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That appears to have indeed been swept under the rug. And we have noooooo idea what happened to the woman who was very obviously a victim of human trafficking. I still think it’s fucked that the Avs had two Denver cops on the payroll traveling with them to smooth things over with the local constabulary, and I’m willing to bet that’s a very, very common practice with sports franchises.

Frankly his play has not been stellar so far. Two of those goals against last night were partially on him making a bad play or just plain not covering anyone (he left Dobson wide open on the first NY goal). While he made some very good plays offensively but his defensive game has been uneven so far this year.

I didn't realize the cops traveled with them. Thought it was a Denver area hotel and they were staying there because it was playoffs. Away game? What city was it?
I hope somehow that woman is okay. Although I doubt it.

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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.

Seattle! One of many reasons why the Avs blew that series. By the time the final game reared its ugly head I don't think Colorado had anything remotely resembling an adequate lineup.

Well the Avalanche certainly didn’t live up to the title of this thread.

Colorado drops a pair against two struggling teams in Pittsburgh and Buffalo and score exactly ZERO GOALS in both contests. Not good.

Also Kyle Okposo gives Cale Makar a shove in the numbers close to the boards, leading to an injury. He returned to the game but kept running back to the locker room between shifts. Also not good. Reportedly Okposo reached out for Makar to explain what he was trying to do, he’s a fairly well-respected guy who doesn’t have a rep for dirty hits so I hope that’s the end of it.

MacKinnon didn’t like that there wasn’t a penalty called (which was indeed bullshit) and got dinged for 2 and a 10 after voicing his displeasure. Just a total unraveling of the Avs last couple games.

Devon Toews had some choice words in postgame. Said that some players thought they were playing better than they actually were and that needed to be addressed.

Did Toews say anything about the Okposo hit? They were teammates on the Isles. Pretty sure they're good friends.
And no, Okposo isn't a dirty player at all. He's a really good guy.

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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.

Toews was very critical at the lack of response from the team, no one really tried to step up and even the score (the actual score, not goon it up or anything). He didn’t have anything bad to say about Okposo.

Of course the meathead contingent is out there saying “If MacDermid was out there!” Yeah nothing would have changed except the Sabres might have scored another couple goals.

Blues tonight. Drouin and Tatar are out, MacDermid and Riley Tufte (who's been absolutely killin' it in the AHL) are in.

Looks like Makar is good to go.

Rough night for the ex-Habs. Sad to see Drouin not pan out with Nate, but anyone who's watched him the last couple of years saw it coming. Physically not the young man he was. Wrists are gone, and so is his shot. Can't really make that quick step out of danger anymore.

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Hopefully this is rock bottom this season.

7-0 drubbing at the hands of the defending champs. No one played well.

Nate was quite honest about things afterward, saying the team’s chemistry is off and he doesn’t exactly feel great about the current state of the team. Also took accountability for his own play, which has not been good.

Johansen: Zero even strength points. I just don’t like this guy. Talent and size to spare, plays just about the slowest, softest, laziest game I’ve ever seen.

and at age 31, you know he won't learn now. Not exactly playoff hockey quality is he.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

That’s what’s frustrating. He already knows. He proved it two years ago when he posted career numbers and before that during Nashville’s Cup Final run. He CAN do it, he knows how. He just chooses not to.

Hate to say it but there’s a reason Barry Trotz chose to retain half his salary and take literally nothing in a trade to a division rival. He just wanted the player gone.

Looks like Freddy Olofsson (pretty much the most consistent Avs player outside of Logan O'Connor this season) is not good to go, so NCAA FA signing Ondrej Pavel will make his NHL debut tonight against the banged-up Devils.

I'm not expecting a big game from Makar as it's obvious he's fighting something and not 100%, but Nathan MacKinnon needs to wake the F up. Not one but TWO careless turnovers on the same shift and then a failure to notice Makar was too hurt to cover Stone led directly to the first Vegas goal, shorthanded. I know his puck management skills are not great but he's been committing some insanely bad turnovers to start the season, the physical effort is there, the mental effort is not.

Oh and apparently Jared Bednar is sick, so he may not be behind the bench today. Nolan Pratt handled his usual pregame presser so I assume he's the interim HC if he can't go. First time I recall a coach having to miss due to illness.

After some rumination and analysis, it has been concluded that the Avs do not win games when they don't score any goals, as evidenced by their three losses. The key is to score, and score more than the opposition. Thank you for coming to my webinar.

That was about the weirdest goddamn single period of hockey I've ever seen. It all kinda started when Miles Wood lays a big hit on one of his former teammates (Siegenthaler I think) which leads Dougie Hamilton to hit him in the numbers and get called for a penalty, rightfully so. Well, later while racing for a loose puck in the corner, Ross Colton lays a big hit on Luke Hughes which sends him awkwardly into the boards at full speed. Definitely a dangerous hit and very worthy of a penalty. Well, Colton proceeds to lose his shit and then shoves a stick into Timo Meier's face (Bednar later said it was because Meier came at him with his stick up, but I don't necessarily buy that, and even so it didn't warrant a reaction quite that severe from Colton). So the refs assess Colton a 2:00 minor for the initial hit, and 5 and a game for the incident with Meier afterward. Gotta say I think the refs actually made the right call here. Colton's a fiery guy by default but he's got to be smarter there.

