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https://www.nhl.com/news/mackinnon-skin ... nuary-2024

MacKinnon First Star of the Month honors (Skinner and Pettersson round out the Second and Third Stars). 12 goals, 14 assists, good for 26 points in 12 games.

Hopefully he has fun at the All Star draft teaming up with Cole Sillinger's ex Tate McRae. Chances are likely he's going to pick a Canuck at some point.

Avs have a very nice weekend at the All-Star game. At the Skills, MacKinnon wins the One-Timer contest and Makar nabs Hardest Shot, though neither manages to best Connor McDavid to grab the $1 million in prize money.

That said, Alexandar Georgiev wins as the best goalie of the festivities by stopping the aforementioned McDavid in the one-on-one contest, leaving him 0-for-9. Hopefully that will help build some confidence.

In other news, the Avs announced the signing of 39-year-old Zach Parise to a prorated league-minimum one-year contract. It's likely his last shot at getting that elusive Stanley Cup.

In other OTHER news, the Avs waived backup goalie Ivan Prosvetov and recalled top netminding prospect Justus Annunen. Prosvetov cleared and was reassigned to Loveland in the AHL. I hope there's a plan here to get a 1B-type goalie because it's obvious to everyone that Georgiev has been seriously overworked. Annunen is definitely not a great option as backup at present, so this might be an attempt to showcase him a bit before the Avs try and swing a deal. My hope is Kakko Kahkonen, but I'm sure other teams have inquired about him.

The lines for tonight at New York will be as follows...

Drouin - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Parise - Johansen - Lehkonen
Wood - Colton - O'Connor (the "Roaring Twenties" line stays together)
Kiviranta - Olofsson - Cogliano

No change in the defensive pairings. And no surprise that Alexandar Georgiev gets the nod in net against his old team.

So they're gonna try Parise out on a "second" line with Johansen and Lehkonen, and if it works, great, and if it doesn't (and I don't think it will because Johansen SUCKS) then they'll try something else.

But hey, why not give the old vet (cannot believe I'm calling Zach Parise an "old vet") a try at a scoring line instead of just automatically making him into a grinder?

For a team that sure seemed like they could use the All-Star break to get some rest, they sure haven't looked like it.

Avs drop their first two coming out of the ASG lull, first an OT loss to the Rangers and then a bad showing 5-3 against a shorthanded Devils team.

Boy I dunno what to make of Bowen Byram but he's nothing like the player he was his rookie season. Team is getting caved in every time he's on the ice and he just looks lost. Avs better damn well trade him fast before his value plummets.

They also have GOT to find a second line center and backup goalie. Justus Annunen was absolutely terrible last night, made a huge save on a Bratt breakaway but also gave up two really bad goals. The team in front of him did him no favors for the most part but he just isn't an NHL goalie. And frankly the Avs need to quit wasting time with him.

As for Ryan Johansen...pretty sure he has edged out both Matt Hunwick and Bates Battaglia as my least favorite Avs EVER. Laziest, softest player I think I've ever seen on NHL ice. Fucking worthless.

Anyway...the road trip goes on. Carolina (yikes) tomorrow, Florida (double yikes) on the 13th.

Oh boy, the wheels look like they fell off in Toronto. Another loss, 5-2 to the Hurricanes. Georgiev gives up an absolutely HORRID goal to start things. The other three he let in weren't much better.

Ironically, not the worst goal let in on the night. Pyotr Kochetkov pulled a Jonathan Quick and let a simple Sammy Girard dump-in get past him, which apparently enraged Rod Brind'Amour so much that he went with Antti Raanta, but then Raanta got hurt (big surprise) so he went back to Kochetkov.

Once again, the completely lack of a second line center is killing this team. Avs can't do anything unless Nathan MacKinnon goes into God mode.

Didn't help that Makar started the game out poorly and then got hurt. He played the remainder but was clearly laboring with every stride.

Avs drop one 4-0 to Florida in Florida, have a players only meeting after the game.

What's worse is that Nathan MacKinnon took an awkward fall behind the net in the third and smacked his face on the ice, didn't come back, and today wasn't at practice. I suppose the good news is that Bednar had Kurtis MacDermid centering the top line, so unless he's taken complete leave of his faculties, Bednar is just using the goon as a placeholder. After practice Bednar said Nate was off the ice receiving treatment for something he tweaked earlier, and he should be good to go for tomorrow against the (somewhat) resurgent Washington Capitals.

This road trip cannot end soon enough. Someone joked that notable "coach-killer" Zach Parise is working his magic against Jared Bednar now, but I don't think he's to blame for the team's issues...or is he?

Avs finally stop the bleeding with a 6-3 win over the Caps in the Capital. Ovechkin scored from his Office, but it ultimately didn't matter.

Arturri Lehkonen was on fire, scoring two goals (one an empty-netter) and a highlight-reel assist on Mikko Rantanen's game-winning goal.

