SB Nation - Colorado Avalanche

Grand Rapids Griffins To Play Game At Yost Arena

Adam Stites — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 21:45:19 -0000

The Grand Rapids Griffins and the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League announced a pair of neutral-site preseason games on Friday, with one set to be played at Yost Arena, home of the Michigan Wolverines hockey team.

The Griffins, the AHL affiliate of the Red Wings, will take on the Monsters, the AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche, on Oct. 6 in Toledo, Ohio before heading to the University of Michigan for a game on Oct. 7.

Yost Arena is freshly renovated after the University of Michigan spent $14 million on the arena that included the removal of about 400 seats to drop the capacity to 5,800, but the addition of more premium seating as well as other stylistic changes.

The pair of games will be the first preseason games for the Griffins since prior to the 2005-06 season. The game at Yost Arena is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET.

Aurora Movie Theater Shooting Touches The Sports World

Mike Prada — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:56:41 -0000

The entire country was rocked Friday morning by the tragic news of a shooting in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater showing a premiere of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. As of now, 12 are dead and 50 were wounded, according to the Denver Post. Whenever something this tragic happens, it touches a lot of different sectors of the country, with so many people knowing somebody that was affected.

The sports world, as it turns out, is no different.

One of the 12 dead is Jessica Ghawi, an NHL blogger who was rising in the reporting world. Known by most in the hockey world as Jessica Redfield, she had just moved from San Antonio to Denver and had become a correspondent covering the Avalanche. In a sad twist of fate, her last post on her personal blog was about how she barely escaped a shooting in Toronto in early June.

SB Nation's Avalanche blog Mile High Hockey mourned her death:

Jessica became my friend over the last year. She was starting a career in sports journalism, and I regularly picked her brain. She was granted the ever-elusive Avalanche press credentials, and from our seats, AJ and I often watched her doing her thing in the press box. She was smart, friendly, and amazing. A red head through and through, she was a ball of energy and fire, with a quick wit and an infectious personality.

Ghawi's boyfriend was Jay Meloff, an aspiring hockey player currently preparing to try out for the Denver Cutthroats of the Central Hockey League. Prior to the tragedy, SB Nation Denver profiled Meloff's journey in the CHL.

We wish Meloff, Ghawi's family and everyone that knew her well as they mourn her loss.

Former Avs Tough Guy Scott Parker: Moore-Bertuzzi 'Wasn't Vicious'

Travis Hughes — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 15:41:46 -0000

It was March 2004 when Todd Bertuzzi of the Canucks decided to make Steve Moore of the Avalanche pay for an incident in a prior game. Moore had injured Vancouver captain Markus Naslund, and Bertuzzi's form of retribution involved jumping Moore from behind and effectively ending his playing career.

Enforcer Scott Parker was a member of the San Jose Sharks when the incident took place, but he had been Moore's teammate briefly the year before in Colorado. Speaking with Avalanche blog Mile High Hockey in an interview published Wednesday, Parker defended Bertuzzi and had some choice words for Moore.

Via Mile High Hockey, here's Parker on Moore, Bertuzzi and the infamous incident:

[Todd Bertuzzi's] a good man. He, he is. I mean, he did get dealt some bad cards, and the thing is, [Steve Moore] always thought he was better than everybody else. He went to Harvard, you know what, blow me. College grad. I never went to college, but I can kick your ass. I'll bring you right down to my IQ level if you want. I'll hit you about four times in the skull, that'll bring you right down.

[...]

And Todd, he might have gone overboard, and what's crazy is, even talking to him after the fact and talking to Moe, Morris and other boys that were in that, that happened, I watched that tape about a hundred times, and just the way Todd hit him, and he actually grabbed him to soften his blow when he went down, and what happened was when Moe landed on him, he actually hit the back of his neck and it actually popped up. You know, just the way Todd was holding him.

But you know, it wasn't vicious, it was just, it was the heat of the moment. It was one of those things where you, you want to do something, but you don't know if it's gonna be big, if it's gonna be small, or how it's gonna pan out. But you wanna do something. And Todd, he might not have been right and it might have been a little overboard, but you know, he did something. I mean, at least he responded, at least he tried.

And that's just part of a 5,600 word interview with Parker published Wednesday ... in addition to Part 1 of that interview, another 4,700 word piece published Tuesday.

David Jones And The Colorado Avalanche Offseason 'Spending Spree'

Muzia — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:18:23 -0000

The Colorado Avalanche entered this offseason in pretty great shape. They had hockey's youngest roster, they had no real long-term salary commitments weighing down their flexibility, and there were promises from the front office that the team would commit to their players.

Let's review the past couple of weeks:

Milan Hejduk - One year, $2 million

Cody McLeod - Three years, $3.45 million

David Jones - Four years, $16 million

This is not the spending spree that I had envisioned.

Let's play a game. Name the three current Avalanche players under contract for the 2014-2015 season.

Did you guess Jan Hejda, Cody McLeod, and David Jones?

I don't have a problem with loyalty. In fact, I want to keep players around that actually want to be here (I'm looking at you, Chris Stewart!). Yet there comes a point in a rebuild where your homegrown guys simply aren't good enough to lock down for multiple seasons. I don't consider McLeod or Jones to be part of that list.

Now I'll happily support multi-year deals for Matt Duchene, Erik Johnson, and Ryan O'Reilly. There's enough star-level talent and youth amongst those players to make a safe bet on a long term deal. I'm even fine with another year of Peter Mueller -- if he's healthy, he's a bargain. But I simply cannot support locking up Jones through his age 31 season as part of the greater picture, especially with his injury history.

