GDT: Game 69: Avs @ Kings - Pray for Nate

[rmthomson21]

We should all write letters to the Avs organization, letting them know that we're tired of the injuries.

#freecolin

e: damn, this should have been #freewilly

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

It isn't looking to save a team, but looking to tread water until things clear up. Right now, it doesn't sound like any of these injuries are season ending and the should be back within a couple weeks. If MacK can come back, then you're looking at a team that just needed to tread water for ~2 more weeks. Get a few games to get back in the groove and go back to being on a run. This isn't a sky is falling situation, but this is clearly a situation where adequate depth would be helping right now. The clear holes on the team from early in the season was a #3C and a 4/5 RD (Avs thought top 6 winger)... none of those holes were addressed and I don't think there is much of an argument to say that the Avs would be in better shape to weather the storm if they addressed those needs.

I think your really over-estimating the value of role players, to be honest.

If the Avs had signed a number 5 defenceman in the off-season, would he really help the Avs that much right now?

Does that player really make you that much better over a player like Barberio? Neither of them would be very good.

There’s a big gap between star players and role players.

If anything, the last three months have proven how deep of a team the Avs actually are. The fact that they’ve sustained injuries to so many key players and stayed in the race for top in the Conference is a testament to the depth of the roster.

 

[the_fan]

I dont like Avs losing, but at the same time I'm enjoying watching this western conference teams like the Kings, Wild etc....keep winning meaningless games and lowering their chances at getting a top draft pick like Lafreniere and they'll continue to be bottom feeders or mediocre teams. Let teams in east like Ottawa get those top picks, I'm fine with that.

 

[henchman21]

It's really not that black and white, though.

You take out Kucherov, Stamkos, Cirelli, Killorn, Palat, and then say Maroon as their Wilson and tell me just how long Tampa Bay is going to survive running a top six with Point, Gourde, Johnson, Coleman, Goodrow and Paquette.

Obviously it'd be lovely to have a guy like Pageau right now but I don't think the Avs have a centre issue. They have an injury issue.

The Avs have had varying degrees of center issues for years, having the top 2 out makes that situation worse. By no means am I saying that it would be perfect if the Avs had more depth, but having depth is the best way to tread water.

 

[henchman21]

Having JGP would absolutely help and you know I was all for that move. But we’re also literally missing 4 of our top 6 players our best defenseman, and our starting goalie. No team can be prepared for an injury crisis like that. Every team would be rightly f***ed in a situation like this.

Pittsburgh has had it worse than the Avs this year...

I think your really over-estimating the value of role players, to be honest.

If the Avs had signed a number 5 defenceman in the off-season, would he really help the Avs that much right now?

Does that player really make you that much better over a player like Barberio? Neither of them would be very good.

If anything, the last three months have proven how deep of a team the Avs actually are. The fact that they’ve sustained injuries to so many key players and stayed in the race for top in the Conference is a testament to the depth of the roster.

If the Avs had that 4/5RD for the whole to spell EJ and play up when injuries hit, I think the Avs have another two or three victories. Last night, not having to have Z or Connauton on the ice would have been great and might have saved that game.

The last couple months I think proves how good MacKinnon actually is more than anything. And I'd the goaltending has been pretty spectacular since the all star break. It has bailed this team out more than a few times.

I'm not saying the sky is falling or that this is ruining a season... but I don't see how you can reasonably say that more depth wouldn't be helpful here. A good #3C would absolutely be helpful here. A depth RD would absolutely be helpful here. Both could have been had cap wise and asset wise.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

I had a feeling it wouldn't take long to bring up the #3C and Pageau. Namestnikov will probably do a better job at 1C than Pageau could ever do but Hey it's much easier to blame the GM than injuries when it fits the narrative.

Here is what we are missing right now just to put it in perspective:
#1C, #1D, #1G, #1W, #2C, #3W, #1PK.

And we still went 8-2-1 in our last 11 games and fighting for 1st in the West.

Sakic, you f***k up. You didn't get us that #3C. Can't believe you didn't see that series of injuries coming.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Pittsburgh has had it worse than the Avs this year...

In terms of man games lost we aren't that far back, a couple games I think. The Mack injury makes it close, with the added context of everyone else hurt at the same time.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

Pittsburgh has had it worse than the Avs this year...



