Well, this is interesting. It's the latest 2010 NHL Mock Draft. The entire link (below) is behind a pay-wall (fellow ESPN insiders- go for it), so I lifted the pertinent information. Here is what they had for the Avs.

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog?name=nhl_draft&id=5043653

No. 19 - Colorado Avalanche

D- Jared Tinordi, USNTDP

"The Avalanche reloaded up front with Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly, so they can look at the blue line. At almost 6-6, Tinordi is bigger than his father, Mark, a former NHL D-man, but his father was much tougher. Some scouts want to see more of the father's game out of Jared at the Under-18's. USNTDP goalie Jack Campbell might be an intriguing option."

A little T.E.A analysis here: Yet another example of surface-deep hockey analysis from ESPN here, as almost anybody who knows a damned thing about hockey and particularly the Avalanche knows that we have a glut of talented, puck-moving defensemen in the system. I don't know about you, but seeing another "soft" blueliner drafted would be annoying. If we bring in a defensemen, it better damn well be a guy like McIlrath with some serious sandpaper.

Damn ESPN hockey "coverage." Thank the heavens for Dater, Jori and MHH.

Anyway, I am certainly in favor of going with a forward, but I thought this would be an interesting addition to our burgeoning discussion on the upcoming draft.

Thoughts?

Ok, ladies and gentlemen, I guess I'm stepping in for one more game wrap up. Apologies beforehand. It was a big night for the Boys in Burgundy, with the Avs finally managing to muster up a solid performance, and they beat their rivals from Calgary with an all-around hellacious effort from everyone on the bench. Arnason included. Here's what went down.

The first period of the sixth and final clash between these two bitter divisional rivals played out like most of the games between the Lames and the Boys in Burgundy do: lots of shots, lots of hits, and a nice little scrap. Ian Laperriere squared off with Mark Giordano, with Lappy rassling him to the ice to get the big W. The Flame-outs got started off the scoring with Rene Bourque putting in a rebound, with the primary assist going to to tod f. bertuzi. That's right, I don't even spell that punk's name right anymore. Hell, I don't even capitalize it. Anyway, the Avs responded in a timely fashion with Marek Svatos speeding into the slot and scoring on the white-hot Miikka Kiprusoff to bring the contest even at one. Everybody's favorite whipping boy and least favorite third-line center picked up the lone assist.The period ended with some back and forth action, but no scoring, leaving the two teams locked at one all.

With Adrian Aucoin sitting in the box  from a penalty called late in the first period, The Duke tapped a loose puck in from the side of the crease. The Flames seemed to lose sight of the puck, perhaps because Ryan Smyth was raising complete hell directly in front of the Calgary crease. Aucoin redeemed himself less then two minutes later, scoring a goal to bring the game even once again.  But the Avs managed to take the lead about a minute later, when Ruslan Salei scored his third of the season, with Smyth getting another assist.  It's nice to know that as long as he can walk, he'll bring it against Calgary. But later in the period, Smyth's old nemesis from many Battles of Alberta of seasons past, Jarome Iginla beat Boods with that trademark hard wrister for the 394th of his career, and 19th of the season. After that, business picked up, and so did the hitting. However, a few scrums and chippy moments aside, each team kept rushing the puck up the ice, and the Avs capitalized on a two-on-two rush, with Marek Svatos inching his way past Dion Phadouche and tipping in a beautiful cross-crease pass from Cody McLeod. Phadouche was straight beat up the ice, apparently lost in his thoughts about his choice of sloppy seconds, now of Sean Avery infamy. Svatos, meanwhile, is beginning to resemble that 30-goal from of several years ago, as he has played exceptionally well in the past few games. Towards the end of the period, Cody McCormick was called for hooking, but the Avalanche managed to kill the penalty, and went into the locker room with a 4-3 lead, twenty minutes away from stopping that nasty losing streak.

The teams entered the third with 26 shots on goal apiece, and that trend continued. The Avs brought some heavy pressure early in the period, barely giving the Flame-outs time to breathe. However, the boys from Calgary soon began to match the intensity, leading to a an exciting period. (Sidenote from third: Jesus, Kerry Fraser is officiating his 1,800th NHL game. His first game was the opening night for the 1980 edition of Colorado Rockies. That's 29 years! How much hair spray has he used in his career? Goodness gracious, you could envelop the planet with massive fireball with all that hair spray and a zippo. Anyway, congratulations, Kerry) Anyway, Smyth drew a Flame-outs penalty in the middle of the period, as Giordano was called for hooking as Smyth wrapped around the net. Giordano actually made a nice play breaking up a cross-crease pass to The Duke just seconds earlier. During the powerplay, Boods made a few nice stops during a Lames rush, and the Avs never managed to get anything going with the man-advantage. Almost immediately after the end of that penalty, Brett Clark high-sticked Jarome Iginla, giving the Red Sweaters a powerplay. During the kill, Ian Laperriere freight-trained Phadouche, and let him know about it for quite some time afterward.  Lappy finished with 9 hits. The Avs killed the penaly, and Budaj made a pair of slick looking saves on some heavy point shots. The two goalies traded saves for a bit, with Kiprusoff stoning The Mullet on a breakaway and stopping McLeod on a point blank opportunity with two minutes and change left in the game. Kiprusoff got caught in pickle, trying to leave the ice for an extra attacker. The Avs didn't score, but the Flames were called for too many men on the ice- Der Fuhrer Keenan's face was redder than the Flames' home sweaters. This led to an unsportsmanlike penalty, giving the Avs a 5 on 3 advantage with less than a minute to go. Despite this, the Flames managed some serious pressure with four attackers, but Budaj shut them down, and the Avs finished with the W.

