The Avs, And Their Fans, Shouldn't Hate the Minnesota Wild Anymore

The answer is no. No, the Avalanche and the Wild should not be considered NHL rivals at this point. Avs fans shouldn’t hate the Wild any more than they hate any other NHL team that isn’t the Red Wings. Why? Because at this point, there is no recent history or events that can classify these divisional opponents as rivals. Lets take a closer look:

What brought on the absolute hatred Avs fans felt toward the Wild in recent years? Matt Cooke, and the 2014 playoffs. We all know about the Matt Cooke knee on knee hit on Tyson Barrie. The blatant attempt to injure, the slap on the wrist suspension, and the turning point of losing the D-man that definitely led to the series loss. Avs fans had every right to hate that team. To hate that logo. And to hate the fans, who were quite smug about the whole affair if you can remember.

But so much has changed since 2014 with both franchises. Matt Cooke, the antagonist of this whole mess, is gone. The Wild have had almost no success since that series in the playoffs and regular season. Only 5 players from the 2014 playoff series even play for the Avs anymore. Most of that team isn’t even in the NHL anymore. The Avs have been terrible since then, up until the early stages of this season, making any games against the Wild completely uneventful or intense. There have been no signs of bad blood between these teams really, save for the occasional Cody McLeod fight.

So what reason do Avs fans have to hate the Wild? Yes, they’ve been the better team since 2014, but should we hate them because they got a better coach and made the playoffs a few times? Should we hate them because they took advantage of an AVs collapse a few seasons ago and Parise scored a hat trick in an all too familiar comeback?

A lot of questions being asked here, all which should be answered by a simple no. So what should we feel toward the Minnesota Wild? As Avs fans, we should feel like we want to win the game. That’s it. Games against the Wild should feel like a game against the Blue Jackets, or a game against the Flames. A hockey game with no underlying storyline other than wanting the 2 points.

So if you find yourself still hating the Wild after all these years, no, you’re not being called stupid here, or unnecessary. We’re just saying that maybe it’s time to let go. The Avs are on the upswing, and the Wild still owe Parise and Suter over $7.5M against the cap for another 7 years. The Wild have no tangible results or brags for their 16 years of existence in this league. The Wild say they play in the “State of Hockey”, but in their case, the state of hockey they’re in is what the experts like to call “inconsistent and boring”. The fans are….well….unfortunate.

So don’t hate the Wild. They aren’t rivals. They have become just another team. And even thought that 2014 playoff loss was disappointing, it seems like the Avs will have enough playoff success in the near future to remedy those emotions, and they’ll be looking at the Minnesota Wild in the rear view mirror.

Did the Avs Really Lose The Ryan O'Reilly Trade?

With the departure of Mikhail Grigorenko to the KHL for 3 years, the age old argument has been churned up again amongst hockey experts, and Sabres fans on Twitter who claim to be hockey experts. The argument? Who won the Ryan O’Reilly trade?

You begin to ponder this deep and complex question when all of the sudden you hear a gust of wind outside. The room dims, and you are left in darkness.

The ghost of Trade-mas past, who, under his long dark hood looks a lot like Chris Drury, enters the room through a cracked open window, and summons you to take an arduous journey through the passage of time. The destination: June 26^th, 2015. The streets look different, the people, younger. You’re sitting on your couch, or maybe at the grocery store, and you decide to check up on the information highway in which you get most of your on demand sports news: Twitter. You slide up to refresh the feed, and there it is, thrust upon you like a bolt of lightning. The wait is over, and elation overwhelms you, brought on by the faint ting of remorse. Ryan O’Reilly, the contract holdout and offer sheet signer, has been traded to the Buffalo Sabres. Maybe you heard it from Adrian Dater. Maybe you heard it from Bob McKenzie. You probably didn’t hear it from Mike Chambers, as is job title of Avs beat writer is probably just something the head honchos at the Denver Post put on his business card because “guy who tweets days old Avs news” didn’t really look good on a business card. But it doesn’t matter, because one of the biggest distractions in Avs history has been moved for a package of promising youngsters and draft picks. You think to yourself “it’s time to climb out o the basement and back into the playoffs!” Oh, so naïve. But nevertheless, it has been done. Now, at this point, you may not have known much about JT Compher, but a quick search would tell you that he was great in NCAA and has what hockey writers with little vocabulary to describe prospects would call “upside”. You recognize Nikita Zadarov as that big Russian D-man who can play physical; something the Avs will need in the future, and of course you’ve heard of Grigorenko, the talented prospect and high draft choice who didn’t quite find his grove in Buffalo. A worthy project for Avs coaching staff that should be around for a LONG time! Life is good in Avalanche territory.