So the Avs end up having to kill a SEVEN MINUTE POWER PLAY, a good portion of which is 5-on-3. In the end, they give up two goals, but score a shorthanded one in the process. Oh and right in the middle of this seemingly endless penalty kill, the Devils get called, so it ends up being 4-on-4 for two out of the seven minutes. I've just never seen anything like it.

In the end, the Avs win decisively over the visiting (and very banged-up) Devils 6-3. Was by no means the prettiest game, but a win is a win and the Avs for now move on from the 7-0 drubbing they got the game before.

Side note: A key part of the Taylor Hall trade, big defenseman Kevin Bahl got absolutely abused by the Avs last night. On at least two of the goals he basically backed into his goalie without putting up much of a fight, in one sequence Rantanen tries to pass it through him, it gets caught up in his skates, he gets it back and tries again and this time gets it to MacKinnon who steps behind Bahl and puts it past Vanecek with a backhand. Underlying numbers for his pairing with John Marino did him no favors. Devils would be wise to get him the hell off the top four.

NCAA FA Ondrej Pavel made his NHL debut in Denver last night with friends and family in attendance, centering the 4th line and didn't look at all out of place.

Oh and Miles Wood was interviewed by the TNT crew and said on his shorthanded breakaway that he had been shooting on Vitek Vanecek for close to two years and said he knew exactly where to put the puck, glove side, with a bit of a grin on his face.

Riley Tufte, who's been absolutely destroying the AHL this season, gets another callup and will play tonight. Avs haven't said if he's going in for Jo Drouin or Tomas Tatar, but it's going to be one of those guys. I'd prefer it be Drouin, who's been a complete non-factor this season (Tatar, despite not playing great either, has been surprisingly productive if nothing else).

Tufte was also a teammate and close friend of the late Adam Johnson, and attended his memorial service in Hibbing, Minnesota a few days ago.

Avs face off against Philipp Grubauer and the Seattle Kraken tonight. Seattle is the one team that reeeeeally gives the Avs fits and disrupts their offensive game better than anyone else in the league. We'll see how they respond tonight.

Well...that sucked. Avs rally to tie the game against the Kraken only to give up another with less than a minute to play.

Something still feels way, way off with this year's club. They brought in some real firebrands and yet the lineup still seems kinda tired. Someone on HF noted their xGF% overall is actually quite high, but if you isolate situations where the game is tied (including the starts of games where it's 0-0 of course) that number drops off precipitously. Guys just aren't finding that extra gear unless they absolutely have to, which I find a little disconcerting.

It's obvious Makar is playing hurt, but overall the team looks a lot slower than last year's, and a big reason for that is Johansen replacing Compher. I knew he was slow but Good Lord the man is a sea slug on the ice a lot of the time.

Now...I feel like, at least for now, I need to balance out a critique of Ryan Johansen with something positive. I'm told that overall RJ is a really good guy, and he proved that with this year's Moms trip. He learned his new teammate Josh Manson lost his mother Lana to cancer last August, and (with Manson's blessing) had shirts made up for the moms and the players that read "Mom's Trip for Lana". Josh's dad Dave also got one sent to his house. Frustrating as he may be as a player, it should always be noted when a good guy does a good thing in the sports world, because I feel like character is too undervalued. The Chicago Blackhawks certainly proved that.

I’m really regretting this thread title now.

8-2 drubbing at the hands of the hapless Blues (at home!!!!!) and I’ve never seen Jared Bednar as angry as he was in the postgame. He was Torts-level furious.

This just…isn’t a very good team right now, despite their record. Goaltending has imploded, Makar is clearly hurt and can’t skate properly, Nichushkin is playing poorly (and I feared that last postseason’s incident would carry over into this year), and none, not a single one of the key additions this summer have panned out. You could kinda see it coming before the big losses started piling up, even in wins something looked very, very wrong with this team.

This could be a verrrrrry long season if things don’t change, and quick.

And while I truly believe Ryan Johansen to be a quality human being, I absolutely cannot stand him as a player. It’s like the air just gets sucked out of the room whenever he takes to the ice. Slow, soft, and lazy.

Now we’re seeing why the Preds traded him to a division rival, retained half his salary in order to do so, and took literally nothing in return. They just wanted to be rid of him.

I've seen a lot of teams give up before....but this year seems to be a bit different.....lots of highly paid players and good on paper teams just going out for public skates. Disturbing. You would think that 10 Million can motivate anyone but sadly this just goes to show that money isn't everything. Sports Psychologists are going to be in demand as a permanent fixture on a team's payroll. Where is Stinky?

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Some updates.

Avs finally make official what we all knew was coming—Pavel Francouz out for the season with an LBI. And since this is the final year of his deal that almost assuredly means he’s done in Colorado, and possibly in the NHL. I wish the man well, Frankie damn well earned that Stanley Cup ring as the #2 goalie, and he always just struck me as a nice guy.

Avs called up Caleb Jones (Seth’s brother) up from Loveland prior to the Blues blowout, and now have called up Sam Malinski. With two guys up that has to mean a defenseman is hurt. Hard to say who it could be, evidence points to Makar, Girard, or Manson. And given his luck who knows, it could be Byram. That pretty much covers the entire defensive corps.

Avs will be without Artturi Lehkonen long-term. Fell face-first into the boards in the Seattle game and didn’t return. And also, Andrew Cogliano missed the last game. Injuries already piling up in Colorado.