#300

Before the game recap, I want to give a gigantic, avalanche-sized congratulations to both Ryan Smyth and Milan Hejduk, who both netted career goals #300 in Sunday's win against the Flames. The majority of Smyth's goals came while playing with Edmonton, but all 300 of Hejduk's came for the good guys. What an accomplishment!

Now, onto the game! The Avs came out stronger on offense than the previous 45 games this year, but it appeared Flames' backup Curtis McElhinney was up for the challenge as he came up with big save after big save, but only managed to keep the Avs off the board for 16 minutes before Marek Svatos was able to bang home a rebound in the crease on the powerplay. Less than two minutes later, Salei hit Stewart with a homerun pass for a breakaway, and Stewey made no mistake in finding the back of the net for his fifth goal of the year. By the end of the first, the Avs were leading the shots on goal margin by a total of 20-8. I could be wrong, but I think that's the biggest one period shot differential in favor of the Avs this season.

Ten minutes into the second period, the game seemed to be turning to an all-too-familiar direction as Cammalerri notched his 20th goal of the season on a perfect cross-ice feed on the powerplay, closing the Flames deficit to only one goal. Less than two minutes later, Ruslan Salei took his second straight penalty, giving the red-hot Flames' powerplay a chance to even the score. BUT never fear, Ben Guite is here! After a big save by Budaj, Smyth took the puck up ice with Guite not too far behind creating a two-on-one chance for the Avs. The Flames were obviously SO terrified of how good Ben is as they left Ryan Smyth alone to take the shot of his choice and he buried career goal #300 in the back of the net. Teammate Milan Hejduk was also sitting at 299 career goals coming into the game, and I guess he figured that since Smytty scored #300, he couldn't be left behind with a mere 299 goals! About five minutes later, he was able to score big #300 as well on a powerplay feed from JML. Haynes' goal calls of "NUMBER 300!!!" were nearly identical, but I loved every second of it.

The Flames cut the score to 4-2 early in the third, but the Avs wouldn't let that last for long as they scored two goals in the final five minutes of the period, courtesy of Salei and MVP Cody McLeod. McLeod's TENTH (yes, you read that right) goal of the season came with less than one second left on the clock, and was the proverbial cherry on the top for all Avs fans, and the proverbial slap in the face for all Flames fans. Budaj had a great comeback game after a recent dry-spell of sorts, stopping 39 of 41 Flames shots.

After the game, Budaj was announced as the third star. Then, Alan Roach announced that there would be no second star of the game, as there were two FIRST STARS. Of course, he was referring to Smyth and Hejduk. It would've been special enough for each of them to reach the milestone at some point during this season, but too accomplish it together on the same night made it that much better. I think the saying "a picture is worth one thousand words" applies well here, as the size of their smiles in the picture above says all you need to know about how special that moment was. Hats off to you, Ryan and Milan. Congratulations.

Avs beat Wings, Part 2

Yes, that title is true. And while I've been battling not one, but two bouts with the flu since early Monday morning, I somehow found enough strength to make it in front of the tv for this one. I'm not going to write much as I need my sleep, but.. HAHA to any Wings fans out there :). Happy Holidays everyone. I'll be back when I recover fully.

Red Wings win (opposite day edition)

I saw it, but I really don't believe it.. Did the Avs REALLY just beat the Red Wings, in Detroit, with Andrew Raycroft in net??? Pinch me, for I think I am dreaming!

In a game that no Avs fan really thought that they could win (don't deny it!), the Avs pulled off the absolutely unexpected and beat the team that has plagued them for longer than I can remember on their home ice. The team started the game stronger than almost any game this entire season. On a beautiful steal by Wolski in the neutral zone, just a minute into the game, he fed the puck to Tyler Arnason, who dished it back to him as he came in all alone on Osgood, and then proceeded to make Ozzie look like a mere rookie with one of his totally awesome moves usually reserved for the shootout. Just three minutes later, Paul Stastny decided a one goal lead wasn't enough and blasted a wrister top-shelf from the circles on the powerplay. 2-0 in Detroit, four minutes into the game?!?!?! WOW. A few minutes later, the Avs found themselves on the short end of a 5-on-3 with the league's top powerplay unit attacking their backup goaltender. Somehow, no pucks made it in and this probably ended up being the biggest penalty kill of the season thus far. If the Wings had cut the lead to just one that early, I think the entire momentum would've shifted in their favor, and we all know that is an absolutely terrible thing.

