I was browsing Puck Daddy and noticed the headline "Who's gonna overpay for Semin, and then regret it?" The article talked about how the Caps current payroll might force Semin to take a pay cut if he wants to stay in DC, and obviously there are going to be a lot of teams out there who will be able to offer him a lot more money. Personally, I think the overinflated contracts that have been given out lately are ridiclious, especially in length, but I think we should stay on the lookout for a proven first line left-winger. I don't know much about Semin and can't really picture a Semin-Stastny-Stewart line so I was wondering what you all thought of this as a possibility?

Note: my title is a play off the PD article, I don't want to hand a Kovalchuck sized contract to anybody. Not even Lord Howard himself.

Also, do any of you have any ideas of decent left wingers we might be seeing on the market next year? Our first line seems so... incomplete at the moment. I can only dream about the player who will compliment Stewart and Stastny well enough to form a league feared first line. (ParisePariseParise)

The IIHF World Championship- apparently more than 77,000 people care. (Don't tell Dater.)

While we're either continuing our playoff watching or starting our hockey-free season early, the rest of the world (I think) is engaged in the IIHF World Championship in Germany. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure what's going on over there. But knowing some of our boys are over there got me a little interested. So I decided to check out the IIHF site and I come bearing pictures and information!

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I made them this and even joined to post it (despite my vow to not join other communities), but there's a pesky 2 day wait!

I just want to let them know that the majority of the hockey world is thanking them right now. Despite the bad blood from our series with them (the blood from Galli's face) I am very pleased that they eliminated the Evil Empire. I will only root for them in the next round if they play Vancouver (unlikely) but for today I will allow myself to feel affection for them.

I vote we make one to keep around for easy access (in bed?)! Well, even if not I thought I'd post up my contributions- I have a hard enough time keeping track of these in my photobucket account! (Warning: Some are creepy/ not that funny but hey I tried, ok?)

Anderson:

[Derek here, I'd like to thank xskatebakerrx, as well as everyone else, for all of these amazing photochops.]

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After realizing that when I try and use my digital camera to take pictures during warmups I get about 1 good shot for every 100. For the game on Sunday I took my video camera and just held it to the glass for all of warmups, hoping I'd catch a good shot, or at least something funny.

I didn't get a ton of great video because 1) I wasn't looking at my camera because I wanted to watch what was going on- I also didn't have the camera pointed in the same direction as my face and) every time a guy got close enough for a good shot I felt like I was being too creeper status and would film something else, haha.

That being said, I caught some funny things but I wish I had video of Duchene totally rocking out. He was strumming his stick like a guitar and singing along to the music, haha.

Hendricks was standing to my left and out of nowhere, Galiardicus just smashes into him. I only caught it on the camera because I had been too busy staring at my future second husband Wilson.

Stoa had a good reaction.

Galiardicus looking... special...

Duchene looking like 4/20 came early.

Don't stick out your tongue at me!

Tucker skated over and sort of bear hugged Dutchy who had that interesting reaction. Yip also has a good face there and I like the general mayhem of the scene.

Radar doing a good tough guy face.

Yeah, I have no idea. (Neither does Wilson.)

Quincey in an interesting position...

From the Avalanches 4/8 Mailbag:

Hello, Brandon Yip. It’s great to see you back playing after your shoulder injury. I’d like to hear your thoughts on a couple of your former (and hopefully future) teammates from Boston University, Kevin Shattenkirk and Colby Cohen. What can you tell us about their games?
Jocelyn from Denver, Colorado

As you probably heard, Jocelyn, the Avalanche signed both Shattenkirk and Cohen to entry-level contracts this past Saturday. There are many unique parallels between the two players as well. They were both drafted by Colorado at the 2007 Entry Draft (Shattenkirk in the first round and Cohen in the second). Both players attended Boston University, where they won a national championship in 2009. During their time at BU, they were defensive partners, as well as roommates.

If you haven’t seen the duo play, check out some highlights of both Shattenkirk and Cohen.

Yip: "They’ve been buddies for a long time I think, and defense partners for I don’t know how long. Probably since they were at the National Team Program. Ever since they got to BU they were defensive partners, so they definitely have some history together. Cohen is a great guy to have at the point and he’s got a really heavy shot. Shatty knows the game very well, is a very smart player and has great hands."

