Tampa Bay Lightning	7 MT / 9 ET / 1 GMT	Colorado Avalanche
11-11-8	December 11th, 2009	17-10-6
30 pts	Pepsi Center	40 pts
11th in East	Denver, CO	5th in West

So, what'd I miss? As you know, I was given Wednesday night off by a bunch of slimy corporate choads. I can only assume that the Avalanche played hard on Tuesday and...whoa? Shutout by the Wild? Fifth place? Dullest game in the history of hockey? Yowsers, maybe I should be thanking the clowns at Versus and DirecTV.

Let's just pretend that Wednesday didn't happen, and say that the Avs' big December homestand starts tonight. With that in mind, the Avalanche return to the friendly confines of the Pepsi Center (population 11, 435 on Wednesday) to host the Tampa Bay Lightning. These teams played each other on November 30th with the Avalanche winning 3-0. This time, that crazy wild Lightning team may be without both Ryan Malone and Steve Stamkos, both of whom are day-to-day after getting knocked out of Wednesday game.

Meanwhile, the Avalanche are expected to get Craig Anderson back from a neck injury suffered in Florida. Anderson hasn't finished a game since...November 30th against the Lightning. Peter Budaj has been better-than-solid in Anderson's place (1.26 GAA, .956 Sv%), but that doesn't mean the Avalanche won't get a morale boost from the return of Anderson. Hey, maybe they'll be able to muster themselves to a level above listless tonight in his honor.

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Raw Charge

Where Is Taylor Arnason Today:

And what has Ryan Malone and Matt Hendrick's former St Cloud State teammate been up to recently? Trailor's Dinamo are currently on an extended home stand, so Tayler is no doubt spending much of his free time in their home city of Riga, Latvia. Tonight (well, today, given the different time zone), the Dinamo will host the Lada of Togliatti. On Sunday, the Dinamo of Riga host...the Dinamo of Minsk (I guess Dinamo is Russian for "Roughriders"). The club then has a 9-day break before traveling to Belarus to take on Minsk again to, once and for all, decide a victor in the Battle Of The Dinamo.

Still not much in the way of photos of Arnason in action (chance of that sentence quoted: about 95%), but we do have a nice description of his first two KHL goals:

Tyler Arnason had his first goal in Dinamo Riga colours in the third minute, taking the goal behind the net before reemerging to the goalie’s right catching him unaware.

Coach Julius Suplers was rewarded again soon after for giving Arnason more time on the ice when he had his second. In what has become one of his signature plays, Arnason moved the puck up the right before flicking it into the center in the hope of finding a Dinamo Riga stick. On this occasion he could not find the stick of Mike Iggulden but rather that of a Spartak defender who claimed the unenviable achievement of deflecting the puck into the back of his own net.

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

1 day ago: Minnesota Wild defenseman Marek Zidlicky, left, of the Czech Republic, joins right winger Cal Clutterbuck, center, in congratulating goalie Niklas Backstrom, of Finland, after the Wild's 1-0 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in an NHL hockey game in Denver on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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No clue what happened to the Avalanche last night. All I know is that when I went to bed, the Avalanche  were in 2nd place and now they are in 5th. I guess I wasn't the only one to take last night off...

This would normally be the spot in the day when I would preview the upcoming game for a certain team we all love. That game will be on this evening and just might be a key divisional match-up and could just mean the difference between 2nd place and 5th place in the conference. While this game may not exactly be must-win, it most certainly is must-see.

Unfortunately, the buffoons who run DirecTV and the pinheads who run Comcast still believe that the only way to resolve a difficult contract negotiation is to fuck over the fans. The selfish pricks in charge of these two corporate behemoths continue to value you so little that they refuse to come to an agreement to get Versus back onto the DirecTV airways. And, since the NHL apparently has either no clout or no interest in using said clout to fix this mess, suckers like me who shelled out $169.95 for the Center Ice package are STILL screwed when it comes to Vs hockey games. Hey, the NHL getting their money, right? Why would they care if I can't watch the game I want to watch?

So, since the incompetent baboons at Versus have been granted exclusive rights to broadcast tonight's game by the sellouts who run the NHL, I, the devoted hockey fan, am left in the dark. Thanks, guys! I admit, I'm a sucker, but I'm not so much of a sucker that I'm going to throw up free advertising for a game that I'm not worthy to watch. I guess I could huddle in front of my computer and watch one of the many free online feeds of the game that will no doubt be available for this game, but I'm not going to bother. I'm sitting tonight out. Healthy scratch. As far as I'm concerned, this game isn't happening, and there won't be any mention of the game from Mile High Hockey - no preview, no recap. I have reluctantly decided to put up a live thread tonight, so that I don't shut out those of you not screwed over by the greedy bastards. But that's all I'm doing. If you want to discuss tonight's game, I won't stop you. I just won't be taking part. I'll check back with you on Thursday, when the season resumes for me.

Oh, and thanks once again to DirecTV, Versus, Comcast and the NHL for fucking over the little people. I hope someone earns a wonderful holiday bonus for this atrocious, extended douchebaggery.

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

4 days ago: Colorado Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj deflects a shot on goal in the second period of an NHL hockey game against the St. Louis Blues, Monday, Dec. 7, 2009 in St. Louis.(AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

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My first instinct is to make this recap a long, sarcastic diatribe about how Peter Budaj has sucked his way into a 1.34 GAA and .959 save percentage over the last 3 games (and, by the way, 2 key road wins). However, since I don't really know what "diatribe" means, I'm going to play this one straight.