Raycroft, or "Rayzor", decided to give his best impression of #33 and came up with a number of huge, statue-of-liberty, glove saves, along with many other incredible saves, including some where he was completely out of position and had to scramble to get back and block the shot (Note: I refuse to actually come out and compare Rayzor to #33 by name, so the number will do for now). Of course, he couldn't stay perfect forever though and let in a second-period goal resulting from a big mess of bodies in front of the net. I won't necessarily place the blame on him on that one, it's just a matter of getting lucky in a situation like that.. every goalie saves some and lets others in.

Early in the third, the top-line, consisting of the Codys and Philippe Dupuis (what?) were battling in front of the net trying to slap the puck in when it seemed like a Detroit defender fell on the puck, aka PENALTY SHOT. I guess Granato felt like those three forwards score way too many goals and wanted to give someone else a shot, so he put the puck on Jordan Leopold's stick, and he proceeded to make Ozzie look like what we thought the goalie across the ice would look like, as he easily buried the puck on the backhand. The Wings managed to get another goal to pull the score to within one, but failed to tie it up in the final minute with no goalie.

To say I'm impressed with this win might be the understatement of the year. As much as I love this team with every fiber of my being, there's just some games that I know will be a loss. Apparently, I don't know this team as well as you would think a fan of 16 years would know a team as they completely surprised the sh*t out of me tonight. Tyler Arnason had a great game (yes, I know, oxymoron), as did David Jones, possibly his best of the year, even though he failed to get on the scoreboard.

Let's hope the team can keep it up as they play the red-hot Flyers tomorrow night. Budaj will be back in net, but it seems that Svatos, Guite, and Tucker will remain out of the lineup, even though they are on the trip with the team.

Game #28 Recap

If you consider yourself an Avs fan, there is no way that Tuesday night's game wouldn't be considered one of the best games of the year. The Avs came out strong, and kept the pressure on for nearly a full 60 minutes, something that is usually not one of their strong points. Just 3:28 into the game, Marek Svatos found the back of the net for the sixth time this season. On the ensuing faceoff, Lappy and Mr. Zeiler got down to business, which every Avs fan across the world was hoping for as Zeiler was the one to knock our poor Footer out of the lineup for nearly three weeks with a dirty hit. Lappy showed him what was up, and easily won the fight. Just 24 seconds later, Milan Hejduk was able to put one past Jason LaBarbera on a beautiful feed from Paul Stastny who was hiding behind the net. As soon as I saw the pass coming from Stazz, I stood up to cheer because I know my Hedjie will always bury that shot. Eight minutes later, Cody McLeod was able to keep his MVP campaign with his fourth goal of the season after knocking Derek Armstrong out of the game earlier in the play, which Mark Rycroft claimed to be "great" in the post-game show.

Two minutes into the second period, Ryan Smyth was able to score the first PPG of the night, on a beautiful feed from behind the net from T.J. Hensick. To be honest, it reminded me of an Andrew Brunette special, but this is not something I expect to see out of Henner every night, unfortunately. Two minutes later marked my favorite Avs moment of the season. Chris Stewart chased down the puck as LaBarbera was playing it in the 'zoid behind the net, and generated a steal. He then fed it to the front where Tyler Arnason failed to put it in (surprised?) but the rebound came right to Mr. MVP, Cody McLeod, who made no mistake in burrying it for his second of the night. However, as soon as he started to celebrate Raitis Ivanans attempted to ruin the party by attacking Cody for being a much better and far sexier player than he could ever dream to be. There was a bunch of pushing and shoving, but no real fights broke out. However, Cody taunted the big guy all the way to the box and even from inside the box as Raitis skated by. I must have watched this clip on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJPQLWEYDcI) nearly 30 times by now, and still crack up every time. I absolutely love the fire and passion that Cody brings to the ice every night, and he is now the leading candidate for the jersey I will buy for next season so long as he gets re-signed. To make things even better, my homie, Chris Stewart, scored his first NHL point (assist) on this play, and I immediately went on facebook to congratulate him. Apparently getting his first NHL point wasn't enough as he followed it up with a short-handed goal on a breakaway later in the second, on which I had to offer my facebook congratulations yet again. Either he thinks I'm the coolest fan in the world, or he's one more "congratulations" post away from deleting me. At this point, it was 6-0, but the Kings managed a PPG of their own from new-comer Oscar Moller, ending Budaj's hope for a shutout.


