Eurolanche

Postgame thoughts: Stars

First of all, 3-0 is too much for the chances that the Avs had. If the game ended 1-0 nobody would've been surprised. But, such as it was, it was a win against one of the best teams in the West. A team in a slump, truth be told, but the Avs will take the points.

Now... My first impression was that Sacco truly draws the lines out of a hat. He managed to break up the best line just because the production wasn't there in the last couple of games. What that did was kill the chemistry on every line. You can't even point at the trio that was playing best. Still, overall the effort was there, especially in the defense. Giguere was huge again, he has 1 GA in the last two games. And apparently he makes his teammates trust him, because they played better in front of him than in front of Varly. Nothing against Varlamov, I like him a lot and I really want him to succeed, but Jiggy earned the starting role at least for a while. If you saw the postgame interview, it was interesting that J.S. mentioned who was the leader for a while now: Shane O'Brien. Still, he didn't earn the A when the team rotated three As. And after he called that infamous time-out instead of Sacco, it's unlikely he'll ever get one anytime soon.

Regardless, it was a good way to start the long home stand, since Colorado is in desperate need of points. Just take a look at the standings and you might get a little dizzy. The Avs are really close to the bottom, where CBJ are really making a push for that no1 overall pick. Well, our boys have absolutely no reason to tank. They're only hope for a decent pick in a very deep draft - or so they say - is that the Bruins have a bad case of Stanley Cup hangover. That Varlamov trade is beginning to start to bite Sherman from the rear end. We'll see, I guess. But it's not like anybody will pay if the Avs underachieve again. Mediocrity is rewarded in Pepsi Center, or at least so it seems.