All of the sudden, a wormhole appears and you are thrown the Avs press room. This is even further into the past. What is going on? Oh, it looks like the Avs have just made Gabriel Landeskog the new team captain. You remember this press conference from the internet. But what you didn’t remember seeing was a seething Ryan O’Reilly, watching the press conference from around the corner, stabbing a sewing needle in what looks to be a Gabe Landeskog voodoo doll. Did anyone else see that? Before you get a chance to look around, you’re off and moving again with the ghost. The ghost takes you to another location. Canada, but there’s no snow and igloos. This is strange, its dark out. The sun is just starting to rise. You see an old newspaper clipping announcing O’Reilly has signed a 7 year deal with the Sabres, paying him $7.5M. Yikes you think to yourself. That is a lot of money for a player who has never scored 65 points. You look at your watch, its around 4:00am and you’re tired. There’s a Tom Hortons nearby and you want a coffee. Just as you are about to cross the street, a green 1951 Chevy screams passed you and slams into the building. A little frightened, you tell the ghost to take you somewhere else.

You arrive in 2017, at the end of the regular season. You are in the stands for the Sabres last game of the season and you grab the stats sheet from your game program. Ryan O’Reilly only has 20 goals, and not even 60 points. But that’s okay, because half the reason they brought him in was for his defensive game. The ghost of trade-mas past slowly hands you his Blackberry. This guy is from the past, you think as you look at the screen. The screen shows team penalty kill statistics for the whole league, as well as fancy stats. Oh, Buffalo is 25^th in PK, and their fancy stats are at the bottom of the league too. Wasn’t O’Reilly supposed to be a difference maker? At least he only makes $7.5M against the cap. The Sabres won the trade. Right? You ask the ghost to take you home. You’ve seen enough.

As the ghost of Trade-mas past drops you off at home you start to feel a little silly for your optimism. Hindsight is 20/20 after all. You hear a bang in the kitchen. Something has knocked over some dishes drying in the sink. Or, if you’re in college, a can of Macaroni and Cheese off the hotplate in your 1 room dorm. The culprit? The ghost of trade-mus present, and he takes you on a whirlwind journey you’ll never forget. First stop: Glendale Arizona. Why? Because that’s where Jamie McGinn is training. That’s right, the other piece the Avs sent over in the trade only logged 63 games in Buffalo before moving on. But the Sabres won the trade, because they got O’Reilly. Right?

The ghost whisks you away to another present-day location. You are in Joe Sakic’s office. He is on the phone with a player agent, hoping to lock in his best young defenseman who showed a ton of promise, and great hockey sense the previous year before getting injured. And this guy can hit, just ask the Winnipeg Jets. The players, not the fans. The fans will either say he is a dirty player, or they won’t know what you’re talking about since no one actually goes to the games. On the table, you can see Sakic has a development chart out, tracking all the prospects. You notice two names: AJ Greer, and Cameron Morrison. As you read through the files, you can see scouting data on Greer: Great hockey mind for offense, and sound in the defensive zone. He can put up numbers on the scoreboard and contribute in all other areas on the ice. Nice. You remember Greer playing a little last season, giving the tired, bored, unmotivated roster a refreshing burst of energy. Your eyes dart to Morrison’s report: Former Junior scorer that had a great first year in NCAA. The guy can rack up the points. Not bad return for the Avs, you think; especially since O’Reilly is the only remaining piece of Buffalo’s trade pie. Oh, you remember something. Grigorenko signed in the KHL. Well that stinks, because, at the time, the Avs really needed another forward. Or…was it a defender they really needed for the future? Well, it doesn’t matter what they needed, you think, because even if they Avs were just looking for forwards, they got Greer and Morrison in the deal as well. And if it was D they needed, they got Zadorov. All for O’Reilly and McGinn. As you turn around to leave, you notice a name on the whiteboard is Sakic’s office. It is a depth chart, and it says JT Compher. You almost forgot that he was part of the trade too. But the Avs got robbed. One of the worst trades ever. Right?

