Puck Drop Preview: 2014-15 Colorado Avalanche

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[Gigantor The Goalie]

EJ is a lot closer to being a top defender then Barrie is. EJ just led our defense in points this season. EJ's all around ceiling is higher then Barrie's. Barrie might have the edge offensively but I think he's a lot flashier then EJ.

Also Cliche is going to be in the AHL. Winchester will take his spot. There's also Tomas Vincour who will be there for depth, might even steal a spot. Plus there's the unknown's in training camp like Everberg, Rendulic, etc. Who knows what a full healthy summer and training camp is going to show for Hishon as well. The team is looking so much better then it was last year.

 

[Avs71]

I think Johnson is completely undersold in the article. He's more than acceptable on the top-pairing. Lumping Johnson in with Hejda as, "will do for now" just screams not having watched the Avs play. He is the Avs defence.

Cliche and Guenin won't be in the opening night lineup, or likely even NHL. Winchester wasn't mentioned, but he will be a big upgrade over Cliche. Redmond will be starting on opening night too.

Also, Hunwick, Sarich, and Benoit to a lesser extent are basically additions by subtraction. They've all been upgraded basically.

Iginla is also coming off another 30 goal season. In other words, more goals than any Avs player scored last season. I think he will be bringing a little more than just leadership.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Who wrote this article? Brutal.

After a couple of disappointing years when he first joined the Avalanche, McGinn had a bounce back year and the best of his career this past season.

He scores 19 goals and 35 points in his first 64 games with the Avs after the trade here. What about that was disappointing?

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

For one, the team was playing in the best division in hockey, alongside teams such as the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks, Cup favourite St. Louis Blues, and very talented Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars.

It's hard to combine the 'surprise' element of the piece with this. Mostly because at the start of the season people considered the Central the worst division in the league and that after Chicago, STL and sort of Minnesota (which I maintained was wrong, that team is going nowhere under Yeo) it was a free for all.

While the backline does have names like Tyson Barrie, Erik Johnson, and Jan Hejda, none of them truly resemble the league’s best blueliners, with Barrie coming the closest.

Barrie coming the closest? EJ is a top 20 defender in the league, Barrie can't say that.

This was always going to be the case, as there was very little chance Paul Stastny was going to stay with the team.

There was always a good chance. Hindsight is 20/20.

Believe the hype around this team’s decline. While making the playoffs is certainly not out of the question for the Avalanche, it will be significantly more difficult. Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen at all.

Ah, yes... this is the crux of why the article showed a distinct lack of understanding of our team.

 

[the_fan]

Articles like this proves that some people just shouldn't cover hockey and stick to other sports like baseball and stuff.

Varlamov on decline? I guess that's based on him being nominated for Vezina last season, and their logic is, if he doesn't get nominated for Vezina again next season, that will consider a decline?

So lets see, any goalie that doesn't get nominated for a Vezina is not a good goalie i guess and is on decline. Only the 3 goalies that are nominated for the trophy are the goalies on a rise until they decline when they don't get nominated for a Vezina again LOL

Edit: Also what's with people saying Avs losing PAP and Stastny is huge? All they gotta do is just put little effort and use their brains, and they'll see that Avs didn't have Tanguay for the entire year last season who is way better than PAP, and Tanguay will be in the Avs line up to start the next season. So Avs actually improve the wing position. Tanguay>>PAP

They lost a 60 point player in Stastny and picked up another 60 point player Iginla. So where are this huge losses some people are talking about?

Where is this logic come from, some people are so naive and fail to see the bigger picture i guess.

 

[Freudian]

Usually blog previews of teams are written by people who don't follow the teams closely and have missed a lot of things fans of the team that watch 82 games a year know.

 

[chet1926]

This might be the most poorly written article I've seen on the Avs so far this offseason. It's very clear to me that the writer of the article didn't watch a single Avs game last season, and just looked at the "advanced stats" to come up with some outlandish comments and slap together a preview article.

