GDT: Game 55: Avs vs Jets | 8 PM MT | February 6, 2016 | There's a Hockey Game Tonight

[Avs_19]

Im not sure how anyone can fault Grigs for that goal. The dude was putting in work in the O zone for about a minute. wanna blame someone? Blame Johnson for that Ryan O'Byrne lay on my belly defense.

He busted his ass to get back and managed to get there but then I don't know what happened to him. I thought he played it pretty poorly once he was back in the play, even if he was tired.

Not much to say about EJ's game right now. He either can't or for some reason won't move his feet and looks terrible because of it.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Naps on the SO are the best. I keep telling my hubby I'm hoing him out they are so good.

Anyway,

He thought it was goalie interference but admitted he was trying to fire the team up.

Liked they played with emotion in the 3rd. Mostly not good enough, haven't played well since the break.

EJ, Tyson, MacK, Dutchy, Landy are the leaders of the team, they are going to bring us to the playoffs or not.

Frei "are you calling them out"

No, I'm just saying how it is.

 

[AvsRobin]

I thought he was 'good' tonight but beastly in the 3 or so games before tonight. The all star break seemed to help.

Me too. I was more talking about the season as a whole. He has looked better last few games.

 

[CobraAcesS]

You have any idea where this team is going to finish? It's a little early to write off a draft pick we haven't made. At least wait until he's 19.

Just like I said during the crap start, Roy will not let this team go quietly into the night. It just isn't in him.

We'll finish with a mid round pick just outside of the top 10/11 or higher IMO. Unless we just miss and a miracle happens involving us winning the lottery.

So yeah, I think I can make an educated guess IMO.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

He busted his ass to get back and managed to get there but then I don't know what happened to him. I thought he played it pretty poorly once he was back in the play, even if he was tired.

Not much to say about EJ's game right now. He either can't or for some reason won't move his feet and looks terrible because of it.

Yeah it's tough to explain the fault in that goal. At first I wanted to **** on EJ and Grigo for not stopping with the play and call them lazy for turning off but after the replay I realized they did stop, just a second too late which is probably because they're tired. I guess I could hope EJ simply would have used his stick better because he's a defenseman but overall it's just a really unfortunate result of a tiring end to a shift. I won't sweat it.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Me too. I was more talking about the season as a whole. He has looked better last few games.

Yeah I agree. I've given enough hate to Landy for his first half

 

[tigervixxxen]

Just like I said during the crap start, Roy will not let this team go quietly into the night. It just isn't in him.

We'll finish with a mid round pick just outside of the top 10/11 or higher IMO. Unless we just miss and a miracle happens involving us winning the lottery.

So yeah, I think I can make an educated guess IMO.

They aren't going to be a bottom 5 team but with the parity who knows, they could finish with 90 points and pick either 8th or 14th.

 

[Avs_19]

Don't forget about the three games prior to the break. Picked up two wins but were badly outplayed by both the Stars and Kings. That's six bad games in a row.

 

[burnstick]

I thought bod has looked pretty good. Redmond I have zero faith in even as a 6th d.

Thought bods looked good tonight as well
+1
assist on a heads up pass for a goal
one hit ,one shot on net nice game sheet.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Don't forget about the three games prior to the break. Picked up two wins but were badly outplayed by both the Stars and Kings. That's six bad games in a row.

The scary thing is I dont see any signs of it getting better. Tonight they got frustrated and started to show some fight but that didnt do much to change the score.

 

[Jayevs]

Iginla/tanguay on a line can't win enough battles, the fourth line didn't have enough puck skill, landeskog/Soderberg ice time should be switched with Mitchell/Iginla.

Wouldn't mind bringing Zadorov up again to play with Beauchemin, and let Johnson figure his **** out on the third pair with Bigras.

 

[Avsboy]

Hate to say this, but post EJ comeback, Avs have stunk.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Hate to say this, but post EJ comeback, Avs have stunk.

You late to that party bruh been saying it all thread. Its true hes been bad and prolly still hurt.

 

[Foppa2118]

The play below the goal line is absolutely killing the Avalanche. It's been their biggest issue the last 5+ games.

They look like they're playing Sacco era defensive hockey. Just lose all the battles, let your teammates get double teamed, and play passive follow your man around the ice defense. Plus guys like Martinsen and Mitchell who can't win a board battle to get the puck out of the zone to save their lives, and EJ and Barrie continually circling back and turning the puck over, and it's just an absolute mess right now.

Varly looked ok in terms of saves tonight but his head wasn't quite there. Cleared two pucks unnecessarily right to Jets players (one resulted in a goal) and I agree with HNIC, he tried to sell that little bump at the worst time. You can't do that while you're killing a penalty and they have control of the puck and could shoot at any time. Cost them a goal.

They have two lines right now. Mitchell skated with his heads in the clouds for like the 20th game in a row, and Iggy and Tangs did absolutely nothing out there. Wagner was the only effective player on the 4th line, as Martinsen was just atrocious in his own zone, especially getting pucks out.

Patrick clearly made a calculated decision to lose it behind the bench. He was totally calm, and then just blew a complete gasket, knowing it would spark the team which it did. Almost worked, but EJ just like Holden on the other goal, did absolutely nothing but completely screen Varlamov from seeing the puck. EJ has got to get his **** together.

Barrie's getting bumped off every single puck behind the goal line, and continually turning pucks over after spinning back in his own zone, and Holden's game has completely fallen apart. They can't rely on that combo anymore. EJ losing his game makes the entire D unit a disaster.

Bigras IMO is pretty close to their best defenseman in his own zone right now, in terms of decision making, getting pucks out o the zone under pressure, and containing players defensively. Problem is they keep sticking him with 200 lb anvils every shift. So that effectively makes three crap D pairings when it's all said and done.

