“Stick it to Duchene”? That’s a awfully petty attitude Dater.
I think it would be best for the Avs to focus on their game, improving, and winning games.

And Zadorov “probably wants to get out of here now” …really?
I can understand fan frustration and disappointment. But the frequent sky-is-falling negativity is getting hard to listen to.

Feedback, boys:
– IMHO the best and strongest point coming out of this podcast was your contention that it is time (if not past it) for Coach Bednar to make some significant personnel decisions. And NONE of those are as important as the one concerning Nikita Zadorov. What a major disappointment that we are where we are with Big Z. To think that I had hopes of him possibly even developing into an all-star eventually! Now none of us seem to have any real assurance concerning the trajectory of his future. Exactly how did this happen?! Personally, I agree with you guys, that we need to make a full commitment to him this year and seek to develop the promise we thought we saw last season. Was it a mirage? Sure looked legit to me.
– I am not with Adrian’s anti-Duchene motivation at all; even less so than AJ is. To me the desire to rub Matt’s nose in it is the wrong kind of thinking for a number of reasons.
– Surprised no one is mentioning MacKinnon’s jittery puck-handling? Does he even possess a one-timer from the wing on the PP? Never see it. He always first plays fiddle-faddle. Either he is undergoing a crisis of confidence or I was wrong in thinking he was ever good with the puck in the first place.
– I’m not as down on Nieto or Nemeth as AJ is. More with Dater here. On the other hand, not as down on Yakupov yet as is AD. Even Mironov has really not been bad of late. It’s his first year in the league, is it not?
– Like everyone else, applause for the poise and skills we’re seeing right off the bat from Girard.

You don’t suppose AD really, really, wanted to see Duchene get beat – do you?

I have to vehemently disagree with you AJ on you Kerfoot statement. You win games by your top two lines scoring. Yes JT was expected to be the #2 Center as AD said but based on the cast and his three weeks off Kerfoot was given the responsibility and he stepped up hard. Looking at his stats and his two way play for an undrafted player he is an absolute steal. You win games and become a championship team by having players that aren’t your all-stars become well above average (Nikita Kucherov). I am not saying Kerfoot is Kucherov but the kid is showing a Hockey IQ unprecedented in an undrafted kid. For me right now he is the highlight surprise of the Avalanche season.
To win games we need kids like Kerfoot to keep scoring, Jost and JT to stay healthy, and our top line to maintain the type of pressure we have seen in their best games. Honestly just watching this season it feels like a team on the rise and not a team of mismatched Jigsaw pieces that was last season. I am not saying were going to make the playoffs but we look infinitely better then the team we saw last year and there is a lot of positives to be taken away.

I’m honestly not asking this in any sort of offended way, but why are my comments disappearing? I spent some time posting my response to this podcast last night, and it was definitely displaying here. Then this morning I look and it has vanished. I am confident that there was nothing deemed inappropriate in the comment, so I am puzzled. This is the third time this has happened, and I just don’t want to keep taking the time make posts if many of them are going to be deleted for whatever reason.

I’m writing this as I listen:

– AD, I think you have higher expectations for this team than I, as an Avs fan, have. Given that this is a very young team, I fully expected them to lose both games based entirely on the fact that they would probably struggle to handle the Duchene media frenzy on top of the travel to a new country and time change. Ottawa, a very veteran team, is much more likely to handle those things better.

– As for Bernier, I don’t think starting him was a mistake. That seems like 20/20 hindsight to me. Had he played well I doubt anyone would be questioning the decision to start him. Goalies, and Varlamov in particular, tend to play worse in the second game of back-to-backs. And then in terms of his play, you’re really going to fault him for a one-in-a-million bounce, a shot he was completely screened on, and two others he would have needed a spectacular save to stop? He wasn’t beat clean the entire game. That’s all I want from a backup frankly.

– EJ wasn’t bad. AD claims he didn’t do anything offensively when he actually had a few good rushes, had three shots on goal, two assists, and was in general a beast on the penalty kill.

– Otherwise I generally agree with what AD said at the beginning.

– Yep, bad coaching overall especially in terms of offensive strategy and defensive execution.

– What AD sees as doing nothing (Bednar not actively listening to Bennett’s end of game plan) could easily be seen as him showing trust in his associate coach. I don’t know which is the accurate way to describe it because I’m not in Bednar’s head, but neither is AD.

– Bourque is clearly on the roster 100% to kill penalties and otherwise not hurt the team. With Soderberg and Jost out and Duchene gone the Avs are a bit short on penalty killers.

– I was watching both games for that EJ hit on Duchene, but to be honest I never saw an opportunity for him to do that. Duchene never had the puck down low in EJ’s corner, never stood in front of the net, and never tried to carry it down the wall on EJ’s side. Sure, it would have been nice to see EJ crush Duchene, but I don’t want him going out of position to do it. Also, it’s worth noting that Landeskog in game 1 used a power move on Duchene and got a scoring chance out of it. Not sure if anyone noticed that as they didn’t note on the broadcast that it was Duchene in coverage on that play.

– Can we please not anoint Gerard a star before NHL coaches and players have had a chance to figure him out? Yes, he’s been great… against guys who have never seen him play before. I’m not saying he won’t be great in the future as well, but I fully expect some growing pains.

– “I never saw any passion” when Barberio went to the box? I don’t know which feed AD watched, but on that last penalty, Barberio looked absolutely crushed in the box. He looked like someone who had just cost his team the game.

– The timing of the deal: What’s the alternative? It’s not up to Sakic when other teams agree to the terms of the deal. I’m sure Sakic would have loved to make that exact same deal months ago, but it hadn’t been agreed to.

– Z wants out? I think that’s a stretch.

– Totally with you guys on player development.

– Why is Lindholm not the future? He’s a 22 year old defenseman with 21 games of NHL experience? Why would anyone give up on him now?

– I think Yak could work as a powerplay specialist with very protected minutes, but the Avs aren’t really able to do that.

– Thanks for the food for thought guys.

Where was Landy? Where was Sodo? I thought Nemeth and Lindholm were sorely missed. Girard needs to be with AJ. Rocco/Bourque instead of Greer? WTF?

I wonder if Sodo is going to miss the next road trip as well. What’s the due date for gods sake? It’s going to take him a while to get back to the level he was at after all this time off.

I totally agree about Bednar. I’ve been saying this since last year: the guy doesn’t show any interest in winning. He doesn’t show any fire when someone screws up, he doesn’t make any adjustments when the game is falling apart, he doesn’t hold people accountable.

Of course, I don’t know anything about what happens in the locker room and at practice. I’m just giving my impressions as a viewer and a fan.

Dude needs to step it up, big time.

I agree 100% with Dater – it isn’t exactly “sticking it” to Duchene, I think that phrase is getting blown out of proportion. It is about the “leaders” of this team coming together and coming out with pride and showing both the rest of the team and the Avs fans that they can win without Duchene, and to mirror the thoughts they have shown in the locker room interviews that they are proud to be here and want to win as a member of the Avs. There was almost zero energy it seemed in both games, aside from the first period of the first game. Landeskog waited until the end of the 2nd game to show any emotion and fight? Where were the hits, where was any crashing of the net, or clearing the front of the net and making an effort to be harder to play against? The only player I saw protecting the front of the net in the defensive end was Mironov – one time. Same with Bednar getting outcoached again and making no adjustments. Just frustrating all the way around. I had so much excitement coming in these games to see the energy they would come out with against Ottawa/Duchene and they played timid and weak – I am with AD, I am concerned about the games coming up if this is the energy they showed in these emotional games.

Oh yeah, and scratch Barberio and put in Zads please.