Colorado Avalanche Mailbag: Soderberg, Wild rivalry, and Casey ranks sweaters

It’s time for another edition of the Avalanche Mailbag! We got some charmingly-phrased questions about the team’s recent pair of games against the Minnesota Wild, but I regret to inform you all that we need to keep things PG-13 rated. Everyone’s got an opinion about the budding rivalry between the Wild and the Avalanche, and as such I discuss it a bit in this week’s mailbag. We also look at the defensive capabilities of forward Carl Soderberg as well as indulge in a bit of aesthetic jersey ranking.

As always, if you’d like to contribute, tweet us with the hashtag #BSNMailbag or email questions in to BSNAvalanche@gmail.com!

In your opinion, has Carl Soderberg lived up to expectations defensively? – @kennethkorri

Soderberg occupies kind of a strange place in the Avs pantheon, namely because a lot of people seem to operate under the mistaken assumption that he was brought in as a one-for-one swap for the departed Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly is a high end two-way forward. During his tenure on the Avalanche, he was often the most defensively responsible player on the ice anytime his skates touched it. Soderberg was brought on to fill a need at center and mitigate the damage of losing a top two-way talent.

In my opinion, Soderberg has improved more or less steadily every game he’s played for the Avalanche. When Soderberg is centering John Mitchell and Blake Comeau, they are a third line that stands out from a defensive perspective. They were particularly effective against New Jersey. When Mitchell was promoted to the second line and replaced with Andreas Martinsen, the third line still looked solid.

In my opinion, Soderberg is a capable third line centerman without any defensive weaknesses who can fill in on higher lines in a pinch. The ‘expectations’ part is more difficult to define since in the Avalanche sphere, fans appeared to have vastly different expectations for him than the front office did.

He’s lived up to my personal expectations, let’s put it that way.

Do you think the Avalanche and Wild’s rivalry will ever get as intense as the rivalry with the Red Wings from back in the day? – Scotty, via email

It could, you never know. At its present level? No. The Avalanche/Red Wings rivalry was the result of a perfect storm of circumstance: two teams stacked with modern day legends, a lot of bad blood early on, a faster and looser NHL as a whole, known pot-stirrers on the rosters, and more. Those circumstances are unlikely to be replicated.

Also, some fans may not want to hear this, but in my opinion a true rivalry like the Avalanche/Red Wings would require the Avs to play better against Minnesota. A rivalry can’t get that intense unless things are a lot more competitive.

I think from a fanbase point of view, some Wild fans hate the Avalanche the most. But I imagine if you asked players on their actual team, the Wild have a far bigger bone to pick with the Chicago Blackhawks, who keep knocking them out of the playoffs.

It’s a fun budding rivalry, but I use the word “budding” for a reason.

Is there some sort of demonic ritual we can do to banish the Wild from the league? – @FrostyBear21

There is, but it requires the Avalanche to win a playoff series against them first. Your move, Avalanche.

Rank the Avalanche’s sweaters from your favorite to least favorite of all time. – @Shapalicious

Oh boy. This was a tough one. I don’t want to admit the amount of time I spent on this. For the record, I am not a fan of white away sweaters at all, but rather than clumping them all together toward the bottom-ish, I figured I would keep home/away sweaters as a set and thirds as their own entity.

1. 1997-99 home/away set. This was the sweater where the numbers got a touch smaller. A minor touch, like tilting the crest at a slight angle after the inaugural season, but one that I think improved the look. While it isn’t from a Cup-winning season, this is the definitive Early Look Avalanche Jersey to me.
2. 1996-97 home/away set. Still with the tilted crest, but larger numbers and thinner outlines.
3. 2015-16 third set. The addition of navy to the color palette, the blue helmets, the simplistic logo, just about every detail of this uniform pleases my eyeballs. It’s the best design decision the Avs as a franchise have made in years.
4. 1995-96 inaugural home/away set. The straight-bottom crest bugs me now, but it’s still a classic look.
5. 2001-07 home/away set. It’s a fine-tuned look but the darker burgundy is really noticeable. I enjoyed the garishly 90s colors of expansion franchise uniforms, dulling it down for a more modern approach was sensible but less pleasing to me on a personal level.
6. 2009-15 “blueberry” third jersey. It’s a unique shade of blue and was the winningest third jersey in the NHL for large chunks of its existence!
7. 2015-16 Stadium Series jersey. I am not normally a fan of white, but the design is uncluttered and looks great when worn. Some have pooh-poohed the large numbers, but those are a necessity for visibility purposes at Coors field. It’s a decent sweater.
8. 2001-07 burgundy third jersey. There’s nothing special about it but it also isn’t ugly. The first Avalanche sweater I ever owned was one of these. I like the black border across the bottom.
9. 2015-16 home/away set with “Colorado” patches over the “yeti foot” patch. I loathe this jersey design but the new patches are a nice splash of color on what is otherwise one of the worst home/away sets in the NHL.
10. 2007-15 home set. The widely-reviled “apron stripe” design. You know how if you go to a cheap supermarket, you’ll find knock-off sodas in the soft drink aisle with names like Mountain Lightning and Dr. Skipper? This jersey is the Dr. Skipper version of an Avalanche jersey to me. It’s got vague elements of the classic design, but the end result looks more like a knock-off than homage.
11. 2007-15 away set. All of the above but it’s also white, ugh.

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If you actually stuck around long enough to read all 600 words of my opinions on hockey sweaters, I appreciate it. Thanks so much to everyone who submitted questions this round. We hope to hear from you over the coming week!