If the Avs had that 4/5RD for the whole to spell EJ and play up when injuries hit, I think the Avs have another two or three victories. Last night, not having to have Z or Connauton on the ice would have been great and might have saved that game.

The last couple months I think proves how good MacKinnon actually is more than anything. And I'd the goaltending has been pretty spectacular since the all star break. It has bailed this team out more than a few times.

I'm not saying the sky is falling or that this is ruining a season... but I don't see how you can reasonably say that more depth wouldn't be helpful here. A good #3C would absolutely be helpful here. A depth RD would absolutely be helpful here. Both could have been had cap wise and asset wise.

Sure more depth would be great, but we’re at the point now where we must recognize that no amount of depth prepares you for the loss of the players that have been injured.

There is a huge drop off between a star player and a role player, that’s all i’m trying to say.

And I love MacKinnon, but to just give him all the credit for pushing through these injuries in the past two months is not accurate. He’s actually had some pretty rough stretches of hockey in that time.

The Avs are a deep team. They just can’t afford to miss 8/9 players at one time, when the injury list consists of star players.

 

[Matt Roberts]

It's not Sakic's fault that we are as injured as we are.

What is a head scratcher is making very minimal moves at the deadline, when we were already pretty banged up, and knew some players were going to be out for a bit. Throw on top of it the possibility that others could also potentially get hurt, and you get the situation we are in. That is on Sakic. You have to have a complete feel for the team and you need to be prepared for all types of situations when you are legit Cup contenders.

Had Sakic added a couple more depth pieces for relatively low prices, that were seemingly around, it wouldn't fix the problem, but it would have softened the blow a bit. We wouldn't be looking at Barberio playing forward, and Connauton playing defense at very least. And if it plays out differently and we stay healthy, the worst case scenario is we burned a couple mid round picks and a decent player is eating nachos, which IMO not a bad predicament.

And then we'd have half the board complaining in a month because Sakic traded futures for 3 guys who are scratched for the playoffs.

 

[henchman21]

In terms of man games lost we aren't that far back, a couple games I think. The Mack injury makes it close, with the added context of everyone else hurt at the same time.

Pittsburgh had all of Bjugstad, Crosby, Dumo, and Malkin out for a couple games this season. Around Malkin's injury, you have Schultz where the Pens were without Crosby, Bjugstad, Schultz and one of Horny/Guenztel for a large chunk of the middle of the season. Until this recent stretch of games, the Avs have typically maxed out at 2 important players out... with a game or two or three where 3 might be. Early in the season Landy/Rants were out. The two game goalie mess happened, Burkie out, and EJ happened for a couple games before Rants came back and in a few games Landy came back. Then EJ and Makar were injured. Then there was a ~20 ish game stretch with no big injuries. The last 8-10 have been the worst the Avs have had their injuries pile up all season. Happens to be at the softest part of the schedule, which is nice.

NHL Injury Viz: 2019/20 team man-games lost plots (through 6 March)

 

[Bubba Thudd]

And then we'd have half the board complaining in a month because Sakic traded futures for 3 guys who are scratched for the playoffs.

or they'd be injured, too.

 

[UncleRisto]

#freecolin

 

[Freudian]

Ahead of Greer when it comes to being called up to the NHL:

Tynan
Kaut
Bowers
Dries
Megna
O'Connor
Eagles mascot Slapshot
Barberio with a fake beard
Barberio with a real beard

 

[forsbergavs32]

At the end of the day, no team is going to survive this amount of injuries. We just need to hope Mack isn’t out more than a week or 2 and a majority of the others are back by the time playoffs roll around (preferably with a couple of games to get back in the swing of things)

 

[Bubba Thudd]

Ahead of Greer when it comes to being called up to the NHL:

Tynan
Kaut
Bowers
Dries
Megna
O'Connor
Eagles mascot Slapshot
Barberio with a fake beard
Barberio with a real beard

You forgot just an old fake beard

 

[AllAboutAvs]

In case some missed it, Bednar said Kaut was re-called on an emergency call-up yesterday in case Namestnikov couldn't go last night. With Names being able to play Kaut couldn't be in the lineup unless another player was ill/injured. You can't replace a healthy player when you are on an emergency call-up.

