Dual-Semi-Live-Blog

The danger with live blogging a game is that things you say appear ridiculous later. But how that’s different from my normal blogging, I’m not sure. (rimshot goes here)

Avalanche game. First 10 minutes was amazing. Like a different team hit the ice. The goal was great, the attack time was great, the hitting was great… then the Wings showed up, and the Avs started skating backwards again, and it looked like the penalty kill unit was just trying to clear the puck, only that was when it was even strength. Period one ends with a 2-1 Wings lead. The Avs need to bottle up what they had in the first half of the period and make the second period something to remember, or this season will be just a memory.

Rockies game: WTF?! I turn over from the hockey game, and find the lineup in a state of disarray not even Hurdle could dream up. So here’s what happened. Baker got hurt before the game. Early on, Tulo pulls up gimpy (oh crap), which means Atkins shifts over to second (ouch), Barmes takes shortstop (fine), and Iannetta comes in to play third (?!). This leaves Podsednik and Spillborghs on the bench. That’s it, folks. Things are getting dicey for the boys in purple. We’ll see how this goes. If they can’t pull 2 of 3 from the stinking Giants, things are looking sad in Rockies-land. Injuries or none, the Giants are not good, and losing 2 or 3 in a row to them is just plain sorry.

More updates to come, as the night goes on, assuming I haven’t had too much beer to write/type/spell coherently.

***edit: Well, I didn’t get back to the computer. Avs lost, Rockies won. I’d gladly flip those two if I could. I’m feeling like my game 6 tickets aren’t going to be incredibly useful. Even if they can pull out game 4 (tonight was a much better effort for sure), I just don’t see them taking game 5 away at the Joe. ***

Close as They Come

I have lost sleep. No, seriously, I have lost sleep over this series. I just don’t know how to call it. The teams match up so evenly on paper, and in the real world an undermanned Avs squad lost four games to the Red Wings during the regular season. But this is certainly not that Colorado team, and while the Red Wings have looked soft at times the Avalanche has steadily seemed more sure of themselves, more capable offensively defensively and in net, over the course of the last couple months of hockey. And so my instincts tell me to take the coward’s exit in predicting these first four games by calling home victories all around. I am not one to fight instinct. And in a matchup as close as this one, the last change that is afforded to the home team becomes a huge factor. Here goes…

Game One 4/24 @ Detroit Red Wings

If we are going to win a game in Detroit, this one is the most likely to be it. I believe that the Avalanche will come out of the gates more fired up, but the Wings can score at any time. If Colorado can get up early they have a chance, but if Detroit scores first it will become almost impossible for the Avs to come back/keep pace. Prove me wrong boys. (Do it in overtime, that’ll really piss the Wing Faithful off.) Avs lose 3-4.

Game Two 4/26 @ Detroit Red Wings

You’ll notice that all of my predictions will be for high-scoring games. This has less to do with defense or goaltending and more to do with the vast expanses of open ice that I believe this matchup will produce. Barring the Wings playing fully dominant puck-control hockey, these games should be back and forth across the neutral zone all game long. Game Two in Detroit in the Western Semi-Finals… well, I’d be a fool to pick the road team. And I am only occasionally a fool. Avs lose 2-3.

Game Three 4/29 vs Detroit Red Wings

At some point in this series the Avalanche offense will explode for five goals against EITHER Chris Osgood or Dominek Hasek. I don’t see Mike Babcock being dumb enough to put a goaltender as mistake-prone as Hasek in net against the Avs, so we’ll say that on April 29th, 2008 Chris Osgood gets scored on five times by the Colorado Avalanche. Don’t forget to pick up a fresh bottle of whiskey. (That’s a personal note, feel free to disregard.) Avs win 5-3.

Game Four 5/1 vs Detroit Red Wings

Rubber game? Not quite. I expect this series to go seven games, and that means the only true rubber game is Numero Siete in Detroit on May 7th. Don’t hold your breath, that’s a good way to kill brain cells. A better way is to toss back a few cold brews and enjoy the two weeks of playoff hockey between now and then. Avs win Game Four 4-3.