Calling EJ less than a top pairing guy is very far fetched. Barrie while defensively speaking will never be considered an elite level guy, could very easily put up a 50 pts year offensively which in my books would put him as an elite level offensive dman.

Calling PAP an important piece of our offense is also a joke. He was hurt most of the year, and in Roy's doghouse most of the time he was healthy.

Saying McGinn had some disappointing years with the squad before last season is a little far fetched. He was great after the deadline we acquired him. He was a little down last season, but that was mainly due to playing with some poor linemates. I do agree he could be a prime candidate for a big year goal scoring wise. I'm predicting he'll get some top 2 line play and may pot close to 25 goals.

Plus the projected lineups are a bit off:

No way Cliche plays ahead of Winchester, and "Cory McCleod" is going to struggle to find minutes as well, as it seems Bordy is kind of taking of McCleod's role. And Vincour is also vying for minutes. I don't think Guenin is going to make the cut over Redmond, Elliott or Noreau or even a healthy Wilson.

Overall, just not a good effort from the writer, I wish they'd get some people in here to write article that actually pay attention to the team they write about.

 

[agentblack]

This might be the most poorly written article I've seen on the Avs so far this offseason. It's very clear to me that the writer of the article didn't watch a single Avs game last season, and just looked at the "advanced stats" to come up with some outlandish comments and slap together a preview article.

Calling EJ less than a top pairing guy is very far fetched. Barrie while defensively speaking will never be considered an elite level guy, could very easily put up a 50 pts year offensively which in my books would put him as an elite level offensive dman.

Calling PAP an important piece of our offense is also a joke. He was hurt most of the year, and in Roy's doghouse most of the time he was healthy.

Saying McGinn had some disappointing years with the squad before last season is a little far fetched. He was great after the deadline we acquired him. He was a little down last season, but that was mainly due to playing with some poor linemates. I do agree he could be a prime candidate for a big year goal scoring wise. I'm predicting he'll get some top 2 line play and may pot close to 25 goals.

Plus the projected lineups are a bit off:

No way Cliche plays ahead of Winchester, and "Cory McCleod" is going to struggle to find minutes as well, as it seems Bordy is kind of taking of McCleod's role. And Vincour is also vying for minutes. I don't think Guenin is going to make the cut over Redmond, Elliott or Noreau or even a healthy Wilson.

Overall, just not a good effort from the writer, I wish they'd get some people in here to write article that actually pay attention to the team they write about.

You should send them a email. No im totally serious. This is like the 3rd article ive read about the Avs where the writer clearly has not followed the team. I dont know maybe the guy could at least get one of the seniors on here to source and he gives them credit.

 

[Avs For Life]

EJ continues to get no love. He was absolutely outstanding last year and definitely a #1 dman

 

[Taak19]

After reading the comments here I am not going to give the article any traffic.

Barrie better than EJ?

 

[member 116861]

None of our defenders are close to being a top defenseman in the league? I'm pretty sure EJ is close. Also Barrie being better than EJ? Are you guys drunk? I don't even know if Barrie is better than Hejda.

 

[tigervixxxen]

It's the finger wagging that bothers me the most. "Don't be surprised". I guess I won't bother going to the rest of camp then, no reason to follow the team. No **** anything can happen. There haven't been a lot of good years around here, like we don't know the possibility exists. Does Tampa get the same attitude? Their Vezina nominated goalie has been injured all offseason and they got blown out in the playoffs and finished 28th the year before. I seriously don't know, do they get the "don't be surprised" warning? Or is it because they play in the junior conference? Or has everyone bought into them?

 

[Foppa2118]

After a couple of disappointing years when he first joined the Avalanche, McGinn had a bounce back year and the best of his career this past season.

This is just displaying a complete ignorance of McGinn and the Avs the last couple years.

In terms of overall defensive depth, the team also lost a couple of pieces. Nobody is arguing that Cory Sarich, Matt Hunwick or Andre Benoit are massive losses for the team, but losing the three of them at once certainly adds up

It adds up to nothing. 0+0+0 = 0

There has been a lot of talk about splitting up Landeskog and MacKinnon but at this point, considering how last season went, it would be counterproductive.

