't get it done. Landeskog serves his two-game suspension and then lays a giant egg in his first game back. That guy better get his shit together and quick. He publicly called out the team for lowballing him, finally got the money and term he wanted, makes an idiotic decision to get himself suspended in the season opener, and then turns in an effort like that. Uh-uh, Landy. You wanted the big money, now you better goddamned well play like you're worthy of it.

Despite that...I'm not terribly worried. To show you just how good the Avs were last season (albeit in a condensed schedule against a fairly weak division) they didn't lose more than three games in a row all year. Now they've already matched that to start this season. Makar is clearly way out of it (which makes the decision to play him like a #1 all the more puzzling), MacKinnon is still fighting his way back from quarantine, and guys like Girard don't seem to be in form yet. Also, goaltending just...has to be better. Overall, the team looks very disjointed.

The bright spots thus far are Helm, O'Connor, Kadri, and Compher. But those guys should not be your best players.

One more game against the defending champs, then some time to lick your wounds.

The AVs will be fine. Too much talent, too depth and loads of experience. It's a long season.

Depth is the only place where I disagree. On defense, yes, there's depth. Up front though, it's the top line and then a real mishmash of various players, all of whom are extremely flawed. Kadri and Compher are the only guys consistently bringing it, and both of them are insanely streaky. Burakovsky is definitely the most talented guy outside of the Big Three, but he is also one of the dumbest hockey players I've ever seen and is demonstrating at present why Washington wanted to bury him six feet under the press box.

I really wish the Avs had moved on from Tyson Jost long ago. He's nowhere near the star they were hoping he'd be when they took him tenth overall, and while he's a good defensive forward, he's awful on offense and in the playoffs he's too small and too slow to be anything other than a traffic cone. The organization is just totally in love with him though, and while I think he's a good guy and all who's busted his ass to get as far as he's gotten despite some severe physical limitations that hamper his game in the NHL, he's nothing more than a marginal player in this league. That's just not good enough, especially when you compare that to teams like the Islanders, Tampa, Florida, etc.

Anyway, this team goes nowhere so long as the top line doesn't get the job done. The good news is that Kadri is at least trying to avenge the disastrous season he had last year, still a very flawed player who shouldn't be around next season, but he's still the second-best center on the team and trying his damndest out there, so I can't really complain.

Well...that was promising. Avs win in a shootout against the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. MacKinnon and Makar combine to score immediately on the opening faceoff of a third period power play, so there's light at the end of this tunnel. Makar also scored the GWG in the shootout in the sixth round.

Kuemper looked a lot better this time around, making a spectacular save to retain the lead (they blew it later but it certainly wasn't his fault) so there's that.

Interesting that a number of the projected frontrunners for this season (Tampa, Vegas, Colorado, Toronto) are all struggling out of the gate. Meanwhile, San Jose, Detroit, and Buffalo have all started the season well.

Well, it ain't panic time, but when the team is at home against an injury-depleted Vegas squad and lays a big fat egg in the first period, it's time to be concerned.

At least Kuemper has played better of late. Neither goal was on him.

Power play and lack of depth is killing this squad right now. The coach seems like he might be running out of ideas.

I don't know what the solution is but they're digging a pretty big hole for themselves and stand as the 4th-worst defensive team in hockey at present, when they were the 3rd-best last season.

We'll see what happens, but it was a bad offseason for Joe Sakic. And that's being reflected in the current record. We'll see if they right the ship but even if they do this sure as fuck don't look like a team that will make it past the 2nd round.

Ironically I had the following typed up but figured I would let you go first!

Something is amiss in Avs land. Especially when your best line is Jost, Compher and Helm. I thought EJ played well with Byram (no Girard thank goodness)



There are plenty of old men out there Statsny, Pavelski...that might be able to help this locker room......dare I say Pat Maroon for 4 in a row!

Get rid of Kadri and soft Burakovsky...hell dangle Newhook if you have to. The window is open and its time to push the chips in. I expect some real shaking if this continues with Bednar being the first casualty.

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It was actually Jost, Helm, and Logan O'Connor. Compher was on the 2nd line with Burakovsky (who has been an absolute disaster to start the season) and Kadri. He had a rough night, bad turnover on the power play led to a SHG that stood as the game winner. The Avs just can't help but use both him and Jost in roles that they've proven beyond any shadow of a doubt they're not suited for.

And as good as Logan O'Connor has been, I'm growing quite tired of him winning puck battles/races, fighting like hell to set something up with a nifty feed from the boards only for Jost to put a goddamn muffin on net that the goalie saw coming a mile away. Without Nichushkin and Donskoi scoring in bunches and dominating play, you really see just how mediocre a player Jost is. I hate saying stuff like that since Jost is a good guy who busts his ass every shift, but it's like Bednar and the Avs refuse to see the truth.

Avs win 4-3 in St. Louis, handing the Blues their first defeat of the season.

Things got spicy between the two teams, naturally Binnington lost his cool and swung his stick at Nazem Kadri while he was just standing there talking to Pavel Buchnevich. And then the refs handed KADRI a misconduct because he had the audacity to say something about it. Officiating has been beyond fucking terrible to start this season. I'm seeing no discernible crackdown on cross checking like they promised.