As I stated in my recap tonight, the Avs were going to need a strong game from Peter Budaj to beat the stingy Blues' defense, and they got exactly that. Budaj turned aside all 35 shots he face (including 17 in the final frame) to earn his 1st shutout of the season. His defense played well in front of him (they blocked 20 shots to the Blues 4) for most of the night (3rd period thoughts to follow below), but let's give the credit to the #1 star of the game; Budaj played  a hell of a game.

The Avs came out firing in this one, putting up 13 shots on Chris Mason in the 1st period. I saw mention somewhere that Joe Sacco is looking for his team to fire more, and Blues' reporter Bernie Federko was between the benches during the game and indeed said that Sacco was emphasizing this during the game. Despite the solid first period play, it looked like the Avalanche weren't going to have anything to show for it, especially when Mason made a stupendous glove save behind a screen on John-Michael Liles on a late first-period powerplay. Thankfully, on the faceoff immediately after this save, the Avs won the draw, got the puck back to Liles who dished to Kyle Quincey who fired a shot/pass to the net that Chris Stewart deflected into the top corner with just 11 seconds to go in the first.

That would be enough, but the Avs would tack on a few more. At 6:08 of the 2nd, Stastny scored a controversial goal set up by Wolski and Stewart. Wolski took advantage of a sloppy line change by the Blues and carried the puck in down the left wing. The Blues were scrambling to get back in position, and Stewart found space in front of the net. Wolski and Stewart exchanged passed and then David Backes cleared Wolski out of the crease...but he ended up running Wolski into Mason. Stastny came in late and tapped the puck into an empty net. The Blues were outraged, feeling that Wolski interfered with Mason. I've given up trying to figure out what is goalie interference and what isn't, but let's just say I was kind of surprised that one was allowed to stand, even if it's Backes' own stupid fault that Mason was taken out.

The Avs made it 3-0 later in the period, with Stewart deflecting a point shot into the net for the second time in the game (this time, it was Liles taking the shot). Stewart picked up his first 2-goal game of his career. He has 12 points in his last 9 games. Perhaps more importantly, he has 8 points in the 5 games since the David Jones injury, helping to fill a critical void. Matt Duchene effectively iced the game in the 3rd when Wojtek Wolski intercepted a pass and bumped it ahead to Duchene who skated in and fired a wrister through Mason's 5-hole. That goal was Downy soft on Mason's part, but was still a pretty slick shot for Duchene (who otherwise had a quiet night). It was also Wolski's 3rd point in the game. He's been taking a lot of heat this year, but he now has 30 points in 32 games, well on his way to a career year (his high is 50 points). As of right now, he's 19th in the league in scoring, tied with guys like Iginla, Nash and Zetterberg.

The Avs play in the 3rd period continues to mystify me. Actually, after the strong 1st period, the Avs managed just 9 shots the rest of the way- 6 in the 2nd and 3 in the 3rd. Luckily, they made those shots count and Budaj made some big saves to preserve the shutout, but it wasn't very pretty to watch. The Avs didn't look sharp in the 3rd - pucks were turned over in the neutral zone, battles to the puck were lost, etcetera etcetera. I wonder, could it be a matter of fatigue? While I like the concept of Joe Sacco using the guys who've played the best in the 3rd, I wonder if using just 3 lines in the final frame is the right idea, especially with a lead. Marek Svatos, Matt Hendricks and David Koci had about 4 minutes of ice time in the 3rd period. While those guys aren't exactly Selke award candidates, a couple of timely shifts in the 3rd to spell our other players might help. Maybe it's not fatigue, but I'd really like for someone to figure it out soon so that it can be fixed; the Avs won't always have an ace like Peter Budaj between the pipes. (and...scene).

Colorado Avalanche	6 MT / 8 ET / 1 GMT	St Louis Blues
16-9-6	December 7th, 2009	12-10-5
38 pts	Scottrade Center	29 pts
4th in West	St Louis, MO	t-12th in West

It's almost over. Tonight, the Avalanche will play in their 21st road game while they've played just 11 games at the Pepsi Center. No other team has played more road games or less home games at this point in the season. After tonight, the Avalanche will have 50 games remaining and 30 of those will be at home (where the Avalanche are 7-2-2). When we saw this schedule this summer, we thought the Avalanche might be out of contention by this point. They've done far better than expected, though, and currently sit 4th in the Western Conference. While they are falling back to the pack a bit, their 9-7-4 record on the road is better than expected (and keep in mind, that includes 4 sets of back-to-back road games).

The travel schedule gets a lot easier from here on in. The Avalanche play just one more road game between tomorrow and Christmas. They have a two 3-game road trips in late-December and early-January and then from January 11th until the playoffs, the don't have any road trips longer than 2 games. And four of the 5 remaining 2-game road trips are back-to-backs (figures), so these guys will be spending a LOT of time at home the rest of the way. Is that going to be a good thing for the team? We'll have to wait and see.

They still have to play tonight, though. The Avalanche are playing a fairly mediocre team in the Blues. While the Avs have already gathered 5 points on their 5-game road trip, this is really a "must-win" kind of game. Why? The Avalanche are currently 1 point behind the Flames in the standings and 1 point ahead of the Kings in the standings. Want to guess who the Flames and Kings are playing tonight? Yep. Each other. A regulation loss by Colorado and they either lose ground to Calgary or get passed by the Kings.

The Blues haven't been able to score much this year, but they've been able to keep other teams off the scoreboard with the 9th lowest goals against average in the league. Chris Mason and Ty Conklin have both put up great numbers this year and oh, by the way, the Blues' penalty kill is 4th best in the league. The Avalanche haven't exactly been lighting up the lamp lately, so goals will definitely be at a premium this evening. Even with a rock-solid Peter Budaj between the pipes (Anderson is still out), the Avalanche will need another strong effort from him and the defense in front as this has all the makings of another 3-2 type hockey game.

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