Nothing major happened in the game after this, as 6-1 was the final, but being in the same room as a Kings fan for this game definitely had it's perks. My fellow Avs fan friend, Paul, and I came home about 10 minutes before game time, and the house was decorated with Kings paraphernalia nearly everywhere from my dear father. However, with each goal scored, I removed one Kings item from it's place and promptly threw it on the floor and stomped on it. Needless to say I was doing a lot of stomping! Fun night in the Hersh house-hold, let me tell you. To make things even better, we put a window-cling with a puck on it on my dad's back-windshield and put an Avs hat next to it, just to rub it in a little bit more (see picture below).

Game #27 Recap

It's been a while yet again, and this past week was weird as it was an Avs-free week for me. Don't think I'm jumping ship at this point, rather, please allow me to explain. I spent the week with my family in lovely Las Vegas, missing three Avs games in the process. But never fear, faithful readers! I recorded not one, not two, but ALL three games on my tivo, and came home Friday night to an absolute Avalanche marathon! Now to make this task a complete success, I had to cut myself off from the Avalanche world for the entire week; no blogs, no Avs site, no nothing. It was tough, especially since my TV rarely leaves ESPN, but I somehow managed to make it five full days only seeing "Stastny: 2g, 1a" scroll across the ESPN's bottom-line during Monday Night Football. Can't win 'em all, right? The Avs seem to live by that rule, so my blog will as well.

So while Friday's Av-tastic (use that word, free of charge) marathon brought a great deal of mixed emotions through our teams efforts, I won't attempt to document all of them as I was running on a week's worth of "Vegas sleep" (about four hours a night or less) and can't remember much worth documenting.

So in that case, we fast forward to tonight's game against the Vancouver Canucks, losers of the last seven against the mighty Colorado Avalanche. Friday marked the first career NHL game of my dear facebook friend, Chris Stewart. While he didn't have a note-worthy debut, it wasn't necessarily bad either. Tonight, however, he appeared to have much more of a jump in his step (skate?), and the coaching staff noticed it as well, putting him on the ice for nearly 13 minutes, up from a mere 7.5 on Friday. This is a guy I've always wanted to see succeed, so although I hate the fact that the injury bug has already launched a full-scale attack on our roster, I'm glad to see him out there as well. As usual, Budaj made a number of huge saves to keep the team in the game, and for once, the team decided to put the necessary amount of pucks in the net to win a high-scoring game. As usual, part two, the RPM line was flying out there, combining for eight points, and a +8 rating. As usual, part three, our shootout shooters were stellar, finding the twine on all three shots. As noted by Shane, I think the Avs might have the most formidable three-some of shooters in the league. Wolski is an absolute beast in shootouts, logging the second best percentage of shootout goals all time, while Svatos and Hejduk aren't exactly slouches either. Budaj seems pretty dang confident in net for shootouts as well, something that plagued him earlier in his young career.

Tuesday night, the Kings and the most hated man in Denver, John Zeiler, travel to the Pepsi Center to take on a pissed-off Lappy and the rest of the squad. The Hersh house will be in it's fourth civil war of the season (three Avs vs Kings games and one fantasy football matchup) with me being the victor over my father on all three occasions. Let's hope this trend continues!

Game #8 Recap

Before I get into tonight's game, I apologize for the lack of updates for the last two games. On Monday night, I was consumed by the Patriots on Monday Night Football and with my FFF (fantasy football fate) hanging in the balance, I held off on watching the Avs/Kings game until after football. By the time the game ended, and I had gloated in front of my dad (the world's biggest Kings fan) for a good five minutes, I was too tired to formulate my emotions on the game into coherent thoughts. I then got sick Tuesday morning, and am still trying to fully recover from it.