 

[mapletreemarty]

In case some missed it, Bednar said Kaut was re-called on an emergency call-up yesterday in case Namestnikov couldn't go last night. With Names being able to play Kaut couldn't be in the lineup unless another player was ill/injured. You can't replace a healthy player when you are on an emergency call-up.

Your telling me Connauton couldn't have fire a bomb in warm ups and hit Barbs in the foot or something? f***ing weak.

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

Lol what... take away any teams top 2 C's and they're f***ed. We aren't lacking C depth that bad.

Yikes, dog-piled by people. People telling me they're that confident in Kadri/Compher/Jost/Belly to cover when MacK is injured?

If our goal is to be a cup contender, we can't be a MacK-injury away from losing. Teams need 3 top 6 C's or 2 #1's to sustain center depth injuries. The Avs have neither, fortunately til now it was just Kadri and MacK is a beast.

 

[chet1926]

And then we'd have half the board complaining in a month because Sakic traded futures for 3 guys who are scratched for the playoffs.

Expect for the fact that more than likely guys like Nieto and Jost would have been the scratches.

Cup contending teams burn assets all the time to strengthen their teams for cup runs, that's just what they do. Fans around here need to get off the can't afford to burn assets bandwagon, we are good and need to use assets to fill in holes for Cup runs. We are at that level now. This doesn't mean ship off every quality asset we have for rentals like LaCroix used to do. It means if you have holes or concerns make reasonable deals to address those issues.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

Yikes, dog-piled by people. People telling me they're that confident in Kadri/Compher/Jost/Belly to cover when MacK is injured?

If our goal is to be a cup contender, we can't be a MacK-injury away from losing. Teams need 3 top 6 C's or 2 #1's to sustain center depth injuries. The Avs have neither, fortunately til now it was just Kadri and MacK is a beast.

I’m not sure how you accomplish what you’re talking about.

The reality is, this team will always be a MacKinnon injury away from not being a cup-contender.

I’d add Makar to that too. The Avs couldn’t win a cup without him. I also doubt the Avs could hoist Lord Stanley without Rantanen.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Yikes, dog-piled by people. People telling me they're that confident in Kadri/Compher/Jost/Belly to cover when MacK is injured?

If our goal is to be a cup contender, we can't be a MacK-injury away from losing. Teams need 3 top 6 C's or 2 #1's to sustain center depth injuries. The Avs have neither, fortunately til now it was just Kadri and MacK is a beast.

I absolutely think we could use a better 3C, but having a better 3C won’t offset losing Mack and Kadri. It would help having JGP but I mean we’d still be screwed at that point. Maybe 3 teams in the league could capably deal with losing their 1-2 C’s.

 

[Bubba Thudd]

I absolutely think we could use a better 3C, but having a better 3C won’t offset losing Mack and Kadri. It would help having JGP but I mean we’d still be screwed at that point. Maybe 3 teams in the league could capably deal with losing their 1-2 C’s.

And we're missing additional critical players on top of our 1C & 2C...

 

[The Abusement Park]

And we're missing additional critical players on top of our 1C & 2C...

Yeah rolling Jost and Compher out with Rantanen and Landy would already be a big enough issue if we didn’t have Rants Makar, Grub and Calvert out.

 

[avsfan09]

Yikes, dog-piled by people. People telling me they're that confident in Kadri/Compher/Jost/Belly to cover when MacK is injured?

If our goal is to be a cup contender, we can't be a MacK-injury away from losing. Teams need 3 top 6 C's or 2 #1's to sustain center depth injuries. The Avs have neither, fortunately til now it was just Kadri and MacK is a beast.

Were almost always a Mack injury from losing right though?

 

[Spilot23]

Didn't watch the game last night. I just watched highlights of that game looked like they could've been winning this game 6-1 according to the highlights. Connauton with two huge mistakes that led to a great chance and one where he scored in his net. How can Timmins still not be recalled boy this defense is putrid and now Mackinnon is injured. Anyone knows how serious this could be and how many games he might miss? I know how injuries work with the Avs they will tell you day-to-day then it's freaking months or will tell you months but it's day-to-day. So that's why I'm asking this on HFavs. What do you guys think? Thanks in advance.