Hi, friends! As you know, Evan Rawal recently made the departure from DNVR over to a full-time gig covering the Avalanche at Colorado Hockey Now. He’s been our resident Avalanche grades writer for the last few years, so with him leaving we decided we wanted to try some different things out. After years of grading every player, we’ve come to…
First Period The Avs have not scored first in their last six games (3-2-1), and each of those wins did not come in regulation. Nathan MacKinnon sought to change that. Twenty-five seconds in, the Avs chased the puck back in their own end after the opening faceoff. Artturi Lehkonen sacrificed his body at the blueline to complete a pass up…
Bo Byram/Injuries – I know, I know, everybody is sick of hearing about injuries. Especially since it feels like we really haven’t gotten many updates over the last number of weeks. This week, however, it feels like there has been some actual progress made by some of the guys who are on the shelf, and Jared Bednar expanded on Byram’s…
Happy New Year! Here we are, New Year’s Eve, starting down the calendar officially flipping over to 2023. Seriously almost unbelievable. It was a week for the Colorado Avalanche that saw them end up on the wrong side of multiple disappointing outcomes in very winnable games. They needed a bounce back. They needed, at bare minimum, a mental boost and…
Residents of the Denver Metro area woke up this morning to find a thick layer of wet, heavy snow blanketing their cars, streets, sidewalks, and pretty much everything else. It was a winter storm that was definitely expected, but maybe a little under-promised. As all pro-winter folk avoid mentioning when trying to defend this frigid season, the storm made the…
The Colorado Avalanche came out of the Christmas break on their heels, and let a weaker Arizona team get the better of them. With critical issues in their own zone they never had a chance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CED5Z3uh4_Y
One step forward and two steps back. Last contest, Colorado lost both Val Nichushkin and Martin Kaut to injury. The stress of holiday travel even affects NHL teams. Staffing issues delayed the charter flight and the Avs did not touch down in Arizona until hours before puck drop. The team skated before they flew out. This morning, Jared Bednar got…
As far as game recaps from me go, this one should be pretty tidy. I’m going to try to keep it under 1,000 words for once and let everyone get into their holiday weekends (myself included!) as we are about to go multiple days without Avalanche hockey for the first time since November 27-28. Starting with the game in Winnipeg…
In his first AHL season, Martin Kaut played on a line with Andrew Agozzino and 22-year-old rookie, Logan O’Connor. Their paths first crossed here and though their journeys have been very different, in the end it always comes back to what O’Connor represents. Let’s start from the beginning. Kaut’s path to the NHL was never conventional, but nothing was going…
As the chaos continues for the professional rosters in the Avalanche organization, many of those not under contract yet continue to produce at a strong clip. As all leagues around the world now have a significant number of games played we can start taking some of these statistics seriously. AHL: As you may have noticed all but a few Avs…
In a game that saw the puck cross the goal line exactly once and even that took a shootout attempt to happen the Avs played a much better game than the scoreboard reflects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_5Cq3hoMKM
Morning skate yielded a couple of updates that would influence tonight’s lineup: Kurtis MacDermid would play, Val Nichushkin – though absent – would also play, Jacob MacDonald skated as a forward, and Martin Kaut was recalled by the Colorado Avalanche. As a result, you knew a classic blended Jared Bednar game was on tap. Additionally, a piece of Colorado’s depth…
Happy Sunday and welcome to a revamped version of the (article formerly known as) The Weekly 5-on-5. We have changed up the format a little bit to bring you something that we hope will bring you more in-depth coverage, while also providing more perspectives than before. Diehards will get access to this piece every Sunday morning, and each week it…...
I know there were some who were pretty unhappy about Colorado’s loss to the Buffalo Sabres two days ago, but as I wrote after that game, I really felt encouraged by a lot of what we saw. Obviously, the final score didn’t go the Avalanche’s way in that one, but the way they played the game left me feeling a…
Tonight was a good reminder that while the end results are all that go down in the record books, not all wins and losses are created equally. Coming off a disastrous 1-3 road trip and then getting beatdown at home by the Boston Bruins, the Avs were reeling in the standings and with a lineup that included more AHL than…
The few pieces the Avs have seen return to health have been enough to get them playing winning hockey. Lehkonen’s versatility in the top six led the Avs to finally get some varied scoring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Y377Iy4pQ
All across the NHL, it’s been a wild year for streaks. The St. Louis Blues have both won and lost eight straight games already and the Boston Bruins won their first 14 home games and still haven’t lost in regulation. It’s just been a streaky year. The Colorado Avalanche have largely missed that boat, but coming off a four-game losing…
Some days you are the moose, some days you get moosed. Today Mikko was the big moose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meZEBfRgc90
We know about the injuries. We know about the losing streak. We know the Colorado Avalanche are down bad right now. Valeri Nichushkin returned to the lineup tonight and gave the Avs a whopping two (!) of their top-six forwards going into the game against the New York Rangers. Somehow, it felt like that made all the difference. No doubt,…
The best and healthiest team in the league versus the most injured team in the league. What did you expect? https://youtu.be/ZVcZKOXOF4M
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