Wed vs Islanders, Fri @ Hurricanes, Sat @ Sabres, Mon @ Flames
Adam Foote doesn't panic when the chips are down... he puts fist to face
Just as the Denver Broncos’ season came to a grinding halt, the Colorado Avalanche finally finished making up for their hot start with so-so-to-awful play since.
Now third in the Northwest Division behind both Vancouver and Calgary, the Avs don’t appear to be in Panic! mode… but they should be.
The Broncos’ decline after a 6-0 start led to an early symphony of Panic! buttons lit up X-Mas red. We had watched Denver go from playoff shoe-in to outsider in two of the last three seasons, and this year’s amazing start had fans nervous early on.
The Avalanche, also starting the season with low expectations, have come through in some big games even as they crapped-out in lesser ones. The result was continued hope and a decided lack of Panic! as the season approached the mid-way point.
But missed opportunities (resulting in missed points) have marked the season for the Avalanche ever since their October sprint to the top of the Western Conference quickly transformed into a November atrocity. The ensuing December could best be described as ‘treading water’.
Now in January (and having dropped to 7th in the West) Colorado absolutely must find some solutions to the problems that have plagued them for most of the season. It’s actually difficult to decide which trend is more damaging; their inability to hold third period leads, or the fact that the team actually plays better hockey away from the friendly confines of the Pepsi Center.
Paul Stastny, after another collapse-and-loss scenario finished playing itself out on Wednesday versus the New York Islanders, actually implied that the team was more comfortable on the road without the ‘distractions’ of playing at home.
Not to be cold-hearted, but if family and friends are distracting this team from playing three complete periods on home ice, then something is seriously amiss. Professional hockey players should have no problem separating their off-ice life from their on-ice performance. And if this is actually an issue, the coaching staff needed to be addressing it on a team-wide level months ago. Leadership is the lacking for this young Avalanche team and coaching staff, and that lack will need to be resolved if Colorado hopes to make a playoff appearance in 2010.
That said, the Avalanche are hitting the road for three games to finish this week. They had better show up in a big way, otherwise it will be time to hit the Panic! button in Avalanche Country.
Wed, Jan 6th vs NY Islanders (7:00 MST)
This article is a bit late thanks to some unexpected extended travel for this writer, but rest assured I would have predicted a 3-2 SO victory for the Avalanche instead of the disappointing 2-3 regulation loss that actually occurred.
This loss was endemic of the problems that the Avalanche have displayed this season, as they failed to put away a scrappy (but not altogether good) Islanders team in front of the Avalanche loyal.
PREDICTION:Â AVALANCHE 3, ISLANDERS 2 (SO)
Fri, Jan 8th @ Carolina Hurricanes (5:00 MST)
Carolina is a bad hockey team. Unless they score five goals, they generally don’t win. In fact, in their 11 wins this season, they have scored 5+ goals in 6 of them.
Even so, they almost caught up to and beat the Avalanche when these two teams met on October 23rd. The final score was a 5-4 win for Colorado, but the Avs suffered a huge loss when forward Darcy Tucker was taken off the ice unconscious on a stretcher. The culprit was noted dirty player Tuomo Ruutu, and you had better believe that the Avalanche will be sending a representative to greet Mr. Ruutu personally in the early-goings of this game. Tucker came back from injured reserve on November 12th, and Darcy may actually decide to take on the thuggish Ruutu himself tonight at Carolina.
As far as the outcome of this game, the Hurricanes will be without their best offensive player Eric Staal as he takes leave due to the death of his sister-in-law. The Avalanche should have no trouble putting away the defenseless ‘Canes.
PREDICTION:Â AVALANCHE 5, HURRICANES 3
Sat, Jan 9th @ Buffalo Sabres (5:00 MST)
The Sabres are on a five-game winning streak that should extend to six games by the time the Avalanche roll into town. They are one of the best teams in the East, and may actually boast the most impressive offense in the NHL. Like Colorado, Buffalo rolls three scoring lines, and gets offensive production from their whole team.
The Avalanche will need to match firepower with firepower in what amounts to a race to four goals. The Avalanche winning said race is not likely based on the play of the Avs’ D over the last couple weeks. Unless Craig Anderson bails out his team with another otherworldly performance, this one is looking like a loss.
PREDICTION:Â AVALANCHE 3, SABRES 4
Mon, Jan 11th @ Calgary Flames (8:00 MST)
Three meetings this season between the Avalanche and Flames have resulted in three 3-2 wins for Colorado. The matchup each time has favored the Avalanche based on two major factors:
1) Timely goals by Avs forwards
2) Outstanding goaltending by Craig Anderson
The Avalanche will take the ice in Calgary with a days’ rest and a lot of confidence. If the Flames have any chance of winning, they’ll need to solve Anderson. I thought it would happen when Calgary visited Denver a few weeks back, but the Avs held strong. I won’t make the same mistake twice. I like the Avalanche in another must-win game against the division’s top team.
PREDICTION:Â AVALANCHE 2, FLAMES 1
WEEK 15 PREDICTION:Â 3-1
**Bonus Coverage**
Panic! button plus
Every major Colorado sports team has been forced into Panic! mode in recent weeks.
The Broncos stumbled to another disappointing finish, dropping games at home to two of the worst teams in football in the season’s final three weeks. The Panic! was less noticeable because everybody had been expecting the sky to fall for two months, but the result was the same as seasons past. Fans will be left wondering whether the Broncos would have lost badly in the Wild Card Round or been abjectly embarrassed in the Wild Card Round.
The Nuggets lost Chauncey Billups to a groin injury, lost Carmelo Anthony to a knee injury, and lost three of their last five games as a result. Melo played admirably initially in trying to make up for the absent Billups, but went down himself after another impressive 34-point performance at Sacramento.
Denver, whose bench players are among the best in league, struggled to find an offensive rhythm without its two best players. The Panic! button was, in this case, hit almost immediately following a bad loss to Dallas without Billups, and will continue to be smacked sporadically for the remainder of the season as new questions arise about this team’s depth.
Now Chris Andersen, Ty Lawson and Nene are questionable with sprained ankles. Billups should be back for tonight’s game versus the Cleveland Cavaliers, but it is doubtful that he will be able to force a win for the floundering Nuggets versus Lebron James… and without Carmelo Anthony.
On a final note, Panic! must be the reaction to the Avalanche’s new third jersey. The replacement for the old all-burgundy jerseys has been worn in a slew of losses since its unveiling. So here’s a friendly tip for the Colorado front office; don’t panic, just throw the things away and go back to the old all-burgundy winners.
