Tonight, I decided to do a last minute change of plans, and go to the tilt, Avs vs Sharks. I got the 20 dollar ticket on the street, but first, I must eat. So I’m at Brooklyn’s bar right at the enterance of the Pepsi Center. 2 live periods beats none.
Nabokov in goal vs Theodore. Let’s hope there’s some Avs scoring tonight. Updates later. Let’s go Avs.
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Sent from my Treo
That’s right, more…
Mick (MaGoo) McGeouch (I spy, with my little eye, A PENALTY!!! or not…)
 
 Philippe Sauve (update) Not sooner do I post this than Sauve is traded from Pheonix to Boston, and sent down to the minors. Perhaps this comparison is too much to bear for the Gretz.
Don’t believe me?
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Don’t miss the other ones. They make me laugh.
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I know that most (American) cities don’t have the kind of television support the Avalanche have. Of course, the Avs owner also owns the network the Avs are shown on (along with half the sporting town). Today, ad nausium, Roy was celebrated for his great career, and his Hall of Fame induction. Just now, on the Altitude television channel, Roy was interviewed by announcer Peter McNab. Roy was pretty humble (for Roy) about his accomplishments, and talked about how surprised he was that his career went the way it did. Lets hope someone posts it to youtube. It’s worth a watch.
The Oilers were in town tonight, and I thought about going to the game at the Pepsi Center, but looking at my work schedule over the next few weeks (getting bigger by the day), my on hand cash (not that big), and the pile of laundry (HUGE!!!!). I decided to stay home and see the replays. What does that mean? The Avs don’t play replays of anything that goes against the Avs. No goals against, no penalty calls, no hard checks. You get a Ken Burns style photo, a deep, bassy, sound-of-doom pad, and a lot of people wondering what just happened. Don’t blink during an Avs home game.
(You would know that already if Blogger hadn’t gone down for a while tonight, as I tried to do a pregame post. More on that in a bit)
Here are my thoughts on Patrick Roy’s night:
For all the anger and dislike of Patrick Roy, he is the greatest goaltender ever. There are plenty of people who can’t stand the guy, but anyone who cries at their jersey retirement ceremony can’t be that bad (yes, even Mark Messier)
The Hejduk goal was a nice little play, with some serious traffic around the Oilers net. The top line of Sakic, Brunette, and Hejduk are playing well. Let’s see how long it takes the Q to change the lineup again.
Ryan Smyth, what can I say. What a great first goal, and hard work on the second. I have nothing bad to say about that.
What is Laperriere doing on a line with Stastny and Wolski? Why is Svatos on the third line? What is the point of this? Laperriere is nice and fun behind the net, but so is Stastny. When is this crap going to settle down? Hey, Q, let the boys play. They are your best asset.
Penalty after penalty called on the Avs in the third period. And you know what? They were all good calls. It ain’t the refs, folks.
Hejduk is on fire tonight. Skating like hell, doing the job. For those who said he had to step up his play, he has.
Ryan Smyth had to be helped off the ice after he tried to skate past John-Micheal Liles out of the Oilers zone. It didn’t look like a knee on knee, more like a knee on above-knee. From the replay, it’s hard to tell if Liles stuck his leg out or not. I’m sure different sides will be taking sides quickly. I hope Smyth’s going to be alright.
That is the 3rd one goal loss for the Avs in a row. But the Avs have the 3rd most goal for in the West. What does that tell me? That opponents are scoring a lot of goals against the Avs. That sounds obvious, but there are too many goals against all the time.
Theodore looked good in goal. The rest of the team? Questionable.
For the Oiler blog perspective, check out Covered in Oil and the Battle of Alberta. But really, there are so many Oiler blogs, I think it must be required for residency in Edmonton.Finally:
Blogger took a crap again tonight. I am really thinking about moving this blog to it’s own domain. I have a few other ideas for a site, mostly centered around the blog. What do you think about them apples? After looking at the cool blogs and sites of Wicked Bruins Fan, So Very Obsessed, Behind the Jersey, and Off Wing Opinion, I like the idea of rolling you own blog. Any thoughts?
Hey, and look at that, my offline blog writer isn’t able to post either. Are the blogging gods trying to tell me something?
After playing only 2 games with the Avs, this guy is out of here. From TSN:
The Ducks made two other deals on Monday, sending winger Todd
Fedoruk to the Philadelphia Flyers for a fourth-round pick and
acquiring George Parros
from the Colorado Avalanche for a second-round selection.
I wasn’t sure what the point of picking up Parros of waivers from L.A. was in the first place, unless you were going to send him down pretty quick to Albany. 2 games, thanks for the visit George, now get rid of that mustache.
