Avs keep surprising
Why the injury to Matt Duchene isn't going to hurt as much as you think.The entire fan base of the Colorado Avalanche were hit with some bad news the other day; the injury of their offensive leader and number one centerman Matt Duchene.
Duchene collided with forward Jamie McGinn in the first period of the game against San Jose on March 29th and it was later announced he would miss about four-weeks with an injury to his knee, which is a huge blow to the team, but let me say this, you should all stop worrying. Seriously.
Duchene is a key guy in our teams offense, as he leads the charge, points wise this season and has really big moments, but he is only one player who does not make a team, especially this Avs team. This year under Patrick Roy, the team has banded together as warriors fighting for the same cause. They aren’t 23 players any more, they are one team.
The Avs this year are out to prove everyone they are a force to be reckoned with and they are doing it very well. In years past if you would hear of the Avs losing a key player to a lengthy injury, the losses would pile up quickly. But not only did the Avalanche win the game Duchene was injured early in, but they went on to win two big games against the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers, without him. Both of those wins required extra time, but in tight games down the stretch it’s expected that the games will be tight scores and hard-fought. The Avs have played without a lot of key members of the team (Johnson, Stastny, Mitchell, Tanguay, Parenteau, Hejda, Sarich, Duchene) for different lengths of time, but it hasn’t stopped them from pushing forward.
The other amazing thing about the Avs is that no matter who is out, they find a way to get wins, sometimes they aren’t pretty, but it’s the “W” in the stats column that counts. They find ways to win by always getting a strong performance from goaltender Semyon Varlamov who has been nothing short of spectacular all year and is currently leading the league in wins, but they also receive offense from many places. Since Duchene has gone down with his injury, 7 different Avalanche players have goals, 3 different players have game winners (Mitchell, Landeskog, Barrie) and the Avs are getting chances from all 4 lines. The Avs are also only one of 3 teams with 5 20 goal scorers (Duchene, Stastny, MacKinnon, O’Reilley, Landeskog)
As we approach the playoffs, it looks like the Avs are going to faceoff against the defending Stanley Cup champions from last year, the Chicago Blackhawks and it will be a tough battle for sure. The main thing that the Avs need to do is to follow what Patrick Roy has stressed all year, play as five man unit on the ice, play as a team on both ends of the ice and always believe you always have a chance to win if you try hard and never give up. Pretty soon it will be Hawk hunting season and I have just one question: WHY NOT US?
– by Daniel Jackson for The Hockey Report –
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
05/04/2014 - 08:00
