SB Nation User Blog: Dario

McNabb observations on Avs all Access

Dario — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:56:04 -0000

They have run the first Avalanche All Access program on Altitude for the season. I smell some changes in the ...tone?

While Kyle Keefe was his usual rainbow and unicorn self. McNabb and Hanes had a lot more... conservative. They were certainly positive but it seemed like they might have had the shackles lifted a bit. There was talk about the Avs facing 24 games in division with the toughest goal tending in the entire NHL. When asked what the biggest challenge for the new coach would be, the simple answer was "to win games".

A lot of people tend to think that McNabb is a just another talking suit that can only toe the company line. However, McNabb is actually the crown jewel of hockey knowledge in that broadcast crew and in the media as a whole in Denver. If they let him talk about hockey without selling just the positives I think he's really good. I've heard him talking hockey outside of the cameras and I've had other media tell me he knows more about the sport than anyone in town, they just have to take off the shackles.

In any case, McNabb made a couple of observations on the show that I thought were interesting. First, at game 42 last season the Avalanche were three games over .500 and 7th in the west. Despite their impressivey horrific season last year they fielded a competitive product through half the season. I've covered this myself but McNabb voiced it again; Last year pundits picked St. Louis to finish 15th and Vancouver 11th/12th. They finished 6th and 3rd in the conference. The Avs weren't an awful team throughout the season, they were just unbelievably God awful in the second half.

The Avs with Stastny, Galiardi, Duchene and O'Reily at center makes the Avs not only young down the middle put perhaps makes them the youngest team at center in the history of the NHL. McNabb said the team is going to have to rely on their veteran back line and I think he's right. With all that youth up front it's going to need to have a really solid back end. McNabb said every practice since the first cuts have been about the defensive end. I see little to disagree with there.

Rookie camp report -Day 3-

Dario — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:45:49 -0000

Today was a good day at the rink for the rookie crew with the notible exception of an injury to Cann.

Dan Laperriere, assistant coach to Quinn at Lake Erie ran the practice today. Quinn stood around not saying much to anyone and Deader was on the ice to bang his stick for laps and good shots on goal. Laperriere continued to run a no nonsense camp but things seemed to have relaxed considerably since Wednesday.

First, during 3 v 1 drills Duchene let loose a hard wrist shot that caught Cann right under his chin. He doesn't wear that Patrick Roy plastic deal under his mask. The puck missed his mask, missed his chest guard and seemed to have nailed him in the throat. He was down for quite a bit and was helped to the dressing room. He could have anything from a serious bruise to a broken collar bone. He never came back. I hope he's healthy but if not, that opens the door for Billy Sauer to make the Lake Erie team.

Like Justin is a goalie nut, I'm a bit of a defenseman fan. Today was a big day for the D because we finally got to see them do some 1 v1 drills as well as 5v5 & 4v4 full contact scrimmages. They weren't exactly laying the wood to guys but they were able to take the body and move forwards around. Anyway, the forwards vs defenseman 1v1 drills consisted the of the defense starting at a stand stil at the faceoff circle with the forward at the goal line. At the whistle the forward raced down the ice while the defenseman had to use basically a power crossover to gain speed as fast as possible. They had to do that back to their own blue line and then the forward could start to make his moves in the zone to try and score. This drill really exposed some of the rookie defensemen. Guys like Chouinard, Finn, O'niel and even reportedly great skaters like Montgomery looked pretty poor in the drill. The standout in drills and scrimmage was Ryan Wilson. Wilson is a very good skater and his stride isn't rushed or forced. He's got a real active poke check. Macias is another guy who's transition skating looked really uncomfortable for him. He gives up a lot or room to the opposing forward. Gaunce isn't fancy but he's really rock solid in his positioning. He's physical in front of his goaltender. Peltier, Elliot and to a lesser extent Barrie did OK.