The ghost takes you to another GM’s office, but you can’t recognize his face. He must be new. A quick search of the office tells you that this is the headquarters for Buffalo GM Jason Boterill. Oh, that’s right. The Sabres fired Tim Murray, the architect and genius that swindled the Avs out of Ryan O’Reilly. Boterill is on the phone. He’s bragging about his most recent trade, finally getting a decent defenseman in Marco Scandella, and getting Jason Pominville back. Boterill talks about how the Sabres need another big strong defenseman, as the last GM left him with terrible options and a bad prospect pool for the back end. Boterill slams Tim Murray, ridiculing the awfull contract he gave out to Dmitry Kulikov. “But Murray just needed a big Russian Defenseman to eat minutes and use the body” you hear the voice on the other line say. “He was lacking in that department, and got Kulikov out of desperation”. You turn to the ghost and ask if Zadorov would have been a good fit for the Sabres at this point. The ghost just looks on. Boterill is also raving about getting Pomminville back. He says having the veteran leadership in the room will be great for the Sabres. Uh oh, you say, as you think back to how O’Reilly handled previous leadership situations. Boterill continues to brag about his free agent signings. “Yeah Benoit Pouliot will help us will the penalty kill, he can take defensive zone faceoffs if necessary, and he will be great on the penalty kill!”. Wasn’t that what O’Reilly was brought in for? Boterill continues “And adding Seth Griffith will give us a young guy with potential. After we traded Ennis and Foligno, I needed a guy that could develop into a potential scoring threat”. Your mind shifts to wondering what the Sabres organizational depth would look like if they kept Compher and had drafted Greer and Morrison. But the Sabres won the trade. Right?

The ghost of trade-mas present warps you back into your kitchen and leaves without a word. You lay on your bed, dreary from the travels. You find yourself eager for the visit of the ghost of trade-mas future, but you know you will have to wait. Maybe it’s a journey you will need to take day by day. You sit and wonder what it will look like. The Sabres haven’t got much better in the offseason, not good for a team who hasn’t made the playoffs since they robbed the Avs in a trade. The Sabres prospect pool isn’t look to great either. Not good for a team that gave up many future assets when they stole O’Reilly away from the Avs. The Sabres need to name a new captain. What if it isn’t O’Reilly? Will he get ticked off again and cause riffs in the dressing room? That won’t be good for a team with so many young players that need guidance. The Sabres have a new coaching staff and new management. This will be the Sabres’ 3^rd coach since the trade. Not great for a team who hasn’t made the playoffs with the $7.5M man.

Your mental energy shifts to the Avs. It’s great, you think, that Avs even managed to get anybody for a disgruntled player who had previously held out on them and was difintley not going to sign a new deal in free agency. And to get so much return for a player in that situation isn’t so bad. You lay your head down on the pillow and wonder, in 5 years, when Compher, Greer, and maybe even Morrison, are still in the midst of RFA contracts, where will O’Reilly sign in the UFA period? Will Buffalo be able to get him back? Will he be already gone? As you doze off, you think about how great it is that the Avs have all these talented assets that will be with the team for a long time going forward, and all they had to do was trade a guy who didn’t want to be here, and who would not have re-signed anyways. But the Sabres won the trade. Right?

Idiotic Hockey Fans Try To Justify Blown Offside Call

Twitter is a wonderful place. Anyone can just….say things. Anything. This phenomenon is particularly entertaining during sports games. On Sunday evening, in case you’re an Avs fan who hasn’t heard yet, they got a little stiffed on an obvious offside call during their game with the Chicago Blackhawks.