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Rivalry

Once the euphoria had worn off after Colorado’s Stanley Cup Championship in 2001, many Avalanche fans (myself included) began to feel just a touch of sadness; the road to The Cup had not gone through Detroit. The second seeded Red Wings lost to the upstart Los Angeles Kings in six games (who then took the Avs to a game seven,) and Avalanche Nation was left wondering what might have come of a playoff matchup with Detroit wherein top-seeded Colorado would have had home ice for once.

There are still a handful of (arrogant) Detroit fans that deny the existence of a rivalry between these two teams, but the fact is that only three Western Conference teams have made regular appearances in the Conference Finals over the last twelve seasons; the Dallas Stars, The Detroit Red Wings, and the Colorado Avalanche. The Stars and Wings have managed to be upset by lower seeds in offsetting years for the majority of that time span, and so have avoided playing each other for the West title and the Campbell Bowl. (The one exception was the 97-98 West Finals.) In fact, two of these three teams played each other in every Conference Final from the 95-96 season through the 01-02 season. The Avalanche beat the Stars once and the Wings once, the Wings beat the Avs twice and the Stars once, and the Stars won the Conference twice, both times against the Avalanche and in consecutive seasons. Even if you don’t call it rivalry by name, the three-way slugfest between these teams did define nearly ten years of playoff hockey. In the whole of the league only the New Jersey Devils can also claim membership in the group of the most consistently elite clubs over that time span. And for Detroit fans who would point to their long history in the league as proof that a younger franchise could not possibly constitute a rivalry, I’ll remind you that the Avalanche/Nordiques franchise combines to become one of the more storied franchises in professional hockey history. And also that all of Detroit’s “traditional rivals” from hockey’s Stone Age are regular basement dwellers now.

There need not be worry or doubt this year, however, as the Avalanche’s road to The Cup will definitely go through Detroit, and could potentially go through Dallas as well. For those of you who would lament the perils of the path to playoff immortality remember this; the NHL postseason features the most grueling playoff in all of sports. Winning it all means your whole team playing at its highest level, to a man, for two straight months. And the team that comes out on top of the remaining Western Conference Playoff field will have willed their way to the top and earned the right to spank whatever hapless band of players comes out of the East to challenge them. This is the hockey playoffs not some NBA foul-fest or an NFL tactics tourney. In the NHL the team with the most impressive combination of skill and willpower wins it. So eat it up, the good stuff only comes once a year.

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Week in Review - April 14-20, 2008

This has turned out to be an eventful week on the Colorado Pro Sports scene. So here’s the recap…

We’ll start with the Rockies, who started the week in San Diego with another crushing defeat, this time at the hands of Randy Wolf and the Padres. Ubaldo melted down something fierce. The Rocks came back with a resounding 10-2 win on Wednesday, then on Thursday they played what amounts to an unscheduled doubleheader-and-a-half, an epic 22-inning, 6-hour-plus affair that finally ended in the wee hours of morning with Tulo doubling in the winner. So much has already been said about this game, so I recommend you just take a peek at the box score and enjoy. After the marathon game, the Rocks flew into Houston, and rather than come out flat, they dropped a couple solid wins on the Astros (with Kaz Matsui and his surgically repaired posterior in tow) including another solid outing by Aaron Cook. The week wrapped up with the Rockies dropping the final game of the set. This week, the Rocks come home for a pair of two-game sets (is there anything positive about that?) with the Phillies and the Cubs before hitting the road for a set of divisional matchups with the Dodgers and the Giants.

The Nuggets found themselves in the playoffs, and had just enough time to soak in the sweet smell of victory before getting doused with the stench of The Buss Family Fortune. Anything better than a 4-1 loss will be a miracle. Thankfully, the NBA draws the playoffs out for a solid 2 months, so we’ll get to enjoy this for a while.