With an actual scrimmage to run, instead of shinny with the vets you actually got to see a little pro style hockey. Immediately you could see the guys who are comfortable in a physical game. Gaunce and Wilson on defense for sure. Dupuis thrived in the scrimmages, just played his game and didn't let the contact effect what he wanted to do. He made several dandy plays and has a real accurate heads up shot. Yip finally got to showcase a little of what he's all about by laying the body to guys and creating turnovers. Mercier slipped through the rough stuff and seemed to thrive in that environment as well. Galiardi continues to display his NHL readiness by doing what he wants without dancing around congestion or checks. O'Rielly was strong but he's not a puck possession guy through the neutral zone, he's certainly more of a below the face-off dot possession forward from what I can tell so far. Stoa was pretty making simple plays but pretty darned quiet. Duchene was his usual ball of energy. He's got good feet for the puck when he's got a bouncing puck or a pass in to his skates. He's making passes guys aren't prepared for or can't handle. I've a hunch if those passes are to Hejduk he's be making things happen. All in all I'd say the biggest winner in the scimmage session today was Dupuis. On defense I'd give the nod to Gaunce with Wilson right there.

Watched Wolski feeding some passes to Quincy after the rookies were done. Wolski would feed a pass from the left side to Quincy on the right side for one timers. Quincy has a NASTY one timer, very accurate. I watched Wolski for a while and he's obsessed with stick handling. He does drill after drill with weaving the puck in a pattern. He seems eager to feed pucks to other guys on shots and almost reluctant to practice shooting himself. I know I'm going way in to the Dr. Phil psyco-analysis here but Wolski seems like a guy that is ill suited for the wing. He's not an enthusiastic shot maker. He's looking to pass first and shoot second. I think that mentality has to change a bit if he's going to make this jump that everyone is waiting for.

Anderson was on the ice making a more enthusiastic effort on saves against Stewart and Bates. He looks a lot bigger in net than Budaj, Raycroft or Theo. He looks really solid and comfortable against the posts. You know how Budaj would look like he's performing some painful Pilates move when he was trying to seal every possible hole on the post? Anderson just overlaps his leg pad on the post and gets ready to push over. He just looks big and comfortable in there. He's not overly social though. Stewart was laughing it up and doing tip drills with Bates and just fooling around but Anderson didn't seem interested in participating in any frivolity. He's a serious cat on the ice. Not that it's a bad thing, I tend to remember another goal tender who played for the Avs who was serious as a heart attack about practice.

My day 1 rookie camp report 9/9/9/9/9/9/9/9

Dario — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:46:24 -0000

Today's rookie camp brought to you by the number 9.... I'm very clever and original.

I went on a twitter-fest at camp which is fun and frustrating all at once. You can't watch as much when you type on the iphone. Maybe that applies to the blackberry too, I wouldn't know. Before I go over what I saw, I just want to say that camp at this point can't tell you what kind of player a guys is going to be in a real NHL game. You can't simulate the physical nature of the NHL playing shinny or doing drills. You can however, evaluate skating, puck handling, vision and shot making potential etc...

The next thing is that the culture of this camp was completely different than previous years. Sacco ran the rookie camp instead of Quinn. Generally the AHL coach runs the rookie camps. Sacco was all business, as was Deadmarsh. There was no joking around or even a cracked smile. It was a quiet bunch of rookies this year because that's the tone Sacco has set. Basically Sacco would yell out a drill and then they ran it. It would be followed by laps and Deadmarsh would bang his stick on the boards to drive them to go faster. No one on one breakouts to work on this or that. It was as serious as a heart attack out there. The next huge change was that the pros scrimmaged against the rookies after camp. I've never, ever seen the Avalanche do this. It was really great to see because you would hope it would relieve some tensions and help the rookies better showcase their skills when training camp and preseason start. Sadly, this is also the first volunteer pro scrimmage session that wasn't run by Sakic. Because there were so many players they took both rinks. Foote ran the West rink and it looked like Stastny might have been running the East rink. Though maybe Tucker was running it via looking annoyed.

