GDT: Game 39: Avs vs Flames | 8 PM MT | January 2, 2016

[Foppa2118]

As far as I'm concerned, his current play is having a drastic effect on our chances at the playoffs

His first period tonight aside, he hasn't been nearly that bad. He's still a much better option than anyone that would replace him in the top 6. Especially defensively 5 on 5 and on the PK.

 

[cgf]

next 5 are LA/Blues/Preds/Hawks/Bolts

tough stretch

Sweet, we've got a winning streak coming up!

One comment from Gary Galley (CBC) has me thinking: he said the guys were super loose at the morning skate, joking around. I'm not sure the country club atmosphere is the best thing for this group.

With everyone obsessing about #600, I could not disagree with you more. Anything that takes their minds off of that and gets them to just play hockey again is a good thing.

 

[CobraAcesS]

If he did that and missed the rest of the season, all we'd hear about is what a bad captain he is for bailing on his team when he could've toughed it out...

From who? Adrian Dater? Toronto fans?

I really don't care what Toronto fans bring up when they are trying to devalue a player they're asking for in a trade proposal.

So...



HEHEHE

 

[Metallo]

Sweet, we've got a winning streak coming up!



With everyone obsessing about #600, I could not disagree with you more. Anything that takes their minds off of that and gets them to just play hockey again is a good thing.

I'm not just talking about the current situation, I'm talking in general. I feel like Roy is too buddy buddy with the players and too easy on them. There attention to detail is just not good enough. The effort and focus is uneven and that is on the coach.

 

[AslanRH]

Handing out awards tonight in the Avs locker room was pretty easy

 

[cgf]

I'm not just talking about the current situation, I'm talking in general. I feel like Roy is too buddy buddy with the players and too easy on them. There attention to detail is just not good enough. The effort and focus is uneven and that is on the coach.

That is also on youth and a lack of talent around the core resulting in too many players playing above their station. And having the oldies (minus Beauch) decide that they've worked hard enough in their careers hasn't helped.

Roy also doesn't seem like one who has a problem being hard on guys who can give us more than they are, when it's necessary. He may not go all NickSaban on the kids at all times because he realizes that young players are going to make mistakes while they learn; but that doesn't mean there's zero accountability either.

 

[Metallo]

That is also on youth and a lack of talent around the core resulting in too many players playing above their station. And having the oldies (minus Beauch) decide that they've worked hard enough in their careers hasn't helped.

Roy also doesn't seem like one who has a problem being hard on guys who can give us more than they are, when it's necessary. He may not go all NickSaban on the kids at all times because he realizes that young players are going to make mistakes while they learn; but that doesn't mean there's zero accountability either.

We have enough talent to be better. Playing with structure and focus can cover a lot of warts. Gotta wonder how the NJD have more points than us with their ****** lineup.

 

[Avsboy]

Handing out awards tonight in the Avs locker room was pretty easy

Redmond wouldn't even get this tbh.

I've just now had the privilege of voting in the poll. I went with the Iggy retirement option....cmon Iggy, retire tonight please

 

[CoachBadkitten]

yikes what a rough night.

Only one who had a decent game by the end was Martinsen. Soderbeg looked ok to start but too many of his passes to the front went to Flames players.

 

[AslanRH]

I have to learn when VBookie has the Avs as favorites that it is a sucker bet.

Not really much I can say for positives, but I did like that Grigs got some time off the 4th line. That line still got some chances which just reinforces my belief it is time for him to move up a line.

The Martinsen top 6 experiment needs to end. He just doesn't seem to be any kind of threat in the offensive zone. He is adequate along the boards and his 2 way play is ok, but he can be pretty much ignored once he crosses the blue line.

The team was brutal in puck pursuit, and has been most of the year. Not sure what they need to do to fix that, but until they start winning those races consistently, there are going to be lots of games like this one.