And, of course, saving the best of the week until last…

The Avalanche dropped an OT contest to Minnesota, which left them trailing the series 2-1. But Game 4 brought the onslaught, and after a 5 goal lead, things got messy. The Wild showed who they really are as a team, and never recovered. The Avs went back to Minnesota, and despite being brutally outshot in the game, rode an unbelievable performance by Jose Theodore to what some might term a “stolen game” victory, and the series lead. The Avs never looked back, and the Pepsi Center was rocking in playoff form again for Game 6. The Avs played tight defense, Theodore kept up his high level of performance, and the boys in maroon skated to a 4-2 series victory. Now the Avalanche wait for the result of the Calgary/San Jose game (who knew it would go 7?) to determine their next opponent. Should the Sharks win, the Avs head off to Hockeytown to reignite a rivalry that has gone a bit chilly since the days of Roy and Osgood. Should the Flames pull off the upset, the seeds get flipped over and Colorado heads to Dallas to take on the Stars, the team that formerly called Minnesota home. Either way, goaltending performance will be key. And either way, there promises to be some good hockey in the Rocky Mountains again.

That’s it for this Week in Review. It’s supposed to be a nice week, so grab some Rockpile tickets and enjoy an evening at the ballpark this week.

That’s How We Do

For almost a whole day, every Western Conference series was tied at 3-2. Dominek Hasek’s predictably sloppy goaltending gave the Predators a ghost of a chance in that series. A game six in Calgary increased the likelihood of that series going to seven. And the slugfest between Anaheim and Dallas looked to be headed in the same direction (although my prediction is that it ends tonight in Dallas.) But only in Colorado was a team truly up against the wall.

The Wild out-shot the Avalanche through most of this series. As would be expected from a team consisting primarily of senseless thugs, this led the Wild to believe that they were dominating periods, games, and even the whole of the series. In reality, the Avalanche were the better team from the drop of the puck in game one all the way through those gloriously tense final twenty (one point seven) seconds of game six. The Avs played better in every phase of every game. They worked harder down low, they played smarter in open ice, and every single player on the team made their share of sound decisions and great plays. The Wild’s only hope was to muck it up in front and try to force slap-shots through from the points. An offensive strategy truly worthy of minor league hockey playoff glory, but in the NHL (against a team as good at shot-blocking as the Avalanche) this pathetically repetitive offense never stood a chance.

But enough about the losers. I want to make sure that the outstanding performances of a few Colorado players get due attention. We start at the backstop; Jose Theodore. He played with a certainty that he seems to lack during regular season play, and when Jose’s confidence is high he is almost impossible to beat. Ever single player played great defense in front of Jose, but Ian Lapperiere was everywhere (especially on power plays) and Ruslan Salei played inspirationally tough hockey. These two were the captains of a total team defense, and should be credited with all but shutting down Minnesota’s dull-as-dishwater style of offensive attack. On offense I was very impressed by the third and fourth lines’ abilities to create sustained pressure AND breakaways in single shifts, but I was more impressed by the outstanding play of Peter Forseberg. You can never say enough about the likes of Joe Sakic, Andrew Brunette, and Ryan Smith. Our veterans all played up to and beyond expectations. But it was Forseberg who fostered such a sense of outrage in the opposition that they became more concerned with where Peter was than playing solid defense. He put the Wild off their game all by himself, a single agitator ruffling the feathers of a bunch of hockey goons. It was brilliant. And by game six Foppa looked like his old self, creating opportunities with great skating and even greater passing.

A final nod to all of the young players that came through big throughout the series. Paul Stastny proved to be the more capable in the unspoken battle between him and Marion Gaborik. The super-charged Ben Guite made his mark on the penalty kill and on face-offs, but came up biggest with his short-handed goal in game six. And Wojtek Wolski and Cody McCloud were just enormous role-players every single shift. A fine performance by the whole team. Here’s to a great series and a few days to rest and recoup before we worry about whether it’s the Wings or the Sharks in round two.

Avs top the Wild, blogger loses his voice

Well, it’s a good thing this isn’t a podcast, because I can’t hardly speak. I’ll make this a quick write up, because it’s already over 60 degrees and this bald head needs a few rays of sun. Our seats were in Section 136, 16 rows from the ice directly behind the goal. During the second period when our side was the Minnesota attack zone, it gave me a chance to get a good shot of Theodore, perhaps reflecting on his ridiculously insane goaltending.