Budaj was a stud tonight, with 36 saves, several of them jaw-droppers. Svatos walked away with the first star. The Avs played a great game, out-hitting a physical Calgary team significantly. Also, lost in the list of terrific performances of Boods, Smyth, and Svatos was the incredible game by Baron von Wolski, who played textbook defense in the third, taking the fight to Iginla and getting physical, Also, Ty...Tyl......um, uh......Tyler Arnason play.....played.......*whimpers* well. Whoa, almost got domed by a flying pig there. Satan may well be ordering ice skates right about now. Anyway, the Avs put together a great, sixty minute effort to beat one of the hottest teams in the NHL, in entertaining fashion as well. Well, that's all for tonight folks. I am relatively certain you will no longer be subjected to random thoughts from the mind of a teenage maniac, so I bid you adieu. It was fun while it lasted. Many thanks for reading and putting up with me, and go Avs.

Well, I'm stepping in and handling the post game wrap up of the latest Avalanche debacle, in place of our preoccupied and beloved fearless leaders. This one is going to be relatively straightforward, since this homestand is becoming uglier and uglier by the day.

With the recent lack of success, as well as the lack of potency Joe recently mentioned, everyone's favorite recycled coach decided to mix up the lines today, splitting up the only two players who ever actually, you know, deliver a consistent offensive effort in Milan Hejduk and Ryan Smtyh. The Mullet skated alongside Baron von Wolski and Marek Svatos for the majority of the game, while The Duke took his place alongside the two kids on the roster, T.J. Hensick and Chris Stewart.

Early in what would prove to be a relatively chippy affair, Cody McLeod paired off with Steve Montador during a scrum behind the Anaheim net and administered a solid beating, despite Montador's best efforts to seatbelt McLeod. Cody would periodically stop by throughout the rest of the game and say hello to Montador, even lighting him up in the corner a bit later in the period. Several minutes later, Chris Pronger took a penalty, and the Avs capitalized on the man advantage, with John-Michael Liles blasting the puck past Jonas Hiller for the game's opening goal, with assists going to the young'ins, Hensiiiiick and Stewie.

However, the Ducks answered back in timely fashion, when George "Hands of Iron" Parros attempted to kill the puck and accidentally scored by slipping in a rebound for his team to tie the game back up. The goal came during a delayed penalty from everybody's favorite offseason acquisiton Darcy Tucker. Several minutes later, Marek Svatos' face assaulted Corey Perry's stick, and the Avs received a four minute powerplay by way of the double minor. The Avs failed to get anything significant going, although Peter Budaj stoned Chris Kunitz on a shorthanded breakaway during the second minor after Brett Clark gave the puck away. After the penalty ended, Ryan Getzlaf, who assisted on the goal scored by the Geico caveman earlier in the game, rocketed a one timer from the low slot past a screened Budaj with four minutes left to give the Bad Disney Movies a one goal lead, which they took into the locker room. The period closed with a few more scrums, and rookie Bobby Ryan and Parros managing to run into each other with nobody else around them, knocking each other off their feet. Haven't seen that one in the NHL for awhile.

The early part of the second period was rather uneventful, but during a Ryan Smyth penalty in the middle of the period, Milan Hejduk stole the puck from Bret Hedican (who had a rough game, later leaving bloodied thanks to Stewie's elbow) and wristed the puck past Hiller to tie up the game for the Boys in Burgundy. Less than two minutes later, everyone's favorite red head Cody McLeod (as opposed to Darcy and Arnason, our red-headed stepchildren at this point) broke into the Anaheim zone and dropped the puck back to Lappy, who let a wrist shot go and beat Hiller upstairs to the glove side.

This game had some serious back and forth play, and two minutes later, the Mighties evened the game up, as Scott Niedermayer one-timed a Bobby Ryan feed past Boods with The Mullet sitting in the penalty box. The Avs received a powerplay chance minutes later, but that was eradicated when The Duke was called for an interference penalty. The Avs managed to kill it, but Ben Guite (most unfortunately, sans his amazing pornstache) was called for one of those idiotic and pointless delay of game penalties. The Avs killed that one too, and the rest of the period went smoothly, with little else significant happening.

The Avs started the third with a powerplay, thanks to a Brett Festerling penalty at the tail end of the second period. However, the Avalanche failed to capitalize, and the Ducks came on strong immediately after the penalty. The pressure lead to a Teemu Selanne goal, which would prove to be the winning marker. Despite the Avs putting the pressure on late in the period, with Granato even reuniting The Duke and The Mullet alongside Baron von Wolski, the Avs just couldn't tie the contest. They came close at the very end, when Marek Svatos backhanded a Smitty pass from behind the net, but a screened Hiller had luck on his side, as it hit his chest and bounced off and away harmlessly.

The Avs played decently in this one, and managed to hang steady with the Ducks, but in the end they just were not able to come up with that tying marker. Ryan Getzlaf walked away with the first star of the game, with a goal and two assists to his name in the matinee contest. Meanwhile, the Avs dropped to 1-5 in their past six, with all of the games being played at home. Some homestand, eh? That little light of playoff hope is beginning to dim, in a hurry. Well, there’s the post-game wrap up for today. Thanks for reading. Stay classy, MHH.