wflan
Feb 28, 2009 Mar 28, 2012 20 1028
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Colorado Avalanche
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Kevin Porter gets Shanabanned for FOUR games for the knee he laid on David Booth.
Explanation Video
The video shows a really cringe inducing freeze frame of the moment of impact. All said, I still think it was a poorly executed shoulder check that Porter was out of position on. Before the Shanahammer was brought down with great vengeance and furious anger, he mentioned that Porter's completely clean career was taken into account. Four games for an unintentional knee is leniency. Yeesh.
This is what I propose a new interpretation of the Avs jersey should look like. The original style with the jagged trim was a great thing, but the current one is...less so. I am also skeptical that such a look could be emulated/recreated in the current RBK hegemony. SO, a new look.
Our previous/current thirds have been somewhere between a Rangers emulation and a classic Oiler look. I tried to take that as a stepping off point and bring it forward a bit, without completely into the two trends in jerseys (minimal like the bolts or leaves), and simple with a contrasting shoulder area (like on our current third, actually).
This looks great with the foot on the front, but our third is too fresh to get replaced, and the A defs should stay the primary logo :)
How to correctly pronounce "Gabriel Landeskog" - a part of a very strangely hilarious series of videos.
Avalanche All-Time Points Leaders
by wflan on Jan 25, 2011 6:15 AM EST
on Mile High Hockey
This year might be a big year for two of our favorite Avs for moving on up the all-time points list.
Hedjuk is set to eclipse Foppa (unless he gets his Swedish ass in a unipron real fast) with just five more points and move to number two all time (!!)
Stats is also really close to bumping Adam Deadmarsh down the list, and in about 70% of the games no less. A little more after the jump...
Tyler Arnason, as enthused as ever.
I loled loudly when I saw this (Ryan O'Reilly is tagged in it, and it appears to be public). Thought you all might like to see it, and use it as ammo for the next epic photochop.
From this lady's fb profile
over 1 year ago
wflan
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Hey Everybody in Vancouver Tonight
by wflan on Nov 4, 2010 5:20 PM EDT
on Mile High Hockey
I get the impression that a lot of MHHers are in Vancouver but I've never actually tracked anyone down. I propose we meet up for tonight's game.
How the boys in burgundy & blue will score this year
by wflan on Oct 1, 2010 6:09 PM EDT
on Mile High Hockey
SO Bodog.com has their hockey betting odds up and there are some interesting things about the Avs:
The basics are that the Avs are pegged to score 89.5 points in the regular season. For reference, the Canucks are supposedly going to score as many as Chicago (106.5) and the Calgary "great if you look at corsi" Flames are going to edge out our Avs with a blazing 92.5 points. How our individual players did below...
About tickets for Tuesday
by wflan on Apr 19, 2010 4:10 PM EDT
on Mile High Hockey
If you want to buy tickets, jump on it fast!
In a previously unreleased snapshot, Peter Forsberg is seen here directly following the famous March 26th 2007 brawl between the Avs and Les Ailes
Craig Anderson makes a great, non-chalant toe save, immediately followed by Matt Duchene roofing the only goal of the skills competition, which had Louongo going the wrong way, then falling on his face...
Duchene's first goal was against the Wings and he scores to clinch a playoff berth–amazing!
Gold Medal Jersey Dilemma
by wflan on Feb 28, 2010 3:00 AM EST
on Mile High Hockey
Should I wear Stastny (Burgundy Unipron) or Drury (Old 3rd, #37)? Last time I rocked Drury, Drury rocked...
Such a dilemma... (PS'd Images after the jump)
A Longtime Avs Fans' Favoite Arrested...
by wflan on Jan 15, 2010 2:36 AM EST
on Mile High Hockey
A LONGTIME Avs fans' favorite 'Cheli' was arrested in late December for speeding in Chicago...
The Boys - An Interpretative View
by wflan on Nov 18, 2009 1:49 PM EST
on Mile High Hockey
In honor of their performances last night, I did a few photochops. Enjoy.