Duchene isn't just a fast skater, because guys like Tessier and McNicoll are also fast. The thing with MD's skating is that he's got really quick feet. Some guys like Svatos get their feet moving fast but they aren't getting anywhere particularly quickly. Duchene is for lack of a better term, quick. He's quick on his first step and he's fast as hell at top speed. The nice part is he doesn't slow down when the puck gets on his stick. That's what makes him so special as a skater. Some guys can do one or two of those things but not all of them. During some of the scrimmages that happened after rookie practice you could see Duchene is also strong on his skates. You know how you can tell when a player is going to take on the whole team by himself come hell or high water? You've seen that body language in guys like Jones, Arnason or Svatos in the past. They hunch their shoulders, bury their head and start making moves towards the net. Well, Duchene gets this look all the time when he's got the puck on his stick. But, unlike a lot of guys that do this he's shifting gears in the scoring zone and looking to make a pass. As many times as you watch him do it, it kind of takes me off guard. I hate to make the comparison because it's not fair, but he gets that Forsberg look. It's kind of like he's when Foppa would look like he's going to bull rush the zone. Everyone gravitates towards him or watches him and then he just feeds to the open guy. It's the subtlties of Duchene's playmaking with his skating that's going to make him a special pro. He's got a hard shot and all that but he's a hard player to read.

Mercier was impressive today. He skates with determination and energy. It looks like he's competing on every drill and every shift on the scrimmages. He displayed some really impressive shot making. We'll see how well that translates during full contact.

Stoa is the real deal. I think he's going to make the team for certain. He's in the right spots and has a complete skill set for a big guy.

O'Rielly doesn't stand out in drills. He's not going to be in any skills competitions but he shines in the scrimmages. He's strong on the puck and takes it to the scoring areas. He's not dancing around the outside. Sometimes, like McLeod guys are just hockey players. O'Rielly might start in Lake Erie but you can imagin a monster 3rd / 4th line in the future with him, Mercier, and maybe a guy like Yip down the road.

Didn't catch much of Yip until the scrimmages. You can tell he wants to lay the wood to some guys but games of shinny just don't allow it. He had a couple of nice goals. Has a real heavy wrist shot.

I can't judge defensemen well during these things. The defensemen that could skate looked good. A kid like Gaunce, you can't really tell anything about yet because they aren't allowed to hit or pinch guys on the boards really. One name I do want to mention is the kid we picked up from Calgary last March named Ryan Wilson. He's got a really good stick and skated really well in shinny. He just stuck out.

I thought Sauer looked solid, perhaps the best of all the prospect goaltenders playing today.

Galiardi looked confident and even cracked some smiles when he lost an edge. That's saying something for such a serious camp. On one particular drill he was rushing up the ice and he took a bad pass behind him, did a spin-o-rama and made a good feed to the open man. Here's a little fact for the ladies (and Dater :)). Galiardi looks like he's kind of "thin" because he's not wearing an undershirt like every hockey player in the world. So his jersey sticks to him. I don't think he wears any of those abs protectors with his shoulder pads either. How do I know this? From last year's final game where the players have to give the jerseys off their backs to the fans. He was the only dude not wearing a shirt under his gear. He took some ribbing from his teammates that night. I'm guessing his nickname is stink. Anyway, I've noticed a lot of people comment that he needs to put on some weight. I think his unique method of air conditioning is contributing to that belief. Too much info?

That's all I can recall off the top of my head. If anyone has questions about a particular player I'll try to answer.

Do not despair Avs fans, hockey predictions are predictable.

Dario — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:01:27 -0000

As fans we've never really gone in to a season expecting anything less than a playoff contending Avalanche team. After last year, that's all going to change going in to the 2009-10 season. And believe me, going in to training camp season everyone and their grandmother is going to depress you. It's NHL prediction season! But, from an unlikely source I've gained perspective...thank you Down Goes Brown.

Yahoo's Puck Daddy has been running an ongoing theme called "Five reasons I love hockey". One that caught my attention was Down Goes Brown's reason number 4, entitled "...the 1999 Leafs came out of nowhere to go to the conference finals":

The 1999 Leafs were expected to miss the playoffs for a third straight year and perhaps challenge for last place overall. Instead they lead the league in scoring by a mile and went to the final four.