Luckily, the Avs have kept their win streak alive as it now stands at FIVE, count 'em, five straight games after dropping the first three contests of the season. The latest victim on the way to a 79-3 season were the previously 6-0-1 Buffalo Sabres. I was a bit nervous going into this game after seeing their record this season, and seeing as the Avs haven't truly been tested by a team playing at the top of their game yet this season, but the team seemed to match up pretty evenly against the Sabres. The first period was quite exciting, as their was a ton of action at each end, and hitting galore. Adam Foote got hit in the ankle by a shot early in the game, which seemed to be serious, but a few minutes later, he was back on the ice like the trooper he is. After returning to the ice, he seemed to be playing with an extra step out there, blocking shots, following up his hits, and attempting to fight Adam Mair who cheap-shotted him and then skated away. Jeez! In the second period, Budaj gave up his lone goal-against of the night, and the Avs seemed to be a bit out-played, but managed to keep it a one goal game going into the third. About midway through the third, the ice started to tilt towards the Sabres goal, as Miller was peppered with shots from just about every angle imaginable. The one that happened to go in started on Jordan Leopold's stick, hit off a Sabres' d-man's skate, off another Sabres' helmet, and past a stunned Ryan Miller. Miller instantly darted to the ref calling for goalie interference, but the replayed showed that it was actually his own teammate who bumped into him during the goal sequence. Sorry Ryan! The teams skated to a 1-1 tie in regulation, and again in the overtime period, the ice seemed to be tilted towards Miller. To be honest, if he wasn't such a solid goaltender, I think they would've found a way to put one past him before time expired. However, a shootout was necessary to decide this one. Hejduk made a great move to put one past him, but it was completely over-shadowed by one of Wolski's signature triple-deke moves as he totally faked out Miller. Go Wolski-Goalski! After the original three shooters, the score was still tied. Next up for the Avs was Svatos, who didn't do much of anything with his shot. Luckily, Budaj came up big on the following save, and round five was on! Smyth was up, and buried a wrister below Miller's arm, and Budaj again came up with a big save for his third straight victory, and his second straight one-goal-against game. Did he see Raycroft's winning streak as a challenge? WHO CARES! This is the Budaj we need this year and he finally seems to be finding his groove.

Positives from the night have to start with Budaj's play. Also, this was the first game that the penalty kill didn't allow a goal! I'm really loving the consistency in the line-up, especially with the defensive pairings. The six defenders seem to be really getting a feel for each other on the ice and are learning to trust each other to be in the right place at the right time. No more Q line-juggling please! The fourth line was a bit invisible tonight which upsets me a bit since those are three of my favorite Avs, but what can you do. I expect a bounce-back game from all three of them come Tuesday night. I was sad to see Mr. McCormick sit tonight, but Davey Jones proved me wrong and was strong on the puck all night and definitely deserved to be out there. All in all, an extremely solid performace from the boys, and they proved to the league that they can play with the big boys. From the looks of things, this will be a VERY exciting season, and I can't wait!

Also, thanks to Shane over at AvsTalk for posting that great picture of Tucker.

Game #5 Recap

Another game, another win. You know, I could really get used to this. In what seemed like a blowout but became a nail-biter, the Avs came out on top for their second straight win. A 5-2 lead at the start of the third period quickly became 5-4, and very nearly a 5-5 tie, if not for Brendan Morrow punching the tying puck in the net with his glove. Once again, the Avs powerplay was effective, finishing 2 for 7 with powerplay tallies by both Milan Hejduk and Ryan Smyth. Overall, Raycroft seemed more comfortable in net than he did in Thursday's contest, though there were times where he was caught way out of position and paid for it by giving up "soft" goals. But as with last game, a win is a win, no matter how it happens.

Milan Hejduk is absolutely on fire this year, with five goals in five games thus far. He is dominant on the powerplay, and is making some great defensive plays as well when he needs to. After a couple years where he was nearly forgotten, though still putting up decent numbers, I think this is the year where he completely returns to form and joins the elite players of the league once again. Sakic and Stastny both have a goal and seven assists each so far in the first five games and show no signs of slowing down. Paul Stastny might be the most under-rated player in the NHL as he gets nearly no press coverage at all but is consistently one of the best players in the game. Wolski seems to be coming into his own as well this year, putting up a pair of assists in this game, both coming from his hard work in the offensive zone, which he had previously been criticized constantly for.