 

[Avs_19]

Avs got outworked and outplayed from start to finish. You guys are better than the "they just kept trying to set up Iginla" stuff because you know that's not true. It's as if people were ready with that excuse from the start and were sticking with it no matter what. The funny thing is that two of the better scoring chances came on that early PP when Iginla was moving and getting himself into scoring positions. Avs made the smart and correct play getting the puck to him. MacKinnon was on his line and he wasn't looking for him at all. He just played his normal game, like he's supposed to do.

Too many guys played poorly tonight and that can't happen on a team like this. Not when there's such little depth.

I thought Duchene played well for the most part. Both with his individual effort and trying to set his linemates up. I think it's only a matter of time before he gets frustrated and goes more towards the individual stuff because of who he's playing with. It was would good to see MacKinnon back with him in the third. Keep both Mitchell and Martinsen away from him. Otherwise, we're going to see the bad and selfish version of Duchene and I wouldn't even blame him for it.

Young guys like Grigorenko, Gormley, and Pickard played limited minutes but there were a lot of positives there.

Redmond was horrific.

 

[chet1926]

Not sure what to say about this one, just a garbage effort.

This team is too focused on Iginla and they aren't playing hockey. There were at least 4 times tonight we passed up good shots to try to force a tough play to Iginla. He needs to bury one fast so we can move on from this 600 nonsense. I'm not saying it isn't a great accomplishment, but we can't keep changing our play style to force it to get it done.

Speaking of Iginla and Tanguay, they are really killing this team. They are occupying two top 9 winger spots and they are playing like absolute trash. We'd be better off playing players like Hishon or Aggozino or Smith at least they'd win a puck battle occasionally.

If I'm Sakic, I've got to have a sit down with both Tanguay and Iginla and get them to agree to a trade. They have no future here and it's clearly not working out how it was originally intended. We need them both out of the lineup.

All I can say is Rantanen better be called up as soon as he can't hit the 40 game mark for the year. He is infinitely better than pretty much every winger on the team not named Landeskog.

For that matter Zadorov better get the chance to come back sooner than later. I mean how many games of Redmond or Stuart or Guenin do we have to watch while he sits in the minors. Time to give him some consistent time at the NHL level.

 

[chet1926]

Avs got outworked and outplayed from start to finish. You guys are better than the "they just kept trying to set up Iginla" stuff because you know that's not true. It's as if people were ready with that excuse from the start and were sticking with it no matter what. The funny thing is that two of the better scoring chances came on that early PP when Iginla was moving and getting himself into scoring positions. Avs made the smart and correct play getting the puck to him. MacKinnon was on his line and he wasn't looking for him at all. He just played his normal game, like he's supposed to do.

Too many guys played poorly tonight and that can't happen on a team like this. Not when there's such little depth.

I thought Duchene played well for the most part. Both with his individual effort and trying to set his linemates up. I think it's only a matter of time before he gets frustrated and goes more towards the individual stuff because of who he's playing with. It was would good to see MacKinnon back with him in the third. Keep both Mitchell and Martinsen away from him. Otherwise, we're going to see the bad and selfish version of Duchene and I wouldn't even blame him for it.

Young guys like Grigorenko, Gormley, and Pickard played limited minutes but there were a lot of positives there.

Redmond was horrific.

Got to agree. Wish Roy would start to trust Grigorenko and Gormley more, instead of running the same trashy players out who consistently suck.

Grigorenko has proven to be a very reliable defensive player, who makes lots of smart plays. I guarantee that if he was given some decent line mates he'd start putting up some better offensive numbers.

As for Gormley, I've got to say I've been pretty impressed lately with his play. He is still very young and makes some young player mistakes. But he also makes lots of very solid plays. I like that he is pretty calm with the puck and is able to make decent passes. I think if he ever gets a more offensive shot his numbers could go up. I don't think he'll ever be a 40pts guy or anything but 25pts isn't something that is super unrealistic in the future. I mean you have to remember that most of his chances this year have come with Guenin and Redmond, and he never gets any PP time even though he has a good shot. So if he ever gets a competent partner and some PP time here and there the offense will come.

