The 1 Year Jigaversary; A Look At Some Of The Dearly Departed

One year has passed since Jean-Sebastian Giguere ripped the Colorado Avalanche players apart for giving up on a hopeless season and looking more forward to a trip to Vegas than playing out the remaining games as professionally as possible. To sum it up, what Jiggy did was remind his lazier, less skilled teammates that there was still hockey to be played and they should actually try. That lit a little bit of a fire under the Avs and they started to play a little better, ending the season going 4-3-2.

So yes, a year has passed, some players have moved on, and oh yeah, the Avs are 4^th place in the NHL, 2 points out of 1^st in the Northwest Division. The pros stepped up, and they are playing real hockey now, and some lazy, terrible, not-good-enough-to-play-in-the-UHL  players have moved on. Let’s check up on them shall we?

Ryan O’Byrne: Remember him? We try not to. O’Byrne went to the Leafs in exchange for a 4^th round pick and then the Leafs figured out just who Ryan O’Byrne was and decided not to sign him. See? They can still sort of run a hockey team. O’Byrne now plays for HC Lev Praha of the KHL. The KHL. Where washed up NHLers go to die.

Greg Zanon: Remember his beard? That was pretty much the only good thing about his time in Colorado. Zanon can also be remembered for winning the “Most time spent flopping around on the ice out of position other than Roberto Luongo” award. Zanon was so bad that the Avs decided to buy him out. He has since found a home for the San Antonio Rampage in the AHL. He has played a whopping 21 games and has 4 assists. He didn’t score for the Avs either. Don’t you miss him?

David Jones: Jones played the majority of last season making Paul Stastny and friends look just dreadful. Jones had 3 goals and 9 points in 33 games, and we shipped him off to Calgary. He has 17 points (9 goals) in 48 games this year, which is better, but we probably speak for everybody when we say Alex Tanguay injured is better than David Jones healthy.

Shane O’Brien: Put Jones and Zanon’s write ups together and you get Shane O’Brien. Just add in very untimely lazy stupid penalties and absolutely no offense or defence, and there ya go.

So thank you JS Giguere. For trying to light a fire under these guys and for exposing the toxic elements that had invaded the Avs dressing room. And you made everyone else realize how much Joe Sacco didn’t mean to the team. The winner in all this? The 2013-14 Colorado Avalanche. The 2^nd place winner: The KHL, who will eventually serve as home to all these players and the players can look forward to horrible hockey conditions, no crowds, and not being paid by billionaire oil tycoons. 2 out of the 3 things listed there are characteristics of every Bettman expansion team other than Nashville.