The Duke Update (mo' bling)
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Hudler Screwing the Wings Cap Stich
by wflan on Jul 6, 2009 7:40 PM EDT
on Mile High Hockey
Hudler is asking himself if he should stay and force others to go–the wings have 11 forwards signed (needing two), 8 d-men, & a little over $1.6 million left for another forward and Hudler, who will probably get at least $3 million in arbitration. Long story short, Wings loose an essential player (there's nobody cheap they want to dump) if they keep or loose Jiri Hudler..
http://redwingscorner.blogspot.com/2009/07/red-wings-cap-dance.html
Versteeg Soon to be a Free Agent?
by wflan on Jul 6, 2009 7:12 PM EDT
on Mile High Hockey
From Kukla's Korner: a story about the blackhakws mishandling of qualifying offers for a handful of players. Most notably for the Avs, 23 year old Kris Versteeg will become a free agent if the grievance filed by the NHLPA goes through. Five of the signings by the hawks chose to continue, but Versteeg and several others did not.
This may be an opportunity for them to simply get paid better by Chicago, but as free agents, other GMs, hoping to make up to their fans for trading (or neglecting) away most of their teams' talented fan favorites , might jump on the opportunity to add a talented young left-winger. These GMs would probably need to have a decent amount of cap room however as Versteeg is coming off of a 53 point rookie season, with a very healthy 15% success rate on shots and more assists than goals.
Okay, this is bizarre–look at the upper left. They have Darcy Tucker tee shirts but no Sakic...
Love/Hate - Playoffs
by wflan on Apr 16, 2009 8:01 PM EDT
on Mile High Hockey
My Musings...
by wflan on Apr 13, 2009 5:57 PM EDT
on Mile High Hockey
Take em or leave em, hopefully it'll be food for thought. Warning: critical nostalgia ahead...
32-44-5 with 69 points
In 2001-2002 we were 45-28-8-1 with 99 points and the fewest goals allowed (169 on the season, about 2 per game). Roy was 1.94 & .925 on the year (career bests as far as I can tell), compared to the team 2.06. We weren't known for our killer D: our D-men were Rick Berry, Rob Blake, Greg De Vries, Adam Foote, Todd Gill, Darius Kasparitus, Brayn Muir, Martin Skoula, and Pascal Trepanier. Footer and Blake are obvs a great top two, but that leaves 50-70% of games' ice time without them...
My point here is that there have been major changes in key personnel and (importantly) in the system. Budaj faced 27.3 shots per game this year. The year we (Roy) allowed the league's fewest goals, he got 9 shutouts, but still faced an 25.9 sh/g.
Our 99 points in 2002 isn't that much of a standout, especially today. 45 wins however came with 8 ties. This year, we'd probably be in the 105-110 point range with over 50 wins, putting us right there with the Bruins, Sharks, Ailes, and Caps (this year).
As bad as this year has been, the new NHL, our lack of goal scoring and our goalie sitch are as significant as anything.
One more thing. We got 2.2 pts/win in 2002, and despite the new system, we've only managed 2.15. Our 32 wins is in reality a generous stat...
Goalies, Past and Past(?) - Patrick Roy has a career NHL save % of .912 (since they started compiling shots, at least :p ). In the mid-nineties, Roy had a handful of seasons that were awful statistically–around a .90x or .89x save percentage, and flirting with 3.0 GAA. Budaj is not strong statistically, and Roy has had some staggering stats, but that's not what makes St. Patty the greatest. It's his clutch ability, his leadership, and his presence off ice/in the heads of opponents. Budaj has talent and is a really nice guy. I like him, but he's lacking in the role he tried to play.
Budaj is a great person and I like him a lot as a player. His rebounds and soft goals make him anything but relaxing to watch, but he can get crazy hot. This April, he played four games, got one win, and averaged 63 minutes. In those 63 minutes per game, he went 0.96 GAA and 0.968 SV%.
Minnesota is a relevant example for goaltending here. TSN statistically analyzed the league's D-men by things like ±, take-aways, GWG, penalty draw-take ratios, etc. and had Minnesota in the basement (26th?). Somehow they've allowed 200 goals, only 4 more than Boston. They play boring hockey and rarely win–a goalie who routinely does headstands doesn't mean salvation.
Playoffs - We've lost in the second round three times in the last 5 years. The Sharks, Ducks, the Les Ailes were pretty strong teams to lose to in the semis but regardless, it's been a while since we started firing people and generally headhunting when we didn't play to the conference finals (it was a fun debate to see who thought it was going to be Detroit and who picked Dallas...). The 'Blame Foppa/Calgary' year and this aside, we haven't been spectacular past 82 for a while.
