OffThePost.org

Mostly out of necessity with four (!) regular forwards out of the lineup, Bednar just up and put all his new guys up front together, and they were quite good albeit unable to put it in the net, not for lack of trying. I'm reading Duhaime-Mittelstadt-Trenin accounted for 11 scoring chances last night and gave the Canucks everything they could handle. Given the defensive struggles of the top line and top pairing of late I'm glad they were able to ice some guys who, if nothing else, wore the opposition down.

He made it! Nikolai Kovalenko has arrived in Denver. At some point he'll get a regular season game in I imagine, just not sure when.

Oh and, uh, Avalanche and Oilers played one of the best games of the year, a 3-2 OT finish. Lehkonen scores the GWG with less than a second remaining. Just a phenomenal game by both teams (and both goalies, hence the low score). And the good news (I guess) for hockey fans, these two teams are still guaranteed to face off two more times.

Avs sweep the Canadian road trip. Now a stop in St. Louis. I don't know if I hate that team (I don't think I hate ANY NHL team) but man do I ever despise the incel man-child they have playing goal for them. And what's worse, he's playing some of the best hockey of his career and keeping the Blues in the playoff race.

I suppose in some ways this is win-win scenario for Avs fans. If they win, they (however briefly) jump into the Central Division lead. If they lose, they give St. Louis a leg up in the race to catch Vegas in the 2nd Wild Card standings. But I would much, much prefer an Avs win.

Annunen gets tonight's start, Georgiev gets the nod in goal against the Bloo Jackets. Interesting that Bednar is giving the tougher matchup to the backup, which is fine. Logically, that's probably the thing you should do.

A laugher against Lumbus and a comeback in OT against the Penguins.

What’s significant is that with one goal, Nathan MacKinnon set a career high for goals (43) and Cale Makar set a career high for assists (59).

MacKinnon then contributed three points in the 0-4 comeback victory today, which has now put him at 121 points, ahead of Joe Sakic for the most single-season points in franchise history.

MacKinnon has also extended his home points streak to pass Wayne Gretzky for the second-longest in history, trailing only…Wayne Gretzky.

Oh come on

https://www.hockey-reference.com/player ... tpe01.html

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

atta boy Bosc...............the Professor needs a reminder..............would be a shame to forget that 139 point season.......and Michel Goulet with 122 points.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Vive le Quebec!

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Oh whoops I haven’t made that mistake in a while.

Should’ve said Avalanche history. My bad!

139 is insane. Nate might be able to do it but I dunno.

Avs will have one hell of a cap crunch to deal with, not sure what they do. They already have most of the cap space going to Rantanen, Makar, Landeskog, and of course, MacKinnon. Toews' massive extension kicks in next season, and there are not-insubstantial salaries for Girard, Manson, Colton, Lehkonen, O'Connor, and Wood on the books. Georgiev is locked into a pretty decent number for a starting goalie, but...well...we'll talk about that some other time.

Obviously if Landeskog LTIRetires that provides some relief but we're hoping that doesn't happen. Mittelstadt will be seeking at least a decent raise, and I'm sure they'd like to re-sign upcoming UFAs Sean Walker and Jonathan Drouin as well.

It's likely one big salary has to be moved out no matter what. Chances are it could be Manson or Girard, but there's a chance it could be Lehkonen, which would be absolutely gutting.

One possible scenario might center around what happens to Cale Makar this offseason. He's clearly been laboring through something this year, despite the fact he's still been quite good this year, he has not been the force that won him the Norris back in 2022. Rumor has it he may have to get surgery which might knock him out for half the season, which would at least give the Avs some LTIR relief to play with for a bit at least.

Tough choices coming up. But for now, they are most certainly all-in for this season, and the problem becomes a tad easier to face with another Stanley Cup win.

I suspect that the outlook for the Avs only looks as bad as it does when focused on the Avs. We know all know about the issues for the team we follow but who can keep up with all the teams in the NHL and have a really broad and complete perspective. Canucks have cap issues, same as Edmonton, Vegas, Boston, Toronto and even NYI and those are just the ones I know about. I'm guessing there are 20-25 teams with cap constraints. And the very bottom teams rebuilding such as SJ, Chicago, Anaheim don't want excess cap at this point and won't be chasing free agents and driving up the FA market price. They'll utilize their cap space to gain prospects along with the large salaries they take in.

