The Colorado Avalanche are riddled with injuries.
Landeskog is out. Downie is hurt. And tot o top it all off, Ryan O’Reilly is
still unsigned and not playing. But guess what? That is no excuse for the pathetic
on-ice effort the Avalanche have put forth over the last few games. You can
make all the excuses you want, but when it all comes down to the cold hard
facts, the Avalanche are just not a good hockey team right now.
Paul Stastny has been invisible almost all season.
Matt Duchene plays great at times, but he has not stepped up as much as he
should in the absence of the team’s other big stars. When your best players thus
far are John Mitchell and Cody McLeod – when you have a roster of Duchene, Parenteau,
McGinn, Hejduk, Jones, Stastny – you have got serious problems.
The 2nd line is the worst line on this
team. Sure, they have big moments, but those are few and far between. They are
too easy to get the puck from, their breakouts from the zone are sloppy, and
there are countless giveaway, and if a pig flies and they actually forecheck,
they are weak in the corners and lose the puck.
Overall as a team, there is no net presence. A guy
can have the puck in the corner and what are his options with it? Pass it to
the floater skating up by the Dmen, or pass it behind the net. They are not
putting themselves in positions to score. Just a poor effort offensively all
around.
The Defense is another sad story. Never have I seen
a team in this league with so many 3rd line, defensive defensemen.
Right now the Avs have 6 (Hejda, O’Byrne, Wilson, O’Brien, Zanon, Hunwick). Now,
I am not an NHL coach, nor do I pretend to be, but when inconsistent Erik
Johnson is the only rear guard with offense, do NOT scratch a guy like Tyson
Barrie in favour of O’Brien, or any of the other 5 guys listed above. When you
constantly have to put McGinn, Parenteau, or Duchene on the point on the
powerplay, maybe it is time to get the kid out of the press box.
Now, having said that, I am not an NHL GM, nor do I pretend
to be. But when there is a log jam of offensively challenged Dmen on your team
that could make a beaver climax, maybe it’s time to move a guy or two. Having 2
healthy scratched Dmen per game, none of which can score, is not an effective
winning strategy.
Anyways, that is it for tonight….oh right,
discipline and penalty killing. Well let’s just sum them both up in one word:
pathetic. Not enough? You’re right. But we don’t want to take up all of your
time, so we will leave it at that.
So in summary, the Avs look absolutely terrible.
They can’t score and they can’t defend, their top guys are playing like
garbage, they take too many penalties, and the defensemen are useless in every
way possible. This is NOT a playoff team. This is a joke.
Let’s hope for a better team next game Avs fans.
Until then, thanks for reading, and lets all enjoy how terrible the Red Wings
are playing.