Patrick Roy is taking his rightful place in the Hockey Hall of Fame today, and frankly, it’s taken all weekend to decide what to say about him. He hasn’t made things easy lately, on himself and on his fans and defenders. But that isn’t what made him a great goalie, and Patrick Roy is the best.
Patrick Roy left Montreal in a huff. As hard as it would be for Patrick to choose a team by which to identify as, here in Colorado, there has been no other goalie. David Aebischer lived in his shadow for a season and a half, after following Roy as his backup. Jose Theodore was traded to the Avs in hopes to be the next Roy, and the comparisons to the original trade could not be avoided.
If you want to really place Roy’s impact on the game, you can’t just do it in Montreal and Colorado. You have to look at the NHL and hockey as a whole. Roy was an inspiration to kids around the world, and started the slew of Quebec goalies who came along ever since. Roy made kids want to be in the net, rather than be forced in by a sibling. Kids looked up to him, as a goalie and a winner.
The last goal scored against Roy came in the 2003 playoffs, as the Minnesota Wild beat the Avs in game 6 of the Conference Semifinals. Who else would score that goal but current Avalanche Andrew Brunette. Roy was loosing a step at that point, but what do you expect from playing 19 seasons. Roy ended his career, and immediately his jersey was retired in Colorado. He deserved it.
To me, there isn’t a lot to say about Roy in Colorado, not for lack of material, but because he had one simple fact about him. He brought the Stanley Cup to Colorado. There are few players who make that kind of impact by simply showing up and being on your team. You can argue that the talent outside of the net in Colorado would have gotten the job done eventually, but I don’t believe that. As talented as the Avs were in front of Roy, they still didn’t have the netminding to win a cup. If you could trade Jocelyn Thibault for Patrick Roy, you would make that trade in a second, and that’s exactly what happened. Hell, if you could trade Jocelyn Thibault for a used Ford Pinto, you wouldn’t even kick the tires, you would just drive off into the sunset. Patrick Roy build this franchise in Denver. The Stanley Cup win in the first year of play in Denver made this team seem magical. Who could say what the Avalanche franchise would have looked like if not for that immediate win, especially in a city over-saturated with sports teams. Roy was the final ingredient of the magic potion that was used in Colorado.
Like I say, there isn’t a lot to say about Roy, other than that he is the best goalie in the world, and that means even better than Marty Brodeur. And in light of his recent comments and general mouthiness, he was hired to stop pucks, and he did that better than anyone. That is what counts in the end. Good on ya, Patrick.
For more about Patrick Roy, go to Eyes on the Prize, where Reality Check has a lot more to say, and does it better.
Last night was the opening of the Opera, and now it’s time to get back in the trenches around here. I haven’t had any real time to watch hockey, and have even recorded over the 6-5 Avs loss the Kings served up. After hearing the extent of the damage from the 2nd period (Theodore letting in 4 goals on 10 shots), I just couldn’t justify chopping out the time to watch the ass whipping. Tonight, it’s Avs vs Predators. That should be worth it. I’ll be watching it tomorrow, as I’m at work again tonight.
Aside from that, not much to report, but there will be next week, including forcing myself to post another jersey. I’ve been letting that important aspect of this blog go for too long. See you tomorrow.
Tapeleg OUT!!!
Avs take on the Kings at home for the second time tonight. I was kind of disappointed the last time they met, only because the home fans saw fit to boo Rob Blake a bit. The crowd was pretty mixed on reaction, but for a guy who gave a lot this team to get treated like that, it’s just sad. I never really cared for the booing of players, but I can kind of understand it. The fact that the Avs couldn’t afford Blake’s services any more isn’t Blake’s fault. The Avs didn’t think an old bonus in 2001 contracts would creep up on the salary cap era. And, really, I’m happy for Blake, that he gets to go back to a place he thinks of as home, live in his house he bought with the Kings, and his kids get to be back in California. Good for him.
But, we are going to crush his ass (you knew that was coming). Blake hasn’t been putting up Blake like numbers this year, but John-Micheal Liles is. And who thought that the signing of Dan Cloutier would be a scoop? I can’t say that the Avs are going to handle the Kings easily. It’s hockey, not Monopoly. OK, bad choice, maybe it’s not Stratego. But the Kings are remaining someone’s sleeper pick, mostly on the sleepy side.
If you want the King’s side of things, the best I can give you is The Battle of California. Mostly, it’s become a Ducks blog, rather than a battle. But that’s cool. It’s telling that Earl Sleek has dropped Cloutier in one of his many hockey pools. Don’t blame you there.