In the 2002 playoffs, the Leafs roster was so broken down by injuries that half the squad was made up of AHLers and Alyn McCauley (notes) was the first-line center. On paper, they shouldn't have been able to win a game. But they won two rounds (before all the injured players came back, and they lost).

In January 1992 the Leafs were a brutal team going nowhere. And then Cliff Fletcher worked out a trade with the Flames that changed everything.

And here's the beauty: the Leafs aren't special. In the NHL, this stuff happens all the time.

Every year the experts unveil their predictions for the coming season. Every year they cut-and-paste last year's standings, move a few teams up or down one spot, and call it in-depth analysis. And every year they're completely, staggeringly wrong.

Remember this time last year, when the Habs were Cup favorites, the Bruins were doormats, the Blackhawks were slowly rebuilding and the Blues were going to finish last in the West? Nobody knows anything.

The NHL isn't the NBA, where you know the home favorite is going to win even if the referees have to start taking jumpshots themselves. In the NHL, you never know. No matter how bad your team is -- and Leaf fans know a little bit about bad teams -- you still just never know.

"You never know" may not be much. But for some of us, it's all we have.

Could it be true? Are the predictions that predictable? Could there actually be some kind of hope for our heroes of the unipron? I called the research department and this is what they gave me. I'm not sure what it all means but I'm pretty sure it means everything... or nothing. I leave that for you to decide.

ESPN 2008-09 predictions:

You've got to visit that link to appreciate it. Note how many picked Pittsburgh to win the cup (between 1 and -1). Montreal, Dallas and the NY Rangers predicted to win the cup?! Could DGB be right? Let's take a look at first, at the previous year result and see if they truly did "cut-and-paste last year's standings, move a few teams up or down one spot".

2008 results:

2009 results:

As you can see, DGB is largely correct. For example, Montreal finished first in the East the previous year and every single pundit selects them to win their division and several to take the Eastern Conference finals. No one picked Boston to win the division let alone blow Montreal out of the water. In the NW division these same experts picked everyone from Minnesota, Edmonton and Calgary to win the division. The reality is that Vancouver won and not a single expert thought they would.

Buccigross 2009 predictions:

I'm a John Buccigross fan. Despite his ramblings on music and the homogenized nature of hockey analysis for the ESPN faithful. But, he knows hockey and he loves the sport. That's an excellent combination. So, he's a guy when he makes predictions he actually puts some thought in to it and rationlizes his selections. See his detailed predictions below:

Western Conference:

Eastern Conference:

In summary, the 2007-08 true results:

WEST
1 Detroit Red Wings
2 San Jose Sharks
3 Minnesota Wild
4 Anaheim Ducks
5 Dallas Stars
6 Colorado Avalanche
7 Calgary Flames
8 Nashville Predators
***
9 Edmonton Oilers
10 Chicago Blackhawks
11 Vancouver Canucks
12 Phoenix Coyotes
13 Columbus Blue Jackets
14 St Louis Blues
15 Los Angeles Kings

EAST
1 Montréal Canadiens
2 Pittsburgh Penguins
3 Washington Capitals
4 New Jersey Devils
5 New York Rangers
6 Philadelphia Flyers
7 Ottawa Senators
8 Boston Bruins
***
9 Carolina Hurricanes
10 Buffalo Sabres
11 Florida Panthers
12 Toronto Maple Leafs
13 New York Islanders
14 Atlanta Thrashers
15 Tampa Bay Lightning

Buccigross prediction / My snark:

WEST
1 Detroit Red Wings 0 / Close, finished 2nd to San Jose by 5 points.
2 Dallas Stars +3 / Um, not even close. Worst of his predictions by far.
3 Minnesota Wild 0 / finished 9th and out of the playoffs.
4 Chicago Blackhawks +6 / The best of his predictions as the Hawks did in fact finish 4th.
5 San Jose Sharks -4 / Wouldn't be that far off except San Jose was clearly the best regular season team, not just a 95 pt team
6 Anaheim Ducks -2 / Not too far off as they finished 8th. But no huge risk in prediction either.
7 Edmonton Oilers +2 / Way off, 11th and not close to playoffs
8 Calgary Flames -1 / Finished 5th. Strong season considering the 6th seed had six fewer points which is like NHL dog years in significance.
***
9 Nashville Predators -1 / Finished 10th, pretty close to prediction of bubble playoff team.
10 Columbus Blue Jackets +3 / Finished 7th and made playoffs. This was a pretty safe prediction for a team that's never made the playoffs.
11 Colorado Avalanche -5 / The most significant drop from previous year, who could have predicted a -9 drop :(
12 Phoenix Coyotes 0 /Finished 13th
13 St Louis Blues +1 / St. Louis finished 6th blowing this prediction out of the water.
14 Vancouver Canucks -3 / About as far off as you can get. Won the division, 100 points, 3rd in conference.
15 Los Angeles Kings 0 / Close but finished a good 10 points ahead of the God awful Avalanche, 10 POINTS!! yeesh.

EAST
1 Montréal Canadiens 0 / Not even close, barely made playoffs with 93 points beating tie breaker with Florida for playoff spot.
2 Pittsburgh Penguins 0 / Pitt finished 4th, in the ballpark but no risk in the pick.
3 Washington Capitals 0 / Finished 2nd, again a safe pick.
4 New York Rangers +1 / 7th, close to missing playoffs at 95 points. Not nearly as strong as predicted.
5 Philadelphia Flyers +1 / Picked it on the nose. Blind Squirrel or brilliant prediction?
6 New Jersey Devils -2 / 106 points and 3rd in conference, much stronger than predicted.
7 Boston Bruins +1 / 116 points and first in the East. Way off from the bubble playoff team prediction.
8 Ottawa Senators -1 / Way off, 83 points and never in playoff contention.
***
9   Tampa Bay Lightning +6 /Not quite. Secondworst record in the NHL with 66 points. They win the Hedman sweepstakes.
10 Buffalo Sabres 0 /Spot on, finished 11th.
11 Florida Panthers 0 / Close, finished 9th with 93 points, one point out of playoff spot.
12 Carolina Hurricanes -4 / Nope, way off. Strong season with Carolina finishing 6th in the east and 97 points.
13 Toronto Maple Leafs -1 / Close, finished 12th same as the year before.
14 Atlanta Thrashers 0 / Same deal, Atlanta is horrible as predicted with 76 points, but still 10 points better than Tampa? Ouch.
15 New York Islanders -2 / Some things are easy to predict. Went in to the season with 12 mil in cap room and Guerin as their top forward... yeesh.

So, the lesson here is that Buccigross is inept and Down Goes Brown is a brilliant observer of what should have been obvious to me. How do these guys get away with this? It's not going to prevent them from doing the exact same thing this year. No one is going to predict Tampa Bay to finish 5th in the East because it doesn't fit the prediction formula, even though that formula is broken.

Could the Avalanche defense bounce back by scoring more goals and playing a strong game in front of improved goaltending? Could Stastny stay healthy all year? Could Duchene and Stoa not only make the team but be contenders for Calder consideration? Could the powerplay improve? Could the penalty kill possibly be worse? Could Stweart and Jones improve their numbers in what largely amounts to sophomore seasons in the NHL? How about that Galiardi kid? Hey, I'm not saying the Avs are going to jump back up to 90 points BUT unlike every expert and their in depth analysis is about to tell you, I don't think it's impossible. They have no better idea than anyone else when it comes to predicting the NHL season.

Avalanche to premier new mascot Oct 3rd.

Dario — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:51:23 -0000

Altitude is now running their season preview edition of "The Avalanche Experience" that spends 25 minutes selling you tickets and 5 minutes talking hockey and rerunning TSN's Duchene piece. But one thing you can't find on the internet is that the Avalanche will debut a "new" mascot for the second game of the season versus Vancouver on October 3rd.

So far the Avalanche have implemented three items I mention in my rant from three months ago which is totally coincidental. Now, if only they had followed my recommendation of posting their Altitude specials on a video site I could share with you all the evidence that there will in fact be a new mascot announced on Oct. 3rd. You could also see an interview with the new coach Sacco and revel in the glow of Kyle Keefe.