The game felt like it got off to a bit of a slow start, but it didn’t take long for the crowd to get into it. When people say there is nothing like playoff hockey, they aren’t kidding. On top of that, when you’re packed in a building that’s truly full of Avs fans - people who know and appreciate quality hockey - it makes for a very enjoyable experience. Even the guy next to us who felt it was his God-given duty to heckle Backstrom (who clearly couldn’t hear him) was entertaining, without being overly vulgar or offensive (most of the time).

I’ll leave our resident hockey expert to analyze the game, I’ll just say that having been an Avs fan since the first Cup run, but only making it to one regular season game early this season and this game, it was a singular pleasure to see Peter Forsberg on the ice. I know, he’s not the Foppa he used to be… but to watch him skate - he’s still very fast - and to watch him handle the puck was downright enjoyable, and any true hockey fan would say the same.

The best part of the whole thing was the last 20 seconds. Actually, before that– as the last minute began to wind down, the fans were getting restless. Backstrom skated off leaving the net empty, and it seemed as if the Avs smelled the blood and clamped down. The easily could have given up a goal, but didn’t. The defense, like the whole night, was solid. Yes, it was “bend don’t break” kind of stuff, and Theodore saved them with another great performance, but some of the defensive plays to stop shots from ever taking place were quite good. So with 20 seconds left, they go to a media timeout. The fans kicked up the noise, and when I say noise I mean it was a deafening roar in that building. Through the whole timeout… media breaks are usually two minutes, and it was at full throttle the whole two minutes. Even when the referee extended the timeout to adjust the clock, the noise stayed full tilt, it just turned into a chance to boo the officials. The puck dropped, and it got louder. The Wild lost control of the puck and it slipped back into the zone for a delayed offside, which all but killed their chances. The horn sounded, and it got yet louder.

For my first playoff game, it was a great experience. Even watching the hockey tradition of shaking hands at the end of the series was cool– it’s a display of sportsmanship that other pro sports could learn from.

Up next - bring on the Dead Things— er, I mean, Red Wings?

More photos from the game here: Avalanche vs. Wild Game 6 Gallery.

bloggusinterruptus

I interrupt the normal serious blogging that happens here to say that I am in fact going to Game 6 of the Avalanche/Wild series. And unlike the Game 5 of the World Series debacle, this game is guaranteed to happen (barring an act of God, of course), and I will be there, Nordiques jersey and all.
Thank you, you may return to whatever it is you were doing.

Avs in Six

The story of the 2007-2008 Colorado Avalanche is one of trials, tribulations and, ultimately, hard-won success. Injuries are one plot line, but just as intriguing is how this team went from a finesse team with one enforcer (Scott Parker) and a single mucker (Ian Laperreire) to a physical team that can play down low and cycle the puck against almost any defense in the league. Chalk that miraculous transformation up to the additions of farm call-ups like Jeff Finger, David Jones and Cody McCloud and trade deadline acquisitions like Ruslan Salei and Adam Foote. Even Peter Forseberg is playing the kind of tough, physical hockey (full of sneaky pokes, prods and slashes) that aggravates opponents and gets them to commit 111 minutes worth of penalties on 26 infractions in a single blow-out game.

And it is that added physical dimension that has these Avalanche looking so good against a team that won the division and the regular season series. I cannot recall how I envisioned this series working out before it started, but with four games in the books the Avs do not look like they will lose another one. Games Two and Three were lost predominantly by virtue of tired play on the part of Colorado’s top lines come the third period and overtime. I assure you that Joel Quenneville will not let that happen again, as he rotated the bottom two lines in as often as the top two even before last night’s game was out of reach. Those third and fourth lines match up better defensively against the Wild anyway, and have had more than their share of scoring chances and goals in this series. The Colorado Avalanche are playing inspired, team hockey from the top of the roster to the bottom, and Jose Theodore has been quick, confident, and consistent in goal. The Marathon continues…

4/17 @ Minnesota Wild

Oh my, how the Wild are going to come at us in the first period of this game. Like rabid, rampaging wolverines they will be. Look for the Avs to start out with solid defense and work towards transition play and breakaways. Minnesota is an emotional team, and they could very well give up some big-time early scoring chances via over-pursuit and aggressive checking. The Avalanche must take advantage of the opportunities they can get in this game. So far the goalies have been (mostly) spectacular, so I am leaning towards a low-scoring game. But the floodgates could open at any time for either team… oh screw it, let’s call it a 3-2 Avs win.