If I'm even close to correct it may be that salaries will remain pretty stagnant for the next few years. I'm thinking if the cap goes up 4 mil a year every year for 3 years then we'll see a jump. Even with the $4 mil jump this year, I don't think there will be that much of a jump for players salaries, and the worry we have about our respective teams wont be as bad as we think.

For the Canucks rumour has it that Zadorov wants $5 mil, Hronek and Lindholm $8.5. I think the Nucks let them walk, and they'll find out the FA market is not anywhere near as good as they are hoping. That's my guess how it plays out. Lots of guys going to FA, and not getting what they thought they would.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Very valid point, the cap is slated to rise but probably not enough to really make the FA market too lucrative for them.

Also, there's been a concerted push by the PA to focus more on raising the ceiling rather than the overall average. The former benefits star players, the latter benefits midlevel guys. With escrow continuing to be a big issue, some stars have spoken out and I think we will see some record-setting contracts for the very best in the league, but conversely we will see some walking back of paydays for the mid-to-bottom rung guys.

Avs make one minor move: According to Kevin Weekes and his oddly-angled scoop videos, the Avs have re-signed Justus Annunen to a two-year, one-way deal that'll pay him an AAV of just over $800k. If nothing else, that's buriable (though I think would require waivers if they wish to do so) if it doesn't work.

Colorado is definitely one of the more new-school teams when it comes to goaltending. They just don't want to spend a whole lot on it.

Avs get swept for the season by the Habs. MacKinnon scored in the first minute to extend his streak but after that…nothing.

Habs actually do a few things defensively that really poke holes in the Avs’ very potent attack. They disrupt passing lanes pretty well and stack bodies in front of the net. Montembeault was really good but I don’t think he was challenged that much. Just a weak, lazy effort. A trap game for sure. Even MacKinnon was coasting a little.

The newly-extended Justus Annunen simply cannot let in the two goals he let in but the Avs by no means deserved to win this one.

Sean Walker with his worst game as an Av, struggled mightily tonight and then took two penalties in the closing minutes. The first one was mainly on Nichushkin (who’s been positively dreadful the past couple weeks or so) failing to clear the zone so I’m not so annoyed about that one, the second one, a double minor high stick, simply cannot happen.

Bednar said in his postgame that he doesn’t like the way the team looks after a full day off. So I guess that played a part.

Was also very positive about Annunen’s progress leading to his extension today but didn’t spare the rod when it came to the two goals he let in.

Oh well…learn and do better next game.

As I feared/suspected, Val Nichushkin missed today's practice with ye olde lower body injury. That would explain why he just hasn't looked himself lately.

Girard and Kiviranta missed due to illness.

Bednar continuing to keep the Wood-Colton-Parise line despite the fact that, except for the comeback win vs. the Penguins, has been getting murdered every time they take the ice. All three guys are scrappy as hell and have a reasonable amount of finishing skill, but egads, they're all positively wretched defensively. Parise just exacerbates the issue. Logan O'Connor did a ton to cover for them when they were the Roaring 20's line but with him out for the year they've been really bad of late.

Has Parise been bad? I don't see anything of the west.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

He was reasonably good for a few games, got hurt, and has been mostly terrible since.

I just wish Bednar would quit using him as 3rd liner or higher. It was fine early on but he should really be limited in usage/minutes. I’d try Trenin or Duhaime on the 3rd line, if nothing else they gotta break up that trio.

Gotcha. Thanks.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Awwwww bummer. Avs lose a very close (and good) game to the Rangers in a shootout. What's more, MacKinnon's home points streak ends, leaving him in second place all time between Gretzky and Gretzky.

Avs are probably going to appeal the scoring decision on the Avs' second goal but I don't think that'll change things. Whatever, it was an astounding run regardless.

The race for the Hart will be an interesting one because now it sure looks like Connor McDavid will now win the Art Ross.