The Avs played the final game of the season tonight, and it looks like I picked a good one to go to. I have pictures, but I have to sort them. Again I picked a good one to go to, as the Avs won 6-3. At first, it looked like they were going to phone it in, but picked up the pace in the second period.

A few notes:

Scott Parker (Heart and Soul) got a goal tonight.

Ian Laperriere kicked the crap out of Dion Phaneuf. It was sweet to watch.

Joe Sakic got three points in the game, giving him 100 points on the season. Just incredible.

Overall, a great way to finish out the season. I’ll have more later, I have to go catch a flight.

Note: Trolls can go home. That is all.

Technorati : Avalanche, Avs, Flames, Hockey, NHL

It is all heavy sighs and mopey faces in camp JAHL for now. The end of the Avs season, the end of an amazing comeback that nobody expected, the final puck will be dropped tonight in Le Can, and there will be no more live hockey in Tapelegsville for the year. It doesn’t feel good. It is probably magnified by the fact that I was blogging about the Avs, and following closer than ever before. And truth be told, I’m a little sadder than I thought I would be.

But it won’t last.

Here, it’s all about the hockey love. The Avs are done, but there is still hockey left to play. Playoff hockey at that, the best kind of hockey. Regardless of how the broadcasts can be on Versus, there is national coverage, so I get to see more hockey. By the time that starts, I’ll be happy as hell. Playoffs baby, yeah.

At this point, I feel worse for other fans and bloggers than myself. Like E at Theory of Ice. This post just breaks my heart. Or how about the Oiler fans, who saw their franchise traded away, and hope went with it. How about the Bruins fans who expected more from Chara than they got. Or the minor league fans who don’t get to watch their teams on TV, or the Blue Jackets fans who are still waiting for their shot.

I feel pretty bad for the Avs themselves as well. Peter Budaj, in his post game interview, was ready to hide in a corner and do what real men do when no one is looking. (no, not that. sicko) Coach Q showed more humanity than I have seen before. Paul Stastny has to feel bad, as though there was more he could have done (he couldn’t, he did so much already), and Milan Hejduk, who has been talking about how fun the locker room has been lately, can’t be a happy man right now. Or how about Joe Sakic, who carried this team from day one, who had an outstanding year, who got better as the season went on (at age 37), and will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1993-94 season. He, who is one of the most respected and best players in the NHL, and who is one of the most diplomatic of players, can not be feeling very good right about now.

Even Peter Forsberg seemed kind of down about the game. From Adrian Dater and the Denver Post:

“It was tough to play today,” he said. “Sometimes, you don’t know what you have until you leave. We’ll see what happens if I continue to play in the future. But I’ve got nothing else to say but good words about this place.”

All I can say about that is wow. Money, for those who should be paying attention, isn’t everything.

How about this (same source):

In a deserted dressing room, Avs veteran Ian Laperriere – who was robbed by Predators goalie Tomas Vokoun on a doorstep chance in the third – verged on teary emotion when discussing a great run that fell short.

“It’s not all positive, obviously. We didn’t make the playoffs. But there’s a lot of positives about this (run),” Laperriere said. “A lot of teams would have given up. Everybody picked up their game, but it was too late. It’s disappointing, don’t know what else to say.”

What do you say to that? How does how I feel compare? I cheered and hoped and yelled and wrote, but in the end, it wasn’t me who didn’t make it to the playoffs. I didn’t lose the big one, and have to watch the playoffs from the couch when I could be skating in them. If this team had finished the season as they started it, they wouldn’t have earned this kind of feeling, this emotion. After the run they had, after picking up the pace and showing the quality play they should have known they possessed, they earned it.

My sadness won’t last long. I’m going to turn may attention to the playoffs, and pick someone to root for. Probably the team with the best story behind it, maybe someone who hasn’t won the Cup before. A team not in the Trifecta of Evil.

I mean, there’s still hockey to play. And hockey day is always a good day.