4/19 vs. Minnesota Wild

The Quest returns to Denver for Game Six, and the Avalanche suddenly look like a team that could beat anybody. Echoes of the 1996 Cup Playoffs hang in the air, and the Detroit Red Wings are reminded of a six games series taken by the upstart Colorado Avalanche in that year’s Western Conference Finals. Nicklas Lindstrom can be seen nervously pacing empty hallways and mumbling, “Avalanche in six… Avalanche in six…” And so too will this series between the Colorado Avalanche and the Minnesota Wild end in six games with a 5-3 Avalanche victory.

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Week in Review - April 7-13, 2008

Well let’s see…

The Avalanche split overtime wins with Minnesota, the first being a SuperJoe Miracle, the second being a well-fought game that would have been a gift win, but it’s still heartbreaking to lose in overtime. The series returns this week to Pepsi Center, and you can bet the hockey-loving hordes of Denver are clamoring for the return of playoff hockey.

The Rockies took the previous week’s beatdowns and passed on the favor to the Atlanta Braves, making little girls of them and getting the 3-game sweep, with contest number four being relegated to a random June off-day due to the April snow-dump. They travelled to PHX, hoping to reverse the bad fortunes of the opening series, and got pretty handily spanked for two games before finally unloading on the tail end of the Diamondbacks rotation, making them 1-5 against the division rivals, getting outscored 43-23 in the six games (that despite a 13-run Sunday). September will tell whether this matters, or if it’s just true early season jitters. This week, the Rox head to 3-game sets in San Diego (more 2007 missed-playoff angst to deal with) and Houston (hello, Kaz Matsui), before coming home for a pair of obnoxious 2-game mini-series with Philly and the Cubbies.

The Nuggets made the playoffs, missed the playoffs, made them again, missed them again, before finally possibly maybe if everything falls right landing in the driver’s seat for the eighth playoff seed, which earns them the privilege of playing Kobe and the Lakers in the first round. Hello, early exit. Good-bye, George Karl. I’d say we hardly knew ye, but let’s be real. We knew ye.

The Broncos argued about whether Cutler is a leader or a prick. Even John Elway got into the discussion. Draft day’s a-comin’.

That’s ProSportsColorado week in review. Stay tuned as Ian will likely talk some more hockey as the week goes on (Game 3 tonight - don’t miss it!), Dan will regale us with tales of baseball prognostication unlike any other, and I will probably cry like a little girl if the Avs lose this series.

Super Joe!

photo from the AP…

I was only able to watch portions of this game, and let me make a few observations:

1. Ryan Smyth did his part. The game never should have reached overtime.
2. The consensus has been if the Avs can neutralize the special teams (PP vs PK), then they are at worst evenly matched with the Wild. They did just that.
3. Overtime playoff hockey is the most intense offering professional team sports can bring. Nothing comes close– not the Super Bowl, not the NBA playoffs, not even October baseball (which is pretty amazing) comes close to what OT hockey in playoff time brings. And this was just a first round series!
4. Need I say it? Joe. Freakin’. Sakic. The guy comes through in the clutch. And ol’ Theodore wasn’t half bad either. Both goalies had to withstand a serious barrage of shots there at the end.

So the Avs will come back to Denver with at worst a 1-1 split, and the possibility is there for a 2-0 lead. Hows about that. I wouldn’t call it a rivalry yet (per previous post), but I sure don’t like Minnesota right now. Go to the Star-Tribune and read the Minnesotans forum discussions about this series… you’ll learn to dislike them pretty quick. For a team that hasn’t won anything, and managed to let the “North” Stars slip off to Texas in the night, they sure do a lot of trash talking. I’ll take a quietly dominant Joe Sakic any day.