Injuries and inconsistency aside, the Avalanche are lucky to be 8-7-1 in a Western Conference that features only two clubs with losing records.
When a visit from the Calgary Flames elicits a sigh of relief, you know the Western Conference has gotten rough. Through 13 games Colorado is hanging tough in the middle of both the Northwest Division & the Western Conference.
Unless the Nuggets’ front office can wheel and deal for the likes of Chris Bosh (Denver was not on his list of preferred cities to play in), then we will have to hope that Kenyon’s knees hold, that Birdman can be energy off the bench instead of a late season burnout, and that Denver never, ever has to rely on Johan Petro to start a game ever again.
The loss relegates the Denver Nuggets to a likely 5th seed, as the Utah Jazz control their destiny in the race for the Northwest Division after a win at Golden State. Phoenix travels to Salt Lake City tomorrow night to settle the Western Conference seeding with the Jazz. Only a Suns victory can save the Nuggets from their late-season decent from 1-seed contenders to the 5-seed and a hellish road to the Finals.
The top-seeded Sharks play incredibly well in San Jose, and the Colorado Avalanche will need to find a way to win a close game at the Shark Tank to steal the series. For all the Sharks’ regular season success in San Jose, playoff demons lurk there as well…
The Denver Nuggets looked asleep at the wheel for at least half of their 98-96 win over the LA Lakers on Thursday night. Luckily, Los Angeles rested Kobe Bryant’s sore knee and finger in preparation for the playoff defense of their 2009 title.
The Nuggets’ 98-94 edging of the driven Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday displayed the offensive dynamism and (occasional) sharp defensive rotation that Denver has been lacking for most the last two weeks.
So get to a TV if you can, find a bar with the full NBA package if you must, but watch as many of these games as you can. It may just be a warm up for the Main Event, but this next week is going to be one hell of a show.
Unfortunately, the big win against the West’s best team was marred by a dirty blind-side hit on Mueller by ex-Av Rob Blake. You may remember Blake as the shifty creep who screwed the Avalanche into paying him while he played for the LA Kings. Now, he will also be remembered as the slow old defender who couldn’t keep up with Mueller and the rest of the speedy Avalanche forwards… so he took the coward’s way out again.
Devin Setoguchi scored the deciding goal for the Sharks, but the Avalanche look every bit a playoff team with 7 games to go
