I couldn’t make heads or tails of the last five minutes last night at the American Airlines Center. Now it all makes sense, or something. From the Rocky Mountain News:

With five minutes remaining, Laperriere said, Fedoruk told him before a faceoff he planned to fight defenseman Kurt Sauer, who is 6-4 and 220 pounds but hardly is a fighter.

“(Fedoruk) said, ‘I have to do something, I haven’t done anything. I have to go after somebody,’” Laperriere said. “Well, he won’t go past me.”

OK, well, that makes sense. Little guy standing up for the non-fighter. But why did Lappy lose his cool? Oh, he wanted to:

Laperriere wasn’t penalized after the altercation, but he was given the heave-ho during the Avalanche’s ensuing power play for high-sticking and cross-checking Stars forward Jussi Jokinen.

“I thought it was a stupid move by Fedoruk,” Laperriere said. “I told their bench, ‘The next time I’m out there, I’ll do something stupid.’ It was a clean, stupid thing, I guess.”

Mission accomplished, Lappy.

Technorati Tags: Avalanche, Hockey, NHL, Stars

Ah, to be back home on a real keyboard, instead of the format killing non-Treo.

Well, for a presesaon game, it was quite a tilt. In fact, anyone who left early missed out on quite a scrap. The last seven minutes or so were worth the price of admission alone, but we will get to that. Lets start with a few pictures.

American Airlines Center is a pretty nice building. It’s designed to look old school, but the inside, while a little plain, is modern enough. It looks a little like an airport hanger from the outside, defying it’s clean and sparkly interior. Nothing like hockey. Still, a nice place.

They have the new jerseys in stock. I like these better than a lot of jerseys so far, especially the black ones (I know, say it ain’t so!). The material rocks. They even have them for the kids.

Isn’t that cute?

Hey, it’s the Fan Zam.

It has hydraulics. Seriously. Nothing says party like a Fan Zam.

That would be Scott Parker waiting after the game to have a few words with Krys Barch. Why you ask?

No reason. Just waiting for next game.

Things got pretty ugly in the third period, with Parker and Barch getting into it (resulting in double minors for each, rather than a fight). It was Barch’s third fight of the night, and a fan I talked to after the game told me he thought Barch didn’t want that fight. I can’t say I blame him.

Todd Fedoruk got into what looked like a onesided fight with Ian Laperriere, but it turned out that slamming Lappy’s head into the glass isn’t much of a fight, so Fedoruk took a walk. You would think that would have been enough for Lappy, with his ass being handed to him twice. You would think it was time to sit down. Turns out that would have been for the better. Lappy got out there, got pushed around a little, high sticked Jussi Jokinen and got knocked on his ass. All of this probably reminded him of his ass, and how it had been handed to him, and he wasn’t going to take it anymore. After the whistle, Lappy got straight up, looked Jussi in the eye, and gave him a juicy cross check. That got his ass tossed. Even with 1 minor, 2 majors and a game misconduct, he still didn’t lead the night in penalty minutes. I don’t know why Lappy lost his cool like he did, but I’m sure it will be in the funny papers tomorrow.

In the end, though, the Avs won. It may not count for anything, but it was a fun game to be at. Not a bad outing. Overall the kids did alright, there is a little fight in these guys, and if this type of team can win, even in the pre season against a stocked Stars team, they have a pretty good shot.

This could be a fun season.

Mr. Modono, you have something you want to add?

Don’t be sad, Mike, don’t be sad.

Technorati Tags: Avalanche, Hockey, NHL, Stars