I will be watching the replay, and that might become the norm for a bit, as we have final dress rehearsal for the Opera tonight. So that means no pithy insights directly after the game. You wait your turn.
By the way, George Parros is not your typical goon, I guess. But that mustache has to go. Duuuuuude.
It was a hard choice at first, do I watch “Logan’s Run,” or watch the Avs. Tonight, I made the right choice. The Avs won a game they really shouldn’t have. The Canucks came out strong, stayed strong, and didn’t get the bounces. They were all over the Avs, making them dump the puck in, rather than carry it across the blue line. The old saying goes, I’d rather be lucky than good, and there was some serious luck tonight. Three pucks to posts after they got past Jose Theodore, and 38 shots for the Canucks vs. 20 for the Avs. Does this prove that Luongo isn’t the savior of the Canucks? Not yet, but that sure is fun to type. There will be some complaints about the first Avs goal, that Brunette may have interfered with Luongo, and you know what? Maybe. Hard to tell. But there you go, you can’t always complain like Roloson and make it work. The win puts the Avs into 2nd in the division, which I don’t think even Jim “Boomer” Gordon would have thought possible (that was a slight dig, but it’s made with love). This could be a flash in the pan (I am carefully pessimistic), but a few more wins would go a long way to making me feel better about the season.
Overall, it was an odd night in the NHL:
The Buffaslugs suffered their first regulation loss, to Toronto no less
Phoenix won
Boston scored 6 goals
Malkin didn’t score
The only thing that would have made the night stranger would be if Mick McGeough made a good call. That would use up one of his three a year.
The following are now known as the enemy. They should be carefully observed, and further recommendations will be considered:
Battlestar Galactica: Television is a low priority in my life. Outside of hockey, Jon Stewart, Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, and MXC, I keep away from it. Series are right out. Except Battlestar. Every week, I have a reason to say, “Holy shit.” If you don’t like the genre (sci fi TV is different than regular sci fi), I can understand. But if you have any hankering for some of the good stuff, this is it. Unlike most sci-fi television, there is a continuing theme and plot line that drives the story, not just degrading into one basic situation after another. If Battlestar is on, and a hockey game is on, the game comes second. I can watch a replay.
The Opera: Opera Colorado is gearing up for “The Magic Flute,” and we are trench deep in production. To say that a production schedule is hectic is to give hectic too much credit. The hours are long, the work is a bit demanding, and after a day of it, coming home to write about hockey is difficult at best. You don’t think about hockey, you think about where to hang a light, taping down cable, not falling to your doom from a balcony rail, making things nice and neat for the audience, and safe for the actors / singers. It’s great fun at times, and at others, it is aggravating and exhausting. Afterwords, you think to yourself, “Blog? What blog?”
The reading: There is a lot of good writing out there. It can take forever to sift through. Just take a look at some of the blogs in my blogroll. I need to update that thing, take out a few, add some more. I just cleaned out some of the blogs from my RSS reader, freeing up a bit more time. I wish I could read it all, but I just can’t. If you read this blog, hey, thanks. There is a lot of choices out there, and I like being one of them. It’s not always easy to keep up with the Jones, which you do have to do somewhat. It would be nice to be so self confident in my writing and blog to not have to worry about readership, but let’s face it. I have a sitemeter for a reason. Really, I don’t know how some people can keep up with all the reading. I just don’t have that kind of time. If I tried to stay with it all, I wouldn’t have any time for writing.
Backlog: I have recorded over the Avs win in Columbus, have the Blues game in the pipe, and am taping the Canucks tonight. All I need now is a few hours (or days) to watch games. I haven’t watched a game on OLN since the opening night. Too many Avs games to watch, and I haven’t even watched them all. And don’t forget, around here, hockey is a little more lonely than in Canada (not that we’re bad hockey fans around here. Don’t start quoting that for your own crafty purposes). Hockey isn’t watched in groups in bars as often as Monday Night Football. And I could give two shits about football. Watching a game means watching at home, unless I want to be assaulted by drunk women calling me a terrorist. So I have some viewing to do. And sometimes, in an 82 game season, it’s hard to care about what has already happened.
Avs-centric: When I started this blog, I didn’t foresee it as being an Avalanche blog, even though I knew the Avs would be a part of it. I wanted to talk hockey, all kinds of hockey. Womens, USA hockey, CHL, UHL, rec league. Just talking about hockey, not just my NHL team. Look where that went. But there you have it. The season has taken me, and this blog, over.
Long and the short, some of this will rectify itself soon, as the Opera gets up and running, and then Nutcracker will follow quickly after, and that should be a nice long run. But Fridays are still Battlestar Galactica night. What can I say, I’m a geek. I like it that way.
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