Craigslist and hockey fans are a great mix

Dario — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:58:23 -0000

It's the absolute DOG days of hockey right now. With Yip signed the only thing to look forward to is a Billy Sauer signing (excited yet?). So, I was looking at some hockey things on Craigslist and it entertained me for a suprisingly long time. Here are a couple of gems.

First up is a girl who deserves some rich old man's money. She sounds very exciting and her tastes in sports puts her well ahead of some blond bimbo you might put up in a Condo somewhere. http://denver.craigslist.org/spo/1281653523.html

I am looking for a full set of Ice Hockey Goalie Gear. I am a medium build female that is 5' 7".
I would like to find a full of gear to play Goal as well as forward. If you have some gear, or preferrably a full set I would like to check them out.
Money is tight and I would be willing to barter for the gear. . . of course unless you know of a Hockey Sugar Daddy that would like to support my habit. You just never know.

Bless her heart.

Next is a woman I like to call the Black Widow. This is not for the faint of heart and honestly this will shock you to your core. The poor man is in worse shape than Saving Silverman and should not walk, but run to his nearest divorce attorney. http://denver.craigslist.org/clt/1280139544.html (click on link for pictures).

Collection of Avalanche items..call 303 xxx xxxx or email for more info..they belong to my new husband and his hockey shrine days are over! Make an offer..
Thanks.

Unbelievable. Sir, if you are reading this you must grow a pair and stand your ground. Good God man, would Patrick Roy put up with that?!

Next up is something that's kind of unique. No, strike that... it's fricken cool as hell. I'm no collector but this thing is absolute gold for the American hockey fan.

http://denver.craigslist.org/clt/1280079183.html

I have (1) 1980 Miracle on Ice Framed 16x20 poster that is autographed by the entire team as well as coach Herb Brooks. (Pictured)

Good luck getting $2400 in this economy, even though it's probably worth that. U.S. American JM Liles makes a good living, maybe he will make that exchange in the parking lot at King Soopers?

Last, I bring you Jerry Seinfelds girlfriend. http://denver.craigslist.org/tag/1278049335.html

I am selling my classic vintage complete original hand-held video games...
Mattel Electronics hand held Baseball from 1978 - $20 OBO
Entex Electronics Hockey from 1979 - $20 OBO
Tomytronic (Tomy Electronics) 3-D Thundering Turbo (binocular racecar game) from 1983 - $50 OBO

This calls for Turkey and a box of wine, who's with me?

Now more than ever... why didn't they buy out Tucker?

Dario — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:02:27 -0000

Unlike most things I post this one it going to be short. Now, in retrospect we know the Avalanche were going to cut costs...so why didn't they buy out Tucker?

The deadline for buyouts was June 29th so this fantasy is just too late. The only compelling reason to NOT buy out a player is because 1. You don't want his buyout amount to hit your cap next year and 2. Even if you buy him out there's not anyone better or cheaper for the cost (ie Theodore in '80-'09). So now that you look back on things in retrospect, the Avs aren't trying to save cap room so Tucker's salary buyout hit of 750,000 for 2010-11 wouldn't have effected the team. So instead of buying out his 2.2 million dollar contract this year for just 1.5 million the Avs are just going to keep him on the roster for the full boat? They wouldn't qualify McCormick? If the team is going young then I can't even do a lineup right now and see where Tucker fits in.

Koci has an in division dance partner

Dario — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:43:14 -0000

Koci has an in division dance partner

Koci now has someone's fists to beat up with his face.

Thursday's Development Camp

Dario — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:00:04 -0000

[Special thanks to Dario, on location at the Avalanche rookie development camp. Read below for his impressions of some of the top team prospects. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DarioinDenver- Joe]

(Oops, I wrote this but never posted it. I'm talented.)

I did a lot of tweeting while talking to Tapeleg at the rookie development camp yesterday but I thought I'd summarize my general opinions from day one.

So the whole thing was just a little somber honestly. Sakic's retirement was weighing heavy on everyone. The crowd started of really small and eventually grew to 30 or 40 people by the end. Still, it was a relatively quiet crowd.

