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Slowly climbing the standings.
Don't look now, Avalanche fans, but the team is getting closer to the coveted 8th place. Well, at least it was until Duchene went down for what appears to be a lengthy period of time. I read something about "at least four weeks". That's probably the nail in the coffin for a struggling offense that relied a little too much on blue collar guys like McClement, Winnik and the D-line and too little on Stastny and Hejduk, for example.
Of course, there are stellar exceptions, O'Reilly and Landeskog, but that's about it. And Duchene didn't have the best of seasons so far, but he was a permanent threat and he could always create something out of nothing. If you're expecting the management to pull a spectacular move to compensate his loss, you're either too young or you haven't been around the team for a long time. 'Cause that won't happen. They'll wait for David Jones to come back and maybe even Mueller.
Sure, they weren't very good this season, when they played, even though Jones started pretty nice, but they'll be the bodies that'll plug the roster. And there must be some other Van Der Gulik in the system somewhere. Nothing agains Van Der Gulik, he's been very good since his call up and he's a hard working guy that even has some points, but he's no Duchene.
Robert Ciubotaru, Romania, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
31/12/2011 - 06:00
Postgame thoughts: Coyotes
Slowly climbing the standings.Don't look now, Avalanche fans, but the team is getting closer to the coveted 8th place. Well, at least it was until Duchene went down for what appears to be a lengthy period of time. I read something about "at least four weeks". That's probably the nail in the coffin for a struggling offense that relied a little too much on blue collar guys like McClement, Winnik and the D-line and too little on Stastny and Hejduk, for example.
Of course, there are stellar exceptions, O'Reilly and Landeskog, but that's about it. And Duchene didn't have the best of seasons so far, but he was a permanent threat and he could always create something out of nothing. If you're expecting the management to pull a spectacular move to compensate his loss, you're either too young or you haven't been around the team for a long time. 'Cause that won't happen. They'll wait for David Jones to come back and maybe even Mueller.
Sure, they weren't very good this season, when they played, even though Jones started pretty nice, but they'll be the bodies that'll plug the roster. And there must be some other Van Der Gulik in the system somewhere. Nothing agains Van Der Gulik, he's been very good since his call up and he's a hard working guy that even has some points, but he's no Duchene.
Now, speaking of injuries, how about the crap that Torres pulled on Hejda? How come the referees aren't handing out game misconduct penalties? Everybody was up in arms when McCleod hit that guy into the boards, even though he didn't push him. Torres lowered his shoulder and nearly took Hejda's head off. I'd like to see some suspension, but remember that Wilson is still out after being crashed into the boards and nothing happened to the Vancouver player, even though Porter was suspended four games for something that didn't seem intentional to me. What would've happened if there was Crosby instead of Wilson? And one of the precious Sedin twins instead of Hejda? Torres would've been tarred and feathered and ran out of town.
But at least he got back on the ice, at least for that game, we'll see what happens in the next few days.
But it's time for the guys to pull together now and try and ride that wave of victories. To be honest, they made it harder for themselves against the Yotes, they were clearly the better team but at times they were lazy, getting too cute in their own zone and taking some stupid penalties.
And a final thought, almost a sold out crowd at the Can! It's good to see people filling the arena and energizing the guys when they need it. Next on the schedule, a team I used to enjoy to hate, but those days are sadly gone. The Ducks of Anaheim.
Robert Ciubotaru, Romania, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
31/12/2011 - 06:00
