“Goaltending is voodoo.” In the controlled chaos that is hockey, there is one guy whose job it is to make sense of it all, sift through the madness and decipher the future before it happens and react accordingly. Every game is different, every period has its own personality, and the puck is shaped in such a way that it bounces…...

We knew when the schedule turned over to 2020 that Colorado was facing one of the league’s softest schedules of strength. In the 12 games since the new year began, the Avs have lost five games, just three in regulation, and continue putting themselves in position to challenge for the Central Division title. After a 6-1 beatdown of the Buffalo…...

With the trade deadline fast approaching, it’s become clear the Colorado Avalanche are among the top contenders to emerge from the west this year and compete for the Stanley Cup. No team is ever built perfectly and the trade deadline is not only the last chance for teams to improve its roster, but it also seems to serve as a…...

Style. Systems. Regular season success versus postseason success. Nothing brings these discussions to the forefront of Avalanche hockey quite like matchups against the St. Louis Blues. After the Avs lost both games in St. Louis earlier this year, making it six losses in a row against the Blues, the writing on the wall appeared clear: the Avs were not built…...

We talked on the podcast this week about how Colorado can turn around this losing skid of theirs. It wasn’t a complicated formula. Don’t lose the special teams battle. Get saves. Win at even strength. We said two of those three would be sufficient to get Colorado over the hump and help them close out an opponent. In a 4-0…...

I don’t even know what to write about this game. I’ve been sitting here for several minutes just kind of lost in thought. It was all just so…familiar. Avs played well? Got an early lead? Check. Avs lost the special teams battle? Check. Avs had a lead going into the third period? Check. Avs blew it thanks to a combination…...

In an Avalanche season highlighted by rookie sensation Cale Makar’s fearless dominance and success from all of Joe Sakic’s offseason additions, it’s easy to lose track of Nathan MacKinnon. Take last week’s 7-3 blowout of the conference-leading St. Louis Blues for example. Sam Girard clearly raised his game in an uncharacteristic four-point explosion. The newly-signed defenseman stole the night’s storyline not because he…...

There’s a scene from “The Office” where main character and cliche-ruiner Michael Scott realizes he has the upper hand on his former employer and he starts a conversation by saying, “Well, well, well. How the turntables…” before trailing off and realizing he’s screwed up the phrase. That’s kind of what I imagined tonight when Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Girard had…...

While the NHL goes to sleep for the Christmas break, halfway around the world a group of the world’s most talented under-20 men’s hockey players are gathered to fight for international bragging rights. The World Junior Championships are set to begin this week in the Czech Republic and the Avs are set to send four players to the competition. While…...

LAS VEGAS – ‘Tis the season of ugly Christmas sweater wearing and as we all know, sometimes you wear the sweat and other times that sweater wears you. Coming into their final game before the Christmas break against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Avs were wearing a scarlet ‘L’ on their chest after taking two home losses that should have been…...

Winning in the NHL is hard. It’s really hard when your best players moonlight as your worst for a night. We saw that play out tonight at Pepsi Center as Colorado snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a classic come-from-ahead loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. I said on the podcast earlier this week that sweeping a divisional opponent…...

Regular seasons have 82 games in them but there are always a couple that stick out as particularly memorable. With the Avalanche walking into St. Louis and temporary bragging rights about who sits atop the Central Division on the line, tonight was destined to be one of those games. The Blues are the defending Stanley Cup champions and have been…...

I’ll be honest. I don’t even really know where to start on this one. Every game is its own miniature story and tonight the story is really just one about a team that keeps winning. Just when it appeared they were getting close to 100%, Nazem Kadri was listed as out. We don’t really know what the injury is there…...

While I haven’t been covering the Avalanche for as long as some of my colleagues, this being my fifth year in action on the beat means I’ve been to several hundred games in that time and have been inside a few locker rooms. One of the things I notice the most about this year’s Avalanche team is the locker room.…...

Last Tuesday, the Avs played their 21st contest of the 2019-2020 season, officially hitting the quarter mark of the campaign. While it might feel like the season just started, the twenty game mark is a bit of a special number. Unlike earlier in the season when good games and bad games can drastically impact overall stats, everything starts to smooth…...

July 1, 2019. A day that forever changed the trajectory of the Avalanche and Maple Leafs alike. Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot were shipped to Toronto in exchange for Nazem Kadri and Calle Rosén. Both Joe Sakic and Kyle Dubas surrendered cornerstone assets in exchange for much-needed role players. On Saturday night, we saw the results of that trade come…...

MINNEAPOLIS – Every year in every sport, there’s a team whose grand offseason plans are cast aside by the cruelty of plain bad luck. Injuries are a natural part of competitive sports and every year they seem to hone in specifically on a small number of teams while otherwise leaving others alone. To start this year, the injury bug burrowed…

Sports justice is one of those things that sometimes you have to wait years for. As a Kansas basketball fan, nothing was more cathartic than watching the Jayhawks blow out their former head coach who had stabbed them in the back and left them in the lurch after the 2003 season. It was perfect sports karma but we had to…...

Such is the nature of professional sports. Two nights ago, a fairy tale. Tonight, a nightmare. Fresh off a 40-save performance that doesn’t technically count as a shutout but absolutely should, Adam Werner never stood a chance tonight in Edmonton in a 6-2 loss against an Oilers team angry coming off a blowout loss and looking to get their mojo…...