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Shatty? SHATTY? I am sorry but I literally lol'd. Maybe it's because I didn't sleep last night and I am a little slap happy but seriously, that is terrible.

Tonight loss sucked. There's no way around that. We're tied with Calgary for the last playoff spot, we have a game in hand, and it's not effing over.

I don't usually read what Dater writes, but tonight I went to see what he said after his article was mentioned in the recap. I could hardly believe what I was reading. Let me elaborate on a few of my favorite parts:

"They're just not good enough, and probably never were."

Good enough for what? The Cup? Not this year. For a playoff spot? They are absolutely good enough for a playoff spot. Right now the team isn't as solid as it could be (rebuilding year anyone?) but to say they aren't "good enough" is ridiculous. But what gets me the most about that statement is saying that they "probably never were." To try and take away from what the team accomplished early in the season is just... I just don't even have words for how mad that makes me.

"By the way, can I ask a question: when was the last time somebody on the Avs really crushed somebody with good, solid, clean hit?"

DID YOU NOT WATCH THE GAME? I saw Quincey hit someone really hard at least once, and Mueller had a GIANT hit. There is photographic proof!

"But let’s face it, Dutchy is hurting the team right now, just like a lot of guys. He hasn’t scored a goal in 11 games and he’s been floating around a little too much defensively."

... How anyone could say that with a straight face is beyond me. I guess the 6 assists he's had in those games are just meaningless.

"And the last two games, we’ve started to see why they hated Peter Mueller so much in the end at Phoenix. His play the last two has done nothing to dispel his many critics who said he was just a soft, perimeter player. That’s what he was tonight at least."

Yeah, Mueller had has two bad games, I guess that means we should all hate him now like the classy, hockey-knowledgeable people of Phoenix! It's not like he visibly works his ass off every time he is on the ice... Oh wait...

Torts said it best yelling at some reporters once: A lot of things happened in this game. I wish you guys would watch the goddamn thing and report on the game.

"As I said before, a missed playoff run would invalidate everything and set everything back to ground zero starting next fall. If you miss, you miss. It’s failure, no matter how you slice it, and this will be three out of four years they will be known as failures."

I could not disagree with this more. I know some of you guys agree with him here, but I just can't help but hate it. I absolutely do not understand the logic in what he's saying. There is no effing way in effing hell that I would ever call this season a failure if we miss the playoffs. I'm sorry but I'm not going to say "Well boys, you missed making the postseason, everything you did this year was irrelevant! Duchene, that first goal- didn't matter. Wilson, the first time you laid someone out in a unipron- didn't matter. O'Reilly, the way you work your ass off night in and night out- didn't matter..."

Maybe I'm missing the point of all of this. The point of enjoying this sport and this team in general. Enjoying seeing the Young Guns first games and goals. Enjoying watching guys like Stewart dominate, and Stansty become a leader.

Dater says he's given up, that he thinks the team has given up too. Well guess what: fuck that. We've got games left to play and I'm not going to be a fucking defeatist. I wish Sacco would call him out and defend his players when Dater writes bullshit. This isn't about him "not being the teams cheerleader" this is about writing absolute crap and legitimating hurting the franchise. I can't believe they let him talk to the players, and I hope to god the players don't read what he writes.

PS. Don't worry, he didn't forget to say that Liles should be gone before training camp.

This Sunday I will be attending what will most likely be my last Avalanche game of the season. The tickets were a gift and I'm hella poor so I've go to do this one up right. So far I'm 1 for 6 in seeing the boys win. The one win was actually against the Sharks on opening night so that made it worth it to watch them lose to the Capitals, Ducks (the epic third period crash and burn!), Islanders, Rangers (where stupid Gaborik took my hat trick virginity and I almost got into a fist fight with a 40 year old man), and Wild.

So I've been trying to think up a good sign to bring that isn't seriously offensive. And then it came to me! Bear riding shark! I just needed to tone it down a little (I don't want to offend any children, those little guys in Duchene jerseys soften my calloused soul) and make it a little less busy so the guys might actually see what it is if they can catch a glimpse. Unfortunately I won't be behind the net, I'm across from the home bench. If I can get another wink from CGDS, glass tap from Galli, and thumbs up from Duchene I will be able to die happy.

So what do you guys think?