Ummm, no there hasn't. I haven't seen it mentioned once in sincerity. Another writer just making something about about the lines next year.

Believe the hype around this team’s decline. While making the playoffs is certainly not out of the question for the Avalanche, it will be significantly more difficult. Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen at all.

Shocker. Should have just written this and ended the article. Maybe one of these days an article about the Avs that gets plugged here will be written by someone who actually follows the team.

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

Our first GDT of the year needs to be titled "Believe the hype".

 

[Hans Landaskog]

Landeskog laughs at your so called "advanced stats"

 

[Tweaky]

I would like to address some of the comments. First, I agree that the conclusion of the article is a bit harsh. I do not see the Avs struggling to make the playoffs. I see them a solid 4-7 seed. I do not think they pull off Central champs again, but I do not see any of last year's non-playoff teams beating the out.

Second, the bit about Varly being on the decline...if he does not finish top 2 in the Vezina voting, then yes, that IS a decline. Even if he gets 39 wins, a .925 save percentage, and a 2.45 GAA....that is a decline. I do not think the author is saying he will crash, but more that he will not be as spectacular as he was last year. But I do not agree, I think the improvements were indicative of real gains. He has always had the raw ability, and last year showed what can happen with good coaching.

Similar story with EJ. He is not an elite defender. He may have led the Avs in D scoring (by ONE point over Barrie, despite an extra 16 games), but he was not even top 25 in the NHL, whilst on the 4th highest scoring team. He would place a bit higher in the "two-way" defenseman list, but still not top 5 (Weber, Keith, Chara, Doughty, Suter, etc.). He is easily the Avs best all around D...that does not necessarily translate into being a league best. Top 10 maybe, top 20 for sure, but top 5? No. And top 5 is how I interpret "the league’s best blueliners."

As for the rest of the complaints about it...I am forced to agree. Some real research into the off-season moves might have been good. Not giving credence to random rumors as well.

 

[tigervixxxen]

We know the results will likely be different. It's like predicting the Kings will decline and if they don't win the Cup again going around shouting "I told you so"

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

And top 5 is how I interpret "the league’s best blueliners."

It's not really whether he is a top 5 defender or not (he's not). It's that EJ is closer than Barrie is or likely will ever be.

Also, if that's how the author used decline, then they have some things to think about. Declining is usually reserved for a noticeably worse season. A regression is returning to the mean, so that would indicate Varly getting closer to what is more of an average season for him. Which is at least understandable for the author to choose, but an average season to most is a poor one for him which Avs fans know won't happen.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

After reading the comments here I am not going to give the article any traffic.

Barrie better than EJ?

If you check out point per game nhl.com, you notice how much better Barrie is. That's probably how much time they actually spent watching Colorado last season..

 

[shadow1]

Everyone is down on Colorado this season and most of it amounts to possession stats and the Dallas Stars acquisition of Jason Spezza.

Matt Duchene, Gabe Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Ryan O'Reilly, and Jamie McGinn being flanked by veterans Jarome Iginla, Daniel Briere, and Alex Tanguay? Colorado's going to be destroying teams.

 

[freeboy]

Wow, that was full of errors. No idea how people can look at this years team vs last years and not see a more mature more balanced team. I hope Brierre has a stand out year just to shut these type of guys up.
EJ had a fantastic year last year and should again be a TOP d man. Also as mentioned Sarich Honeyhunwick and Guinin leaving are all positives. From our roster all under 30 year old guys should improve. Holden is a case in point... Finished last season playing his best hockey.

 

[R S]

Won't even read this based on the comments in here.

 

[agentblack]

How can we overcome the loss of Hunwick, how I ask?

 

[Lord Moriarty007]

I don't put stock in any preseason speculation how team will preform in Hockey or any other sport. Its almost imposable to guess how a team will do by looking them on paper.