SB Nation User Blog: Tommelot

Is Terry Frei turning into an actual reporter?

Tommelot — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:23:35 -0000

Is Terry Frei turning into an actual reporter?

In his last article he has some very nice words regarding TG and Arnason. I would've assumed he'd somehow try and cover up anything which is remotely interesting or meaningful to the Avalanche, but it seems this little gem slipped his eye:

Arnason not up to par.

Granato reiterated that center Tyler Arnason, a healthy scratch against Nashville on Saturday, sat because "we have to dress the 12 forwards that give us the best chance to win. I didn't think 'Arny' was one of those 12 forwards."

Asked if he still was an Arnason defender, as he has been in the past, Granato responded: "For him to be successful, he has to play a certain way. He has to find a way to be one of those best 12 forwards. Going into the last game, he wasn't."

I know what's going on here. Frei and Dater somehow change identity each year they work for the Denver Post!

"I guess I've had some chances I haven't put in," Arnason said. Best. Quote. Ever.

Tommelot — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:33:15 -0000

"I guess I've had some chances I haven't put in," Arnason said.

Best. Quote. Ever.

Northwest best Western division?

Tommelot — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:26:10 -0000

Hey, I know it's a little early in the season to start shouting things like this, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how the western divisions stack up:

Division / Points / Total games played / Points per game

Central / 48 / 43 / 1.116

Northwest / 49 / 39 / 1.256

Pacific / 45 / 43 / 1.047

It makes sense that the pts/g collumn is a little over 1, as that's (points team 1 + points team 2)/2 , when it's a regular time victory.

There are 2 reasons why the pts/g collumn are higher than 1. The first one being the obvious OT victories, and the second one being games won against other divisions.

I know the Northwest is always known as one of the tougher divisions, but do you think this trend will persist throughout the season, or is it all just a fluke? For one thing, the new schedule has helped out quite a bit in comparing division regarding their dominance in the NHL.

Gameday preview from Sabres

Tommelot — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:42:17 -0000

I realised the Avs are playing another SBNation team tonight, the Buffalo Sabres. DieByTheBlade already has their gameday thread up and are looking to hone in on our PK weakness.

This is probably gonna be the first real test the Avalanche have had since the start of this season, and it's going to be a hard fight.

This all won't matter as we'll be scoring a gazillion goals tonight against Ryan Miller, a very mediocre goalie from the east. Besides, Budaj showed great poise last game, so we don't have to worry about anything, right?

My prediction is that we're gonna win this one.

Caps - Flames

Tommelot — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:45:02 -0000

Caps - Flames

I know this can be conceived as a bit irrelevant, but this must be the oddest box score I've seen in my entire life. Let's look at the array of amazing things on there:

# R. Bourque got 17 PIM after 7 minutes of play
# Steckl found out the hard way that throwing a stick towards your goalie is worth a 2 minute minor.*
# Galgary won their 2nd game of the season. Anyone remember who they won their 1st against?
# Bertha saw more icetime than Ovie
# Theo gets 3rd star?! *cough*TRAITOR*cough*
# 14 different minor penalties??

* Although He probably threw it with a lot of anger towards Theo, as he's most likely not happy with Theo

Damn, Mirtle is on to us

Tommelot — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:13:21 -0000

Damn, Mirtle is on to us

Mirtle is one of the few proper blog journalists on the web, and he is spreading the word that the Avs are gonna go places this offseason.

Solid.

Outlook is bleak for Budaj

Tommelot — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 11:32:01 -0000

Okay, maybe it's not that bleak, but when I was reading up Jori's prospects website, my eyes glanced over this little gem:

Scrimmage #2: Grey versus Blue

Grey -- Budaj
Blue -- Bacashihua

Period 1

Blue Goal -- Arnason (Montgomery)

Tyler "I prefer rugby goals" Arnason scored a goal! ON BUDAJ!

Of course I wasn't there to see the goal itself, with me being in Europe and all, but can someone please elaborate how this could've happened? Did Budaj fall asleep on his glove-arm halfway through the game or something?

Brisebois re-signs in Montreal

Tommelot — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 09:51:04 -0000

Brisebois re-signs in Montreal

Who'd a thought that Brisebois could re-sign with the Canadiens last year? This year he's done it again!
A D we couldn't stand to see in Avs colours, still lands a steady job. I'm dumbstruck

Michael Peca is no Avs fan

Tommelot — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:28:25 -0000

Directly ripped from sportingnews.com is this article where Michael Peca says the Colombus Blue Jackets are the new hockey messiahs and they'll crack the 100 points mark.

I don't mind optimism coming from a player, but then Mr. Peca goes and replies this to the question "If you're gonna make the play-offs, who isn't?"

"I think the teams that may not be the shoo-ins this year, fighting for a spot will be the Minnesotas, the Colorados."

Why'd you have to go and do that? Now I'm gonna have to rip on your team for the rest of this article. So here it goes:

The Blue Jackets franchise NEVER made the play-offs in their history.

Did they ever come close, you ask?
No. Only once did they crack the 80-point mark and that was last season.

At least there's a growing trend in the points they scored, compared to previous years.
One could make that assessment, but whenever your team only wins 22 games in their 2nd franchise season, there's really no other way to go but up.

Michael Peca is a god in my eyes OMGROFL. How could you possibly be negative towards him?
Michael Peca is a 0.56 ppg player in the regular season who only played 70+ games per season 6 times in his entire career.

At least he florishes in the play-offs, so this year will be saved as soon as the Blue Jackets make the play-offs!
Guess again. He's 0.37 ppg in the play-offs. That's ALMOST as good as Tyler "Play-off GOD" Arnason's 0.38 ppg!

At least he's got more play-off experience than Rick Nash
Yeah, but is that a good thing?

Nash is only a 0.73 ppg player by the way. That's some impressive stats!

At least they have Ron Hainsy. Their 4th most productive player last year, was a defenseman.

Finally I would like to thank the Blue Jackets for giving us Avs fans some perspective. When our leader and god was doubting wether or not to return and with the quiet off-season, you showed us that things could be A LOT worse.

Arny has some serious shooting issues

Tommelot — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:22:29 -0000

Arny has some serious shooting issues

2007-08 REGULAR SEASON
- Tallied 10 goals and 21 assists in 70 games.
- Finished second on the club with 179 shots.

He really needs to get his Sh*t together. A 3rd line center needs higher shooting percentages than 5.6%

What is he still doing with the Avs?