Quick Hit 12/7/2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
I mentioned yesterday that Eric Staal would be trouble if he broke through his scoring drought. He just potted an important one against Jose Theodore, taking the 2-1 lead with about 4 minutes remaining. Look out, NHL!
And what is it about Ryan Kesler that he is always the direct target of so many dangerous hits? Kesler was the subject of Jesse Boulerice’s stick swinging, Chris Pronger’s skate stomping, and now a Colorado boarding penalty. In his case, I’m not so sure the third time’s the charm.
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The Frozen Fan 
What do you know, the two non-injured guys mentioned in my last post {Jones and Smyth} both scored tonight. Of course, Budaj still made us go into a shootout by allowing four goals to the freaking Canucks, but a win is a win, no? 🙂
P.S.
I figure it’s much more convenient for both of us if we move the conversation to this post.
Hey, I’m impressed that the Avs put up 4 against the Canucks. Even with Bobby Lu out, that’s still a tough team to score against.
Two points are two points. But it’s not good to give points away to your own division. Especially in the Northwest.
Yeah, scoring four goals is nice, but the Avs are built to score. The thing is, when you score four goals in regulation against Vancouver, you should win outright. Allowing them to steal a point is not something that we can afford.
Is it a team defense issue or a goaltender issue? I haven’t watched enough of their games to be able to tell. From what little I saw of them against Minnesota, the Avs seem to lose an awful lot of puck battles considering their size.
And yes, I realize that the Canucks lead the Northwest Division in Goals For, but it’s still a foreign concept to me that Vancouver can score four goals in a game! 🙂
I’d say it’s both. Budaj lets in some goals that just shouldn’t make it past a goalie, and the rest of the team is too focused on scoring. Budaj needs to either step up or step aside, and the skaters need to pay more attention to their own end and THEN worry about putting the puck in the net.
Could a trade help them out?
A new philosophy would probably help more. We need a team effort on defense, not just one guy doing his job in our end. Because really, what is /one/ player going to do to improve the defense? He can only be on the ice so much.. And anyone we do acquire is still going to need help from both his offensive and defensive teammates. So really, it’s more that we need to get back to the basics and maybe even {GASP!} start playing a defense-first style.
Plus, as I recall, we acquired two defenseman last year. Adam Foote {Gave up a first-rounder for him too.. A waste of it if you ask me}, who is now on IR, returned to Colorado, and then we brought in Ruslan Salei; who hasn’t been too bad really.
But before we think about any trades, perhaps we should give Raycroft a shot like I suggested the other day. In my mind, it can’t hurt the team any to see what he can do on a nightly basis instead of as a backup to Budaj.
Hmm.. that might well be the lengthiest comment I’ve posted on here to this point. 🙂
You’ve posted some of decent length before. They’re just not usually longer than the original blog. 🙂
Sounds like you’re not happy with the personnel changes. Do you think a new GM would help?
Or is the issue that they overachieved under Quenville, fired Quenville, and now can’t make the cut under Granato?
Well, to be fair, the blogs are also usually longer than this.
No, no, it couldn’t be that the coaching change was stupid! I mean, the guy only led us to the second round. He OBVIOUSLY deserved to be axed.
Seriously though, it’s not like we:
A) Failed to make the Playoffs by 15+ points
B) Missed the Playoffs twice in a row {If you’re going to fire him, do it after the team’s postseason appearance streak is snapped.. Not after a Playoff bow-out}
C) Got swept in the first round
D) /Lost/ in the first round
E) Were defeated by a bad team.
The only thing we really did wrong last year was getting slaughtered by the Red Wings. 🙂
Sure we had that slump, but all teams experience rough patches. And as I recall, he wasn’t fired during that time frame. …Quenville getting the boot and us trading for Foote are probably the two things that I disliked most about last season.
You’re running out of time to put up a pre-game blog FF! Better hurry up.
Whew! Made it! Just in the door, post button pushed, ready for the game.
If only Versus had better play-by-play and color guys, life would be almost perfect . . .
Congratulations! 🙂
But I’m sorry to report that points will have to be deducted for brevity..