(By the way, did I forget to mention that goals against Theodore didn’t count this season? Oops. Sorry.)

For those looking for Marshmallow bunnies reenacting hockey and describing things, keep scrolling down.

Technorati : Avalanche, Avs, Colorado, Hockey, NHL

Well, that is that.

Am I sad? Only a little. The way these last 20 games went was a gift. There is really no other way to look at it for me.

I’ll put a little perspective to it tomorrow. For now, thanks for a great year, Avalanche. I loved blogging about it.

(but I ain’t done yet)

Technorati : Avalanche, Avs, Colorado, Hockey, NHL, Predators

This is the post I have been thinking about writing for days.

Everyone who pays attention to the Western Conference knows the story. The Avalanche are 3 points behind the Flames, each one has two games to play, and the last one, the final game of the regular season, the only game playing at the time, will be the Avs versus the Flames. It has all the earmarks of a knock down, drag out finale, only seen at the end of the first Star Wars film (you know, number four, not that awful stuff he put out later, unless you consider Tanguay Jar Jar Binks). One game to decide who makes it to the playoffs.

The odds have been stacked against the Avalanche all season long. Those who are in-the-know predicted the Avs being so far down the list, they would be close to taking the first overall draft pick. If it weren’t for the play of Paul Stastny and Peter Budaj, they may have been right. The unsurprisingly poor play of Jose Theodore was enough to drag the team down, not to mention that it didn’t look like much of a team in front of him.

And somehow, they made a comeback. Somehow, this group of players became a team, and pushed forward, going on a tear, winning game after game. These players finally became what I was hoping they would become, a force to be reckoned with. They started playing together, rather than little islands unto themselves. They finally started to gel.

About 50 games too late.

The chances of Sunday nights game being the deciding factor is slim. Nashville has to lose, which has more potential at this point (4-4-2 in the last ten games, but still has a very winning record on the road), then the other thing that has to happen. Calgary has to lose to the Oilers. The Battle of Alberta has to swing the direction nobody thinks it will. While Edmonton will be playing for only pride, Calgary are playing for their lives, and will want to crush the Oilers quickly and decisively. My guess, that’s what happens.

So what if the Avalanche don’t make it to the playoffs? What happens if they are the first Avs to miss the post-season since coming to Denver?

Well, nothing really. The fans of other teams will dance around like they did something, but they didn’t. There will be cries from the rooftops of “Glory, glory, hallelujah,” as Avs haters point fingers and laugh, saying how they knew this would happen. But I know there was fear in their hearts. Fear that the Avs would dash more hopes and dreams. They will be watching the playoffs with an eye toward next year, and knowing that the Avs could be back in this thing with a vengeance.

Unlike the haters, I have watched the Avs. A lot. Actually, thanks to this blog, more than any previous season. I saw how they played through the entire season, not just in little post game recaps and highlight reels. There was something there. Unfortunately, that something remained untapped. The most frustrating thing for me was seeing the flashes that would come in spurts, but not be sustained. The start of the season held promise, and the kids were alright. But it was clear what they were lacking, and it wasn’t just goaltending. It was playing like a team. Players never do it, but most nights, you could point fingers. Those fingers found different targets from game to game. The Avs, from the start, shot themselves. No team did it to them as much as they did it to themselves.

I don’t say this very often, but Terri Frei said it well:

The best thing that can happen to the Avalanche now? (And this tunes out the whining from the comptroller and the ownership, the Stan Kroenke empire that also includes the Nuggets, the Pepsi Center, a new soccer stadium and soccer and lacrosse teams.) The best scenario is Colorado wins its final two, finishes on a 16-1-2 run, but barely misses the postseason.

I completely agree. If this were an Avalanche team who had fought hard from the beginning, players who acted like they deserved to be at the big dance, I would be happy to see them make a run at the Cup, even from the eighth playoff spot. But, no matter who they met in the first round, be them Wings, Sharks, Ducks, Wild or whoever, the quick first round exit would be the most likely scenario. How would a team who didn’t start acting like a team until the trade deadline do in the playoffs? My feeling is not too well. (But apparently Scott Parker is the heart and soul of the team after Super Joe, and Brad May was a cancer, at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it)

It will be nice, if that’s the case, to watch the playoffs this year from the outside looking in. Last year, I didn’t expect the Marty Turco show to experience technical difficulties, and fully expected the Avs to lose in the first round. I was watching the first round from Hartford, CT with hands over my eyes, like I was watching a horror movie. If I felt strongly last season, I am in complete belief of that this year. The only thing a playoff berth would achieve is extending the Avs playing time, and making the hat the Theodore wears on the bench become saturated with more hair product.

This year, I don’t need it.

I saw this great post from the Acid Queen, and I feel the need to quote her here:

Win with class, lose with dignity-that lesson was taught to me by (of all people) a Sabres fan. Sure, it feels good to dance on the graves of your perceived enemies and wave your e-peen around for all to see-but all it does is make you look like a classless piece of garbage. The gods favor the worthy, and if your team isn’t judged worthy, then you shake your opponent’s hand, congratulate him on a series well-played, and look ahead to next season. If your team is judged worthy, then you shake your opponent’s hand, congratulate him on a series well-played, and look ahead to the next round or the next season. There’s plenty of crying in hockey, but no whining.

Go read the full post, it’s worth it. It could surprise some people that someone who calls themselves the Acid Queen would be so balanced in their teams miss of the playoffs, but I’ve met her. At risk of my personal well-being, I will tell you she is a really nice person. And she has a damn good point. Not behaving like an ass-hat at others pain is something hard to achieve, and the playoffs magnify this.

When I went to the Stanley Cup Final game 7 in 2003, I went pulling for the Ducks. MegMegMeg was by my side, and wearing a Ducks jersey (I didn’t have one, yet). While we were in line to buy SCF merch, the guy in front of us bought an extra puck, handed it to MegMegMeg, and told he she deserved it for having the “balls to wear that jersey.” After the Ducks lost, the Devils fans were nothing but classy, telling us how the Ducks put up a huge fight, that Giguere was incredible in goal, making us feel like the 14 hour drive hasn’t ending on a completely sour note. The Devils fans weren’t pointing and laughing, they were taking us in as hockey fans. Before the game was a little jeering, but afterwords, nothing but class.

It’s 2:00 in the afternoon as I finish this up. The Avs play in about five hours. I am completely psyched for the game. Anyone who walks by my apartment door will hear me shout “No!” at any defensive breakdown, “Yes!” at any Avs goal, and swearing at any goal against. And I’ll do it tomorrow night, no matter the implications. Because I am an Avs fan. I always want them to win. If they squeak into the playoffs, I will be jumping up and down on my chair, playing the fool. I will hope for the best, hope for the two points, just plain hope.

And if they miss the playoffs, I’m OK with that. Because there is next season, and it’s going to kick ass.

Technorati : Avalanche, Avs, Hockey, NHL

Well, it wasn’t a meltdown, more like this.

Yeah, that would be Luongo on the right. And that would be Milan Hejduk on the left.

Hejduk got the job done with the hat trick tonight, with Paul Stastny getting assists on all three goals. The Canucks looked dangerous tonight, but didn’t pull it off in the end. Still, they had a really good game, and fought the entire way. The second period was just intense. And the Canucks penalty kill was incredible. So, really, hats off to them.

If you want to see some of the serious smack talk that was happening today, you should look here. I’m guessing Alanah won’t want to talk to be for a while.

Also, as I write this, it’s 4-1 Sharks, so it could be Calgary having the meltdown. Hope…Springs…

Gamesheet

Edit: Flames lose, Avs win, 3 points back.  How about that?

 

Technorati : Avalanche, Avs, CAnucks, Hockey, NHL, Vancouver