 

[tigervixxxen]

We're not making it up when Roy even said it himself they are deferring to Iggy too much. No it's not literally every single time they are in the offensive zone, MacKinnon took a few shots himself I recall in particular. It's just there have been a few instances where it was obvious that's what they were doing. Roy even referenced Tanguay passing up an open net to pass to Iggy. It's not the sole reason they lost but it's never one thing anyway. A team that has trouble focusing is susceptible to distraction and the 600 thing is becoming a bit of a circus, you could see it in the 6 minute scrum Iggy he had with the Calgary media. Now that they are gone maybe it will calm down a little.

 

[dahrougem2]

Lol Redmond is awful I can't believe I'm actually going to be happy seeing Guenin replace him next game, you know it's going to happen. Roy doesn't put up with that kind of crap from Redmond.

I thought Duchene was pretty bad tonight. He seemed like he was on a one-man solo mission all night long. Not that I blame him, he's got Mitchell (who played poorly) and Martinsen (useless in a top-9 role) as linemates. But you still gotta use them. Even the CBC announcers could see it happening.

Exhibit A as to why I don't want to pay Tyson Barrie a penny more than 6M per season was Backlund's goal in the 2nd period. Gross.

Iginla needs his 600th goal in the worst way to rid this team of worrying about it. Tanguay in the 1st period had a parting of the red sea on his way to the net from the corner on the powerplay, and instead of shooting the puck he tried to pass to Iginla, and it failed. Scoring a goal there could have changed the entire game, because he should have scored there.

1 shot in the 3rd period is also very embarrassing, guess they just mailed it in after 40 minutes.

Calgary just outworked us tonight. They hounded us on the forecheck all night long, and their defensemen were always pinching because they know we always break out up the boards, and our wingers weren't ready for it. Roy didn't adjust, and the end result is an embarrassing 4-0 shutout loss.

 

[Raithe]

This team is a joke. I don't post here very often but I've been a fan since I was 10.. every year it gets harder to watch. That's no compete. Not from our top guys at least. I don't know why but it's ready to tell when this team is being shut out. And this game was obvious after the first that Colorado wouldn't score. They just get a certain body language and that's it. Like 9 times out of ten you can call when they'll be shut out...

 

[McMetal]

We have enough talent to be better. Playing with structure and focus can cover a lot of warts. Gotta wonder how the NJD have more points than us with their ****** lineup.

Hit the nail on the head. They play like a unit, and our team just doesn't do that. I wonder how many times we have to get outplayed in a winnable game before people start talking about the systems and strategy. We go on a little winning streak and everybody says "See, Roy's doing fine! Everything is fine!" and then we break down again because we can't get by every night just relying on our star players to have good games. Varley stole us that road winning streak, Soderberg stole us the SJ game, and EJ stole us that point against Chicago. We need a team system that can make use of what we have, because once we're in the O-zone we look like a bunch of children chasing the puck around.

Sadly for us, the team has enough talent to keep stealing games for Roy and insulating him from the consequences of being a mediocre coach. The Avs need more than just a pep talk at this point. We need a change behind the bench, and I'm afraid we're going to waste the prime years of this rebuild on somebody who has a job based on his history with the organization and not because he's the best option to get us a cup.

 

[tigervixxxen]

It's not one thing, it's not everything is fine or terrible. Some nights things work and then things don't. No one person can win a game on a regular basis. You don't just have one player who does one thing that completely discounts what happened for the other 59:59 of game. Goalies might do it on occasion but even then is blown out of proportion. The hyperbole and bipolarism is just exhausting. Not everything has to be an extreme exaggeration all the time. There's reactions but that's such a minor part of what goes on here. It's a lot of things that contribute to a loss. Things are never as good or as bad as they seem. And there shouldn't be total hysteria after one game. Christ let's see how the week goes at least. And really, the reality is most people don't want them in a true playoff chase if we are being perfectly honest.

 

[UncleRisto]

Well aren't I glad I missed this one. Wasn't a very pleasant rerun on GCL. Quick one though.

