Game #29 Preview

Tonight, the Avs host old buddy Joel Quenneville and his Chicago Blackhawks at the Pepsi Center. This will mark Q's first return to the can since his departure earlier this calendar year. Adam Foote will return to the line-up after missing the past three weeks with a whole slew of injuries, and Marek Svatos will be out after being listed as "day-to-day" after Tuesday's game. I was hoping that Granato would go the Q route and dress seven defensemen in tonight's game since the team is a forward short after losing Svatty, but it doesn't look like that will be the case as TG said that Daniel Tjarnqvist will be watching from the press-box, just as he was pre-Foote injury. I'm not sure I totally agree with this call, as Tjarny has been playing great in Foote's absence, but I guess that's why I'm not the coach. The Avs has called up forward Philippe Dupuis from Lake Erie to fill the empty void at forward, and could see his very first NHL action tonight. I don't know much about the guy, but I always like giving young guys a chance to prove themselves with the big 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).

Sakic Injury Update

Well, unfortunately, I guess it could be considered a "down-date" at this point. Yesterday afternoon, our very own SuperJoe broke three fingers and had tendon damage after a fight with his snow-blower, his first fight since the HOWDOYOULIKETHEMAPPLES bout with Dougy Gilmour. He had surgery on the tendon damage last night and is expected to make a full recovery, thankfully. However, now, on top of the back injury which was supposed to sideline him for six or more weeks, this injury will keep him out of action for about three months, or in my opinion, forever

Oh SuperJoe, please stop tugging on my heart-strings.



I will be posting my recap from last night's game later tonight, as I am off to attempt to fend off my sorrows at the happiest place on Earth that's not Ben Guite's house.. Disneyland.

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 22 Preview

In an extremely rare Friday afternoon game, the Avs will travel to Phoenix for the first game of the year against Gretzky's Coyotes. Apparently, the Coyotes will be playing in their new (read: ugly) third jerseys for the first time this season, but don't expect much as the Avs de-throned the Kings on the night of their third jersey unveiling this past weekend. Foote and Liles are still out, and Sakic looks to be a game-time decision. Look for Tjarnqvist to be in the lineup again, after playing what I thought to be one hell of a game on Wednesday night, tallying a goal and an assist. Also look for Lappy to continue his hot streak of three points (2g, 1a) in the last two games. Coincidence or not, ever since I picked up a snazzy new "It's All About Lappy" wristband from Karen on Saturday, Lappy has been on absolute fire. A Gordie Howe hat-trick with a fight against Carcillo would absolutely make my day.


If you'd like to pick up a Lappy wristband, or other merchandise, please visit www.itsallaboutlappy.com. It goes towards a wonderful cause and is run by great people who would really appreciate your support.

Total Avs Update!

Once again, it's been awhile, and I do apologize for that. Since I've last posted, a lot has happened in the world of the Avs.

-Peter Budaj has been on an incredible hot-streak, save for a soft goal against the Kings Saturday night. In one of the most exciting Avs games in recent memory, he out-dueled the great Roberto Luongo, on the road nonetheless, in a 2-1 shootout victory. He followed that up with another shootout win, this time 3-2, a few days later in Edmonton, in a game that many would say that he completely stole. Saturday night, he won yet another shootout game, blanking all three Kings shooters.

-The team's offense is still struggling, although signs of hope could be seen in the Kings game Saturday night, as three pre-shootout pucks found the back of Ersberg's net. Also, Super Joe is scheduled to return tonight, which might be able to provide the spark they're looking for.

-Paul Stastny signed the contract extension that we all knew would be coming, for what seems to be the going rate for the up-and-coming superstar/future face of the franchise. At five years, $33mil, it works out to $6.6mil per year, which really isn't too much to be paying him to replace Sakic in the future
*Note: It took me a while to actually type out that last sentence and believe it will have to happen some day.

-In Saturday night's game against the Kings, which I was lucky enough to attend, there were two VERY scary moments, as both Adam Foote and Wojtek Wolski were checked head-first into the boards, and laid motionless on the ice for a good few minutes each. Foote's seemed so serious that they actually brought a stretcher on the ice. Upon seeing this, my heart completley sank to the floor, possibly even the core of the Earth, but moments later, he got up and skated off the ice with help from his teammates and trainers. According to the Denver Post, Wolski seems to be in better shape, and could even play tonight in Anaheim. Foote has already been ruled out for tonight, allowing Tjarnqvist to see his first action of the season, but the injury doesn't seem to be as serious as it looked.

-Tonight the team travels all the way to sunny Anaheim, California to take on those damn Ducks. Actually, our normally sunny climate out here in California is bringing us rain tomorrow, my 23rd birthday, and keeping myself from celebrating at the happiest place on earth, Disneyland. For that, I give a gigantic two middle-fingers up to whoever controls the weather down here. Thanks for ruining my birthday, a-holes! Sakic looks like he'll be back in the line-up, and if Wolski plays as well, Jones and Arnason should be watching the game from up above in the press box. It should be a tough game against a physical Anaheim club, but hopefully the team will be able to out-physical the Ducks on their way to a whopping 10-10 record on the season.

Game #15 Preview

I make my return to this blog with some very bad news. My beloved Ben Guite is out "indefinitely" with a rib injury. How will I possibly go on without him? I really don't know. All I know is, I'm going to miss that damn stache.

Anyway, tonight the Avs travel to red-hot Vancouver (hot as in the way the team is playing, not the weather), to take on the Canucks. Luongo is currently riding a three-game shutout streak, which would've ended tonight with a Guite hat-trick (we can dream, can't we?!), but now the team will have to rely on the likes of others to get the job done. Mr. Sakic didn't make the trip with the team due to his ailing back, so I assume our slew of under-acheivers (Jones, Arnason) will be in the line-up tonight, poised to do.. very little. Peter Budaj has a one-game shutout streak of his own going right now, so the hot goaltending won't only be coming on one end of the ice tonight.

Game #10 Recap

What could be said about this game? The Avs, particularly Andrew Raycroft, looked like an absolute disaster on the ice. The first two goals of the game were given up on nearly identical shots, beating Razor glove-side, top-shelf. To be honest, the only player I noticed making a constant effort on the ice was none other than the team's constant scapegoat for any and every problem, Tyler Arnason. What a shocker there. Maybe he finally realized that his job was in jeopardy and decided to play his heart out last night, and it showed. The only other positives to be taken from this game was the lack of penalties taken, zero minor penalties and three majors for fighting, and a 2 for 4 night on the powerplay. Let's hope the Avs got all of their bad play out of their systems over the last four periods and will come out flying on Sunday against the best in the west, the San Jose Sharks.

Game #10 Preview

PUT BEN GUITE BACK IN THE LINEUP.

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.