This let to outrage amongst Avs fans, Hawks haters, and most hockey fans with a brain. But remember what we said about Twitter and people saying things? This phenomenon, especially when tied to sports, tends to bring out the biased, and frankly idiotic, traits of sports fans. Here are some prime examples of stupid sports fans, biased sports fans, and argumentative sports fans:

One "genius" thinks he wrote the NHL rule book:

Another hockey fan must not have Flash media player installed on his device, as he obviously hadn't seen the footage. Hopefully not anyways, based on his response to the incident:

This fan, who is even using player names in his argument, and thinks repeating things makes the ruling correct. And, in a shocking twist, used the blatantly terrible ruling by all parties involved, that he conveniently lists, to "prove" he is right:

This tweep tried to tell Mark Rycroft he is wrong. Rycroft decided to show the fan why he works for an NHL broadcast and the fan is tweeting from his couch. Bonus: the fan is a twitter egg. 

Last, and certainly not least, this fan thinks because it was against the laughing stock of the NHL in an inevitable collapse, it doesn't really matter:

Never change hockey fans. Never change Twitter.

Don't Hate Too Much on Sakic Over The Deadline

Well, another year, and another trade deadline has come and gone. Some teams improved, some got worse, some stayed the same, but we don’t care about those teams. We care about the Avalanche. How did they do?

The trade deadline outcome for the Avalanche can only be summed up with one word: Mediocre. It was not widely successful, mildly successful, or even terrible. And here’s why:

The Pending UFA’s: John Mitchell, Rene Bourque, Fedor Tyutin, Jarome Iginla, Cody Golebeuf, Andreas Martinsen.

Here is the problem, and the whole reason, primarily, that the trade deadline was not a complete failure for Joe Sakic. If a team is in the playoff hunt, meaning they are a decent hockey team, or if they are contenders, which means they are a great hockey team, why would they want any of these players? Mitchell has had a terrible offensive year, and he has slowed down speed wise. He can kill some penalties and gets into the dirty areas decent enough, but these types of players are quite common these days, and there are many with offensive upside. Mitchell also carries a $1.8M cap hit, which is hard for a team to justify if they aren’t getting a whole package 3^rd/4^th liner.

Bourque has been hurt, and before he got injured his production and play slowed right down. Weird for a 35 year old to slow down in this league right? Tyutin would be decent on the 3^rd line, but once again, contendin and decent teams already have a few Tyutins either on the 3^rd pair or in the pressbox.

Moving Martinsen was great, Andrighetto still has some upside, and will at least be a good farm team addition. It would have been shocking for a team give more players or draft picks for a 4^th line UFA player. Good job by Sakic on that one.

Here is where it gets iffy. The return for Iginla, who could flourish in Sutter’s system/playing with Kopitar, is a 4^th round pick that could totally disappear if the Kings don’t make the playoffs and other conditions are not met. This would be acceptable IF the Avs did not retain half of his salary. If the Kings miss the playoffs, the Avs are paying Iginla to play for another Western Conference team. But let’s remember the Avs may not have had a lot of options. Iginla carries a $5.3M hit, a number that playoff teams usually can’t afford, or they would have spent the money elsewhere. Sure, Carolina could have easily afforded him, but why would they want a rental player for their non-playoff team?

Landeskog and Duchene? Why rush to get a deal done and maybe not get everything you could possibly get? It isn’t the worst thing in the world if the Avs wait for the draft, OR, maybe not trade them at all, then trade them for a poor return because there is a deadline. Think: they could have traded other players and it could have been a lot worth. Beauchemin? Any team who sent a scout to these games would not want to take a chance on him.

So try not to hate on Sakic too much for the lack of interesting moves. His hands were pretty much tied for the most part. With the options he had, it wasn’t the worst day. It wasn’t the best day, but not the worst, and with the season we have all endured, how can we ask for anything more? We aren’t going to talk about the other minor league deals but we will leave you with this: Did the Avs acquire Cannata because they are thinking of trading a goalie and they want a minor leaguer to fill the void left when Spencer Martin is called up?

Maybe.