Goal Differential - We have five players with positive differentials on the year, two of whom combined for 9 games... Of those with more than 50 games, McCormick (55: -5), Salei (70: -4), Lappy (74: 0) and Guite (50: +2) are our leaders in producing on the ice with Tjarmin Ultra being a notable +1 after 37 games. I'd love to blame our D-men for problems, using this stat as a nail in the e-coffin, BUT the standouts at the bad side of the ± stat are Chris Stewart (53: -18) and Tyler Arnason (71: -16). They had an average of 12:19 and 13:18 a game respectively.
The others at the bad end (incl. the Duke) all put in about 20 mins a night so if you're on for a third of the game plus special teams, it's hard not to take a hard hit in the ±
We scored 199 goals and allowed 257 compared to the league average of 238.8 (both). We're about 18 off of average on the D side but 40 short in goals scored, from average.
The Lower Lines - Something I think we're severely lacking in right now is a competent supporting cast. That's partly because this year, out 3rd and 4th no- liners have moved up and had to play in greatly expanded roles (I was pretty impressed with the Lake Erie Avalanche, to be truthful). Using the 01-02 season as a yardstick again, Foppa was out all year and our points leaders were Sakic (79), Blake (56), Tanguay (48), Reinprecht (46), Drury (46), Hedjuk (44), and Skoula (31).
This is a fair number of above 40 pt -ers, but this year's top ten Bruin point leaders ALL have 42 or more
This suggests that the top folks weren't leading as dramatically as you'd expect. Despite this, we managed to tack on 21 playoff games. In my opinion, the grind lines of Ricci & Co are what make the 90s Avs so successful–everybody was crapping themselves over 19 and 21 then the rest of team comes on and beats your top guys up and down the ice in effort, physically, and at the least, they eke out a good ± on the year.
We don't have that anymore.
The Top Guys - We've had a lack of leadership in most every piece of ice and concrete we've made our domain this year. SoS is god, but lit neither himself nor his linemates on fire when he came back and I think that Smyth has still been a flop. His 59 points are at best on par career wise and he was in a place to rake in a lion's share of the team's points and lead strongly in the locker room/on the rink. I'm not convinced of that, despite the obvious effort he put in. The Duke works best as a sniper someone who makes the passes, snipes, and gets open while teams are distracted by his linemates. I think Milan did well this year and he's one of two players over 80 games. That being said, asking a pair of wingers with the styles that Smyth and Hedjuk have to carry a team can't turn out that well...
To reel this back in, we've been hurt by the new system but what I see as our biggest deficits are in our team's structure–the type of top guys we have and the role of the grinders are off IMO. Our goaltending is distinctly sub par, but Budaj does have talent, which brings us to leadership–we're hurting for it all over. Injuries have been absolutely brutal, but how we appear to opponents and our (dubious) ability to score goals have been killer. Developing the young guys we've seen so much of, making a good draft, and getting someone without a 19, 21, 23, 26, or 94 on em who can command attention form the opponent while producing are key.
Finally, we've been burdened by bad contracts and average draft picks. This hole is harder to crawl out of, but PL and whoever follows him will hopefully be up to the job. I expect us to be able to make the playoffs (bottom half of them...) next year and have FAR fewer boneheaded calls from the office/bench. Optimism?
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Leahy/Yahoo: Is it considered 'tanking it' if...
by wflan on Apr 6, 2009 3:18 AM EDT
on Mile High Hockey
...you can barely fill a lineup
Is it considered 'tanking it' if you can barely fill a lineup? by Sean Leahy
Pretty good article about what ails us this season, plus jibblescribbits gets a good quote in re: cronyism, complete with a mispeeling...
Rumors have been floated all season that former Colorado great Patrick Roy would leave the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and take the reins as head coach. (Thereby increasing the number of line brawls in the NHL.)
A Stiff Upper Lip?
by wflan on Apr 4, 2009 1:34 AM EDT
on Mile High Hockey
So I got a first row ticket to Sunday's game in Vancouver for Christmas. I was excited to see the crew beat up on (my university's) home team. Ti4T conflict of interest and out usually strong showing against Van aside, I've got a boatload and a half of school work for next week. Thoughts on attending? I've never been on the glass, but this situationally seems like a sketch time to pop that cherry. Time to study and cash in the ticket or make like a brit an persevere the crap I'll defs be getting? If I go, Drury 3rd or new Statsny jersey?
... if only
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