It all started with the four goaltenders taking the ice and getting instruction from the Avalanche Vice President, Craig Billington. How many other NHL VPs do double duty as goalie coach? I'm no great expert on goaltenders but I thought Kent Petterson looked promising. He battles, uses a nice poke check with his stick and sits up very tall. I'm looking forward to him getting more reps in college. Delmas kind of looked the same to me, just kind of a tad too slow. Cann looked good, if not spectacular. Maxwell was really quick with great positioning and he wasn't giving up first shot goals too often. The only moment of weakness I saw was when Ryan O'Rielly scored three quick goals on him that generated some stick tapping (this is a single drill that includes four shots on goal).

I didn't watch the defensemen much on this day but when I did it was obvious to me that Shattenkirk is by far the best defensemen of the bunch. He skates with his head up, makes great passes and when he does shoot on goal he's very dangerous. I watched Gaunce a little bit but there wasn't anything that stood out. Keep in mind this was a drill session that defensemen where doing some skating drills with lots of shots on goal, not exactly the best way to evaluate defensemen. Montgomery still looks like a good prospect as he's got a real natural skating ability and makes heads up passes and covers a lot of ice.

I watched the forward group primarily because like the young lady with the ghetto T and drawn on Duchene #9 T-shirt, I was there to see the doctor MD, Matt Duchene. Before I get specific about MD, let me give you my general first impressions of who stood out as the most impressive players as a whole...

Stoa
O'Rielly
Shattenkirk
Duchene

Stoa is a physical speciman that's going to stand out right away, the guy is really big. He's got super-soft hands and was scoring on a lot of the drills. At times is it seems like he would purposely take a first shot off a goalie leg pad and then use his long reach to just slap in the rebound. Just really impressive hand-eye coordination. You can tell he's very comfortable in front of the net and takes advantage of that long reach there. With every big forward (or defensemen) your first concern is skating. Stoa does not struggle with his skating. He's not beating anyone on the outside but his skating is advanced enough that he doesn't hesitate to make any kind of skating stroke. A bigger test will be against NHL calibur defensemen leaning on him in the crease but I think he's the most NHL ready of the skaters I saw.

O'Rielly gets critisim for his skating but just didn't see it. He's got an aura about him in that he's not doing anything spectacular but he's Drury-like with his work on the ice. He never gives up on a play and seems to ignore obsticals in his way be it sticks or shoulders. He's not going to dance around defenses. He was really impressive.

Shattenkirk I've already mentioned but I will say he's got a nasty little shoulder fake on a breakaway where he head fakes before a heavy shot. He looks NHL ready but obviously won't be at training camp.

Duchene is really explosive. When he skates hard he skates hard for a longer time than a lot of other guys. Kind of like that crazy speed up move of Svatos on a penalty shot you just aren't expecting a player to make that burst when he does. His shot is really heavy and of course he's got outstanding puck handling skills. For some reason, it appeared to me that MD was gripping a little bit. I mean he was shooting the puck a ton was was totally snake-bit. The goalies were reading his shot and making stops and goals were kind of rare. It's only one day and a short one at that but Duchene kind of looked like he could use a little time to polish his finishing skills. He's been characterized as a sniper but he looks more like a play maker to me.

The thing I've learned about rookie camps and training camps is that you can get a good read on general skill sets but some guys elevate their games when the season starts and others deflate. Last year Brian Wilsie was killing it in training camp. He was hitting the water bottle and schooling the goaltenders. That's evidence enough that practice is well....practice. I was impressed with those four guys and that's about all you can say about it. There's a long way to go and their abilities will be tested more thoroughly against NHL calibur players in training camp.

I will say that I'm a bit more enthusiastic about the future after my short visit to development camp. Stoa is going to be really fun to watch next year.

Erie vs Brampton and a preview of the Avalanche future. Matt Duchene is magical in this game and...

Dario — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:22:56 -0000

O'Reilly VS Duchene (great stuff)

Erie vs Brampton and a preview of the Avalanche future.

Matt Duchene is magical in this game and Ryan O'Reilly shows some real moxy in the faceoff circle.