It certainly wasn't art, and the bottom six looks BAD right now, but it's a step in the right direction...hopefully.

Rumors really picking up that the Avs are targeting Jake Allen...sure as hell hope that's not true. Allen has a not-great contract and his underlying metrics are actually WORSE than Prosvetov and Annunen put together.

Apparently Annunen will be getting the start tonight against the Bolts. That really sounds like a bad idea but...whatever.

Dreger coming in and throwing cold water all over the Jake Allen rumors. Good. For now.

As an athletic goalie who gives up rebounds, Allen is in a terrible spot in Montreal. The young defence isn't built to clean up his messes.

But he can be acrobatic and make saves, so on a team with a more solid defence, I think he'll hold up better. Just a hunch.

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Avs have not handled Georgiev's rebounds well at all. BUT, sometimes it depends on the types of rebounds given up.

Kinda funny, I feel like the Avs liked Frankie better than Kuemper even though, technically, Frankie had worse rebound control. But they way they pinballed off of him, the Avs knew what to do with it. When Kuemper gave up a rebound it just kinda limply fell in front of him and there was no one nearby to clean it up. There's something to be said about a team's ability to gameplan around a goalie as there is the goalie himself.

Regardless, Corey Masisak reminded everyone on Twitter that at present, the Avs don't have a lot of cap space, even accounting for LTIR. Any substantial moves will require salary moving out as well. That's what makes me think they're going to be really quiet come deadline time, and that'll piss me off big-time, but I can kinda see why.

Avs finally back at home after the world's worst road trip and pick up a win against the spiraling Coyotes. A game that featured THREE goals that were challenged, two of which were called back. Ugh.

Logan O'Connor has been dealing with an injury of some sort, so Chris Wagner gets the nod again.

Apparently Bowen Byram had a sit-down with defensive coach Nolan Pratt and his game has steadily improved ever since.

Gabriel Landeskog continues to improve and looks good on the ice but there's a ways to go.

Hope this isn't offensive but if I were to come up with a gameday thread title for tonight's tilt it might be

We're in it Arshdeep

Oh please do. I'm a big fan of AB and really hoping he makes the next step to the NHL full time next year. I like those stories about the players who don't get drafted and just keep improving and improving beyond all expectations. That he's a local kid, and Sikh heritage just makes the story so much better for Vancouver fans.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Go figure, the game featuring high-octane offense on both sides as well as (arguably) the two best defensemen in the league facing off ends up being a bit of a grind with the Avs getting some PDO luck of their own. After not scoring a goal in 20 fricking games, Ryan Johansen scores two on two shots. Somewhat fitting that the second, which ended up being the GWG, went off Ian Cole.

Georgiev with one of his best performances of the season, tying Thatcher Demko with the league lead in wins.

And speaking of luck, Nathan MacKinnon holds onto his home points streak by the slimmest of margins, getting the secondary assist on Lehkonen’s ENG.

They had Nikola Jokic in the house tonight, maybe some of his good mojo rubbed off on the Avs.

He’s a good story so I’m glad to see he made his NHL debut tonight. Would’ve been a huge bummer had he been held out of the lineup since his dad was in attendance.

Ugh.

In one of the year's most frustrating games, the Avs lose a very winnable game in Detroit, 2-1 in overtime. Avs certainly dominated on the shot clock but the power play continues to be a complete trainwreck.

It's not helping that Cale Makar is clearly hurt and running at 60% at best.

Justus Annunen turns in his best performance of the season, which isn't saying a ton but he still kept the Avs in it. I did not like the tying goal he gave up, was way too far in his own net and left a gaping hole on the short side, but that goal doesn't happen if Jo Drouin doesn't make two insanely dumb mistakes that lead to his penalty in the first place.

I'm prepared for an underwhelming deadline but IMO MacFarland should be fired if he doesn't do everything possible to try and upgrade this roster at 2C and 2G.

Avs have a rare home loss, this time against the red-hot Maple Leafs. Bertuzzi with the hat trick.

Couple stupid penalties (one by Colton, one by Rantanen) and a shitty PK do the Avs in. Samsonov was quite good, Georgiev, somewhat less so.

But...good news at least. Valeri Nichushkin was cleared to practice again with the Avs, taking a 4th line spot for now, but I imagine he'll be at least third line when the time comes. They can't get him back soon enough.

Perhaps someone can explain why trading MacDermid was even a move at all. We can't figure it out in this household.

https://www.9news.com/article/sports/nh ... 08ea8aa7a5

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No AI has been used in the making of this post

Well I mean, he wasn't playing, so there's that, but the key here is that it frees up roughly $1 million in cap room. People online were saying that with retention and prorated salaries blah blah blah, they could get a player making around $4 million with that space.

Oh, and it just so happens that Alexander Wennberg will not be playing tonight for the Seattle Kraken. He makes $4.5 million this year. If that's the Avs' trade target I'm not happy but...it's better than nothing.