 

[klozge]

And there shouldn't be total hysteria after one game. Christ let's see how the week goes at least. And really, the reality is most people don't want them in a true playoff chase if we are being perfectly honest.

it's not just one game. It started in the 2nd half of the very successful season two years ago. How often do we complain about the lack of effort, how often has Roy been outcoached, how often do the players look for the perfect play and don't find it, how often do they fail to clear their zone, how often don't the lines make sense, how often do the Avs play some kind of outdated hockey...?
The team has been pretty successful lately but too often the other teams looked better over long stretches of the games. It was obvious that this success would come to an end soon.
Also let's imagine the Avs still sneak into the playoffs... there's just no way they can win a round with Roy standing behind the bench. He is not smart enough as a coach. Compete is extremely important but it's not enough to turn you into a great team.

 

[Freudian]

I wouldn't mind if Grigorenko and Skille got a couple of minutes from Mitchell and Comeau.

I don't think Avs will make the playoffs and I have said this since October. There will be ebbs and flows where Avs get a bit closer and then when they drift off but when you dig a hole like they did in October, it usually means you are out of it. Add that they play in a brutal division and it's extremely hard to make up ground.

Five Central teams are six games above .500 or better. Avs are at .500. They not only have to pass one of those but also make sure they are ahead of four Pacific teams, which is far from certain with Ducks, Sharks, Flames and Canucks right at their heels. It's not an emotional argument nor do I hate the Avs and enjoy predicting them missing the playoffs. It's just math. It's very hard to make up ground in the long run.

 

[UncleRisto]

I wouldn't mind if Grigorenko and Skille got a couple of minutes from Mitchell and Comeau.

I don't think Avs will make the playoffs and I have said this since October. There will be ebbs and flows where Avs get a bit closer and then when they drift off but when you dig a hole like they did in October, it usually means you are out of it. Add that they play in a brutal division and it's extremely hard to make up ground.

Five Central teams are six games above .500 or better. Avs are at .500. They not only have to pass one of those but also make sure they are ahead of four Pacific teams, which is far from certain with Ducks, Sharks, Flames and Canucks right at their heels. It's not an emotional argument nor do I hate the Avs and enjoy predicting them missing the playoffs. It's just math. It's very hard to make up ground in the long run.

I don't know why you think it's okay to post about this and be entirely realistic throughout a post without bashing anyone or spewing hyperbole but I think it's very easy to agree with this.

 

[DUHockey]

Roy, combined with the older veterans on this team is the recipe for what we're seeing.

Not putting the best available team on the ice every night is a problem for Sakic. Check out the plus/minus stats for this squad, they don't lie. Yet the oldest guys never have zero accountability. Landy is the Captain only in letter. He can't call out guys like Iginla and Tanguay in the locker room. It doesn't seem like there is a whole lot of fight left in this team and we'll see that when they play the Kings on Monday night.

Roy will only rotate out low minute guys like Grigs, Marty and Wags, who by most accounts and stats, should be in this line up every night. It's like watching a retirement or alumni game tour every night and nothing can be done about it.

 

[Hesher]

Well aren't I glad I missed this one. Wasn't a very pleasant rerun on GCL. Quick one though.

Same here lol. I was too tired to wake up at 4AM so I decided to just watch it the next day. Only lasted until Stajan's goal.

It was a bad game, it happens. I'm sure we'll see a much better showing against LA.

 

[Metallo]

I wouldn't mind if Grigorenko and Skille got a couple of minutes from Mitchell and Comeau.

I don't think Avs will make the playoffs and I have said this since October. There will be ebbs and flows where Avs get a bit closer and then when they drift off but when you dig a hole like they did in October, it usually means you are out of it. Add that they play in a brutal division and it's extremely hard to make up ground.

Five Central teams are six games above .500 or better. Avs are at .500. They not only have to pass one of those but also make sure they are ahead of four Pacific teams, which is far from certain with Ducks, Sharks, Flames and Canucks right at their heels. It's not an emotional argument nor do I hate the Avs and enjoy predicting them missing the playoffs. It's just math. It's very hard to make up ground in the long run.

While I don't disagree with you, the math says we have a 33% chance of making the playoffs.

Should we brush away bad games by saying we didn't have a chance anyway or should we ask more from this team?