They have got to get this figured out, and it might take a trade for some kind of solid defenseman. They just can't keep letting this snowball, they have to fix it soon.

 

[dahrougem2]

We all knew this would happen, we all called it. The top-4 look beyond exhausted. Holden is back to looking like 3rd pairing material, Barrie looks like Zach Redmond with his constant turnovers and fear of a physical forecheck, and I can't even come up with something for EJ because he's doing his best to look like Ryan O'Byrne.

Iginla, Tanguay, Mitchell, and Martinsen are all useless. Nathan MacKinnon looks like Nail Yakupov and by the day Alex Barkov is looking like he's a far better player at the moment. MacK sure as hell doesn't look like a former 1st overall pick with how horrid he's been since December.

Just a pathetic showing tonight again.

 

[S E P H]

Could someone please tell me what type of defense Erik Johnson was playing on that 4th goal?

What's more unsustainable than Avs shot against record, is their winning record against the Central. That was obviously going to drop a tad because Avs are not that good and the Central isn't that bad. Good news though! With the Avs being so out-shot the past 6-8 games, that is probably unsustainable as well, so they will must get better.

Anyway, tough loss, but Avs were always this type of team. They're not good, they're not great, but they're not bad, they are as we all thought they are....just okay. Fighting for a playoff spot, but would make it if some players who have overachieving or consistent years. Loved to see the spark in the 3rd, anyone have Landeskog's full interview? Season isn't lost, nor won, but improvement must be made.

 

[chet1926]

Iginla/tanguay on a line can't win enough battles, the fourth line didn't have enough puck skill, landeskog/Soderberg ice time should be switched with Mitchell/Iginla.

Wouldn't mind bringing Zadorov up again to play with Beauchemin, and let Johnson figure his **** out on the third pair with Bigras.

Oh ok let's bring up a sporadic 20 year old, and put him on the first pairing and move our best dman by a country mile to the 3rd pairing. That seems like just what we need to get out of this funk. EJ hasn't been great lately but you don't take away ice time from a player like him, he'll get better.

I'm all for bringing up Zadorov but I'm not sure I'd play him much more than 12-14 minutes a night, kinda like what they've been doing with Bigras.

The biggest issue right now is lack of quality from the depth forwards. The fact is right we have all of 5 guys that are quality top 9 NHL forwards(MacK, Duchene, Landeskog, Soderberg, Comeau). So basically we have 5/9ths of a top 9, you're just not going to win many games that way. Mitchell, McCleod, Skille are all just 4th liners that are being asked to play above their skill level. Grigorenko is a kid that hasn't been given much of chance, and gets bounced around like crazy. Martinsen is AHL fodder that shouldn't be here and Wagner is a waiver pickup that is fine as the 13th forward.

Once again the problem lies with Iginla and Tanguay. Both were expected to be solid contributors to the top 6 especially with the way they played last season. But both fell off the planet this season and are no longer useful NHL players. Both are way too slow and can't win any puck battles. It's like a blackhole. They can't play defense and the can't play offense. Those two just falling off the face of the planet has absolutely killed us, and forced us to play too many players in places they aren't going to succeed.

This offseason they both need to be addressed. Luckily for us Tanguay is a UFA, but Iginla is an issue. Then we need to make moves to get at least 3 top 9 caliber forwards in the offseason. I assume Rantanen will be one, so that means either via trade or UFA we need 2 more. They don't have to be elite or anything, just two guys that can give you quality minutes from the top 9 forward standpoint.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Could someone please tell me what type of defense Erik Johnson was playing on that 4th goal?

Pretty much this

 

[Foppa2118]

Could someone please tell me what type of defense Erik Johnson was playing on that 4th goal?

Slow reaction, I have a bad knee and can't stop, defense.

 

[Foppa2118]

Only good thing about this game was Grigo looked like a man possessed playing the top line, knowing this could be his last shot for a while to establish himself in the NHL. He might have been their best player tonight, along with Duchene, but Grigo's poise and puck skills were really making things happen when he engaged and won battles to maintain the puck. Got to see that every night from him now.

 

[CobraAcesS]

Only good thing about this game was Grigo looked like a man possessed playing the top line, knowing this could be his last shot for a while to establish himself in the NHL. He might have been their best player tonight, along with Duchene, but Grigo's poise and puck skills were really making things happen when he engaged and won battles to maintain the puck. Got to see that every night from him now.

Yeah, except the rest of the team looked worse than we did at the beginning of the year. Then we were getting effort but bad goal-tending, now all of our players are playing a step below their capabilities, and our goal-tending is better or to the level of great.

This team cannot seem to all play at their high levels at the same time except for a few games a year. So much for that record against our own Division huh?

 

[cgf]

I want to see Greg-Soda-Duchene play on a line together. Plus then we could re-unite MacK & Landy, with Comeau on their wing until Mikko's ready.

 

[The Kingslayer]

I want to see Greg-Soda-Duchene play on a line together. Plus then we could re-unite MacK & Landy, with Comeau on their wing until Mikko's ready.

If it gets Mackinnon going then yah go for it.

 

[StLAvsFan]

The Avs have looked brain-dead since the All-Star break. Not sure what collective mental malfunction afflicts these weak-willed pushovers during this current meltdown, but Patrick Roy better start kicking some A-holes in the locker room to straighten this mess out before the season implodes. I'd be delighted to see a trade about now, because these guys have gotten waaaay too complacent being patsies yet again. I would entertain any & all offers.

 

[Tweaky]

Easy, got a match?

That would be exothermic oxidation reactions...Chemistry, not Thermodynamics