Two for One Deal! Post and Pre-Game All in One, while supplies last!
Looking at the game against Dallas, it was just terrible. The Stars ran some beautiful offensive plays against an over-committed defense. Dallas showed up, the Avalanche did not. Sometimes you just tip your cap and move on. The problem is, this was the second game in a row where the team gave up seven goals……seven. This is a tough pill to swallow after winning six in a row and making up a lot of ground in the standings.
Are the Avs the team that won six in a row and looked similar to the team that won the Stanley Cup last year or are they a seven goals against team?
I think we have to entertain the idea that the Avalanche are not going to be the top in the division. Not that I don’t think they are capable of being #1 in the division, I think this is more to do with the forces that have been working against the Avs all seasons long. Josh Manson is out again with an injury. Cale Makar was in his first game since February 18th. The Captain is still out and while he is skating, there is no public timeline for his return.
Quick side note. I understand the vague nature in how injuries are handled in professional sports, especially hockey. What frustrates me is that when a player is injured, they may as well be dead to the fans. I think teams in the NHL underestimate how much we care about the players as people. Clearly, I want Landeskog to be a tip-in machine scoring goals for the team, but part of me roots for his physical health as a person not just for the legacy and longevity of his career but his post-career as a person and as a legacy member of the Avalanche organization. I think about Junior Seau and the string of former NFL players who took their own lives in methods that preserved certain organs for the sake of finding answers they were never able to find. I am entertained by these athletes and they pay the price with their bodies. I don’t want to sweep it under the rug, I want to know they are ok. I’m also sure the players don’t want fans all up in their medical business. It’s an unsolvable equation, I know, doesn’t change how I feel and doesn’t change how the NHL will handle injuries for the foreseeable future. “Quick” he says.
So how do we feel better about the team after giving up 14 goals in 6 periods of play? Looking at the standings, the Avs are still 7-2-1 in their last ten games. Dallas is 4-3-3 and Winnipeg are 3-6-1. I’m conveniently leaving Minnesota out of that sentence. The Avs have 3 games in hand, ugh, so tired of seeing the games played deficit. Games in hand mean a lot more when it feels like the team is going to win them. It felt like that last year, but this year, the 7 goals against is lurking. The current stretch tells us the Avs are fine and the teams they are chasing are the teams digging themselves out of their own holes in the ice. We can’t expect to have the team go on six-game win streaks, lose one, then get back to six-game win streaks. Unless it’s the Bruins, who are on a win 5, lose 1, win 5 pattern this season. Jeebus they are a machine.
Behind the Avs in the standings, Nashville is 5 points back at the same 60 games played as the Avs. The playoff spot feels sort of secure at this point. I’m really looking up more than down at this point. Another question is, who beats the Avs four games out of seven in the west? Last week, the answer was no one. Today, the answer is, well, the Avalanche have 22 games to get into a rhythm to make me feel like they are the west favorites I believe they can be.
Cup run 2.0 4.0 isn’t going to be the same 16-4 stomp it was last year…..
There it is, these are the thoughts in my head going into the game against Seattle. It’s difficult to have specific thoughts right now. There are too many big-picture questions at an awkward part of the season in terms of games played and games remaining. What must it be like for Tampa Bay and Toronto fans who are living on a collision course to the first round for the second year in a row?
#GoAvsGo