Let me put it another way: When was the last time you attended an Avalanche game and walked out of Pepsi Center exclaiming, "Wow! Did you see David Jones take over that game?"

I'm struggling to think of a single game in the past two years where Jones was the difference maker.

The Avalanche needed wingers, badly, but there's simply no upside to this contract. Let's just hope the rest of the "offseason spending spree" gives fans a bit more hope for the future.

Avalanche's Matt Duchene Up For TSN's Play Of The Year

UZ — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:22:46 -0000

There wasn't all that much to cheer about in the end for the Colorado Avalanche in 2011/2012, but the team still gave the fans plenty of moments to scream about when they were on. One of the best plays was a beautiful between the legs deke and shot by Matt Duchene against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and that play has been put up for TSN's Play of the Year.

Duchene destroyed his first match up in Group D of the tournament of great plays and is taking on a Patrick Kane shoot out goal in the Group D semi-finals. You can vote for Matt Duchene's play here, though he is currently leading at almost a 70/30 pace already with just over a day remaining in the contest. There is a video of the wonderful goal up on the match up site as well.

If he can get by Kane's deke-fest of a game winner, Duchene's play will face the winner of a match up between Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Eberle that will take place on May 14.

NHL Playoff TV Ratings: Penguins Vs. Flyers Pulls In Best Numbers Since 2002

Travis Hughes — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:23:57 -0000

The Detroit Red Wings vs. Colorado Avalanche rivalry in the late 1990s and early 2000s was appointment NHL viewing. The Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Philadelphia Flyers rivalry is officially at that same level.

On Sunday, NBC's coverage of Game 3 in the Battle of Pennsylvania pulled in the best ratings for a playoff game since 2002. The 2.3 overnight rating was just shy of Game 1 between the 2.4 rating drawn in Game 1 between the Wings and Avs ten years ago. For reference, the 2012 Winter Classic drew a 2.4 rating as well.

Sunday's number is tops for an NHL playoff game since NBC took over the national broadcast rights in 2006, according to Puck The Media, which shared the numbers Monday.

Via PTM, NBC did well with Predators vs. Red Wings and action all throughout the opening weekend of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs:

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the first part of NBC's doubleheader was no slouch. Predators/Red Wings, Game 3 drew a 1.5 overnight. This equaled the rating for Saturday's double-OT thriller between the Bruins and Capitals, and marked the best overnight for a Predators game ever on NBC.

Stick with SBNation.com for full coverage of the 2012 NHL playoffs.

EA Sports NHL 13 Cover Battle: Gabriel Landeskog Vs. Matt Duchene Determines Avalanche's Representative

Russ Oates — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:56:10 -0000

Much like its Madden 13 contest, EA Sports is holding a tournament to determine the cover athlete for NHL 13. But unlike the Denver Broncos, who lost representative Tim Tebow to the New York Jets, the Colorado Avalanche won't see either of its opening round participants leave the team any time soon.

Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog are battling it out in the opening round. Head over here to vote for your favorite Avalanche player and for whoever else you want to advance in this cover athlete death battle.

TV Schedule, March 12: Celtics Face Clippers, Red Sox On ESPN

sportsgirlkat — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:00:53 -0000

Monday's TV schedule, complete with channels and times, customized for the Boston sports fan. Click on highlighted teams' names for complete schedules, scores, and previews, plus an active community devoted to your team. All times ET and approximate.

NBA

Boston Celtics at Los Angeles Clippers - 10:30 p.m. (TV: Comcast SportsNet New England & ESPN) The Celtics face the Clippers in their second game of an eight game road trip Monday night. The Clippers have been floundering at home as of late, dropping four of their last six home games. The Celtics will look to take advantage of that skid, as they dropped their Sunday afternoon game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

New York Knicks at Chicago Bulls - 8 p.m. (TV: ESPN)

MLB

Boston Red Sox vs. Miami Marlins - 1:35 p.m. (TV: ESPN) The Boston Red Sox face the new look Miami Marlins (formerly the Florida Marlins.)

Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Los Angeles Angels - 4:35 p.m. (TV: MLB Network)

More listings after the jump!

NHL

Anaheim Ducks vs. Colorado Avalanche - 9 p.m. (TV: NBC Sports Network)

Women's Basketball

Women's NCAA Tournament Selection Show - 7 p.m. (TV: ESPN, ESPNU)

Capitals Forward Alexander Semin 'Easy To Intimidate' According To Sports Illustrated Players' Poll

Adam Vingan — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:03:06 -0000

Washington Capitals forward Alexander Semin is called a lot of things. "Enigmatic;" "lazy;" the list goes on.

Now a new adjective can be added to the front or back of Semin's name: intimidated. Find out why below the jump.

According to a recent Sports Illustrated players' poll, 145 NHL players were asked to name which "All-Star-caliber player is the easiest to intimidate." Semin ranked third on a list of 15 players:

Phil Kessel - Toronto Maple Leafs
Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin - Vancouver Canucks
Semin
Patrick Kane - Chicago Blackhawks
Ilya Kovalchuk - New Jersey Devils
Danny Briere - Philadelphia Flyers
Jeff Skinner - Carolina Hurricanes
Ryan Kesler - Vancouver
Mike Cammalleri - Calgary Flames
Matt Duchene - Colorado Avalanche
Ryan Getzlaf - Anaheim Ducks
Eric Staal - Carolina
Steven Stamkos - Tampa Bay Lightning
Joe Thornton - San Jose Sharks
Scott Gomez - Montreal Canadiens

"Semin is an enigmatic, lazy and intimidated winger." Feel free to copy and paste for your articles and tweets.