As much as I miss seeing Guite on the ice, the "punch" line looks like it's here to stay. With all three members, Cody Mac 1, Cody Mac 2, and Lappy getting in fights against the Stars, the name seems more than fitting. The three of them play extremely well together, and never stop working for that puck. This line could be just what the team needs for a fourth line to round out the lineup each night.

Game #4 Recap

To quote our own Mike Haynes, "HE DID IT! HE DID IT! MILAN HEJDUK WINS IT FOR THE AVS!". If you don't recall, he shouted those very words on March 18, 2007 when the Avs beat the Sharks in overtime to keep them in the playoff race. Now of course, this game wasn't nearly as important as that one, and Hejduk's goal wasn't in overtime, but it was still the game winner and came on the powerplay, one of the team's Achilles' heels from last season.

Overall, this was a very solid game played in all three zones by the Avs, though I really don't know how much can be said about the effort from the Flyers. In reality, they barely showed up to play.

Andrew Raycroft got his first start of the season, and while he didn't necessarily do anything incredible, he also didn't completely blow the game and got that ever-elusive first win of the season that Mr. Peter Budaj is still searching for. To be honest, I really think he just got lucky that they were matched against what seems to be a somewhat incompetent Flyers squad, because there were many times where he seemed out of position or just plain confused out there. The only goals he gave up were on a penalty shot (which 100% should not have been called), and on a 5-on-3 Mike Richards blast from the point that our own savior Patrick Roy would've had a hard time stopping.

A big positive we can take from this game is the powerplay, which finished 3 of 11 for a 27% completion rate. Not too shabby if you ask me, especially compared to last season. Also, two of the three goals were scored with Sakic down low, as opposed to his typical spot on the point, which I and other Avs fans have been begging to change. I hope Granato realizes this and it wasn't just a fluke, as I know on one of the goals, he started on the point but shifted down low on his own. See? Joe knows where he belongs! Also, Cody McCormick made another huge statement for the roster spot that he definitely deserves, by making a great play on the forecheck to strip the Flyers player from the puck, allowing David Jones to take over, and then darting to the net to receive the pass on a 2-on-1 and roof it over Biron for the goal. PLEASE keep the Cody Mac attack in the lineup, but also put my Ben back :(. Please?

Frozen Fury XI

For the 10th time, my family and I ventured out to Vegas for Frozen Fury. If I had to rank them, I think I'd be forced to put this year's trip at the top of the list. On the second morning of our trip, we found about 15 Avs players playing Craps, and I just couldn't let that glorious opportunity to pass me by so I stepped up to the table wearing a Liles jersey and played for about an hour standing right between my birthday buddy JM-Liles and Svatos. Although I didn't win, it was by far the best gambling experience of my life. When I left, I got Johnny to sign my (his) jersey and take a picture with me. Afterwards, he asked my name, shook my hand, and said he had a great time playing Craps with me. *Swoon*.

Lappy informed me that they would be practicing at 3pm. Around 2:30, a group of us headed over to the arena but couldn't find a way in without getting caught/kicked out. Finally we just decided to take our lives into our own hands and attempt to venture into the arena unnoticed. After tip-toeing around for a good few minutes, who do we see? None other than the man that it's all about. Yes, Lappy! We talked to him for a bit before he went on the ice, and all of a sudden, Super Joe walks out from behind him. I felt bad for bothering him for the third time in a span of a few hours (he signed two separate jerseys on two separate occasions earlier in the day) but I just HAD to get a picture with him. It came out beautifully, and it now graces the background of not only my computer but my cell phone too. What could possibly make me happier than constantly looking at a picture of me standing with my hero? Nothing, that's what! Practice was cool (cool as in fun, but also as in F'N FREEZING!). As the players were heading off the ice, I got the rest of the team to sign my Liles jersey. I think the only player I didn't get to sign was Wolski.

Later that night, my dad played in Luc Robitaille's poker tournament, and I added a number of pictures with Avs players to my growing arsenal. What a great day.

The next day was the game, and as usual, the Kings fans pretend that the game is the equivalent of a Stanley Cup Finals Game 7. And on that note, the Kings lost, just as if it were a game with any sort of relevance or meaning. The game was one of the most exciting Frozen Fury games ever, as there were about eight fights, three ejections, and a shootout winner by Hensick to decide it all.


I won't bother captioning these because I assume that if you're reading this blog, you'll be able to figure out who's who, so here are my pictures from the trip: