Colorado starts the season with a win

[Ville Isopaa]

After a tough battle, including Ballard fighting Shanahan, a fight he lost on points, the Avalanche take a 3-2 win over the Blue Jackets. The Avalanche special teams did a great job with scoring one goal on the 2 power plays they got in the game. The ref was obviously a Blue Jackets fan, or his mothers uncle might be related to the GM or something, as he started the game with handing out four 2 minute minors and a 5 minute major to Avalanche players, making so bad calls that even the Columbus radio commentators were wondering what he had against the Avs. Luckily the Avalanche have great penalty killing units, that had no problems turning aside the few weak shots that the Columbus power plays were able to get.
With the game at 2-2, Shanahan decided to try and fight Ballard. After some hugging by Shanny punches were thrown and he ended up with 5 hits to Ballards 4 before the linesmen broke it up, so a slight win to Shanny on that. Pettinger then scored and the game was won by the Avalanche!

Click to read more...

 

[Ohio Jones]

For the record, Ville, when the sim result says "Brendan Shanahan beat up Keith Ballard", your boy didn't lose on points - he lost on blood, and possibly teeth.

Kudos for the win, though - your special teams really carried the day (whereas mine blew chunks - something I'm going to have to monitor). I can't believe my boys went 0-for-7 on the PP (including a major penalty), but my PK managed to give up a goal on just two chances for you! It looks like we had a slow start offensively across the board - despite all the powerplays early on, I could only muster 7 shots in the first period, and 8 in the second. Ugly. It got better in the third, but too little too late.

Ah, well - as is often the case coming out of training camp, we obviously need some extra practice with our special teams.

Could this be a sign of the new order in the West, or is it just post-final letdown? (Ask the Sabres how that feels...)