Pre-Game Talk: Week of Delusional Optimism [vs CGY | vs MIN]

[mapletreemarty]

 

[GeniusSuperior]

For those of us in Denver, apparently there’s a watch party outside of the Pepsi center where we can watch on the big screen. See the Avs Twitter for more info.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

 

[Muffin]

Means Barberio is out

 

[Pokecheque]

Oh...I didn't like G/EJ as a defensive pairing last season.

 

[The Moops]

GDT is up

 

[CobraAcesS]

Where the ****ing GDT!
It’s not gane day until the GDT is up.

You're starting the season on time I see.

 

[Bender]

What do you guys think was our best season opener?

- The Kariya/Selanne superteam destroying Chicago (2003)
- Crushing the Ducks in MacKinnon's multi-point debut/Roy's bench-breaking debut (2013)
- First game ever! Beating the Wings with Kamensky (1995)
- Duchene/Stastny/Liles beating the Cup champ Hawks (2010)

And what about the worst?

- Getting shutout by Minnesota in back-to-back games to start the year (2014)
- Blowing a 4-1 lead to Minnesota in the third (2015)
- Horcoff scoring 20 seconds into the game, then again to win the game with 4 mins left (2005)
- Blowing the game with 1:20 left against the Sens (1998)
- One of the three boring ties against Dallas (1997, 2000, 2002)

The first ever game will always have a special place in my heart for sure. Didn't we lose someone to long-term injury as well that game? (I wanna say Pepe but I'm not 100% sure)

The opener with Roy's coaching debut was epic and it completely set the tone for that season.

Those 2 are easily my favourites.

Probably mine too. The back-to-back shutouts were especially bad considering they just beat us in game 7 OT

That game was SO disappointing for me, for more reasons than just the final score. I was expecting some big-time retribution from Bordeleau or anyone else for the cooke hit on Barrie and we didn't even lay a finger on them. Totally deflating.

 

[Pokecheque]

The 2015 meltdown is easily my least favorite. That really was a turning point for me when it came to Patrick Roy as a head coach.

 

[Foppa Frossa]

Hope they are more dominant against the green filth. Want seven past Dubnyk.

 

[forsbergavs32]

The 2015 meltdown is easily my least favorite. That really was a turning point for me when it came to Patrick Roy as a head coach.

Yeah it kind of exposed Roy as a coach since he never really was able to recover once teams adjusted to him.

Where Bednar has shown the ability to adjust and thrive as an nhl head coach once he got an nhl team to coach.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Yeah it kind of exposed Roy as a coach since he never really was able to recover once teams adjusted to him.

Where Bednar has shown the ability to adjust and thrive as an nhl head coach once he got an nhl team to coach.

I guess you are assuming that Roy had an NHL team to coach then?

I know it's trendy to say he was a terrible coach....and he wasn't the best in the league. But I honestly have no idea how good or bad he could be with a decent team. Our teams really kinda sucked from a personnel standpoint during his tenure. No coach was going to win with that defense an no real wingers.

 

[forsbergavs32]

I guess you are assuming that Roy had an NHL team to coach then?

I know it's trendy to say he was a terrible coach....and he wasn't the best in the league. But I honestly have no idea how good or bad he could be with a decent team. Our teams really kinda sucked from a personnel standpoint during his tenure. No coach was going to win with that defense an no real wingers.

Moreso than Bednar had his first year. Roy had Duchene, Mack, Lando, O’Reilly, Iginla (was good the first 2 years), EJ (who was still a top pairing guy), Barrie. He had a better team than Bednar had in year one yes I am saying that. Plus either way, Bednar showed he could make strategy adjustments that Roy was never able to make, Bednar managed to take a team with one top 6 line to game 7 of round 2 of the playoffs and only didn’t make it to the WCF because Lando couldnt get onside.

 

[hockey20000]

go avs go ! will be tuning in after the sens game I love watching cols top line play

 

[TheRarestDangles]

go avs go ! will be tuning in after the sens game I love watching cols top line play

I like the Sens too.

 

[cgf]

I guess you are assuming that Roy had an NHL team to coach then?

I know it's trendy to say he was a terrible coach....and he wasn't the best in the league. But I honestly have no idea how good or bad he could be with a decent team. Our teams really kinda sucked from a personnel standpoint during his tenure. No coach was going to win with that defense an no real wingers.

Yeah, I'm very curious to see Roy get another crack with a proper NHL team. We have to remember that patrick was constantly tinkering to try & making up for the gaping holes in our roster; particularly on the blueline. If his best LHB had been Girard instead of Holden, then we'd likely have seen him trying very different things to compensate for our weaknesses.

Moreso than Bednar had his first year. Roy had Duchene, Mack, Lando, O’Reilly, Iginla (was good the first 2 years), EJ (who was still a top pairing guy), Barrie. He had a better team than Bednar had in year one yes I am saying that. Plus either way, Bednar showed he could make strategy adjustments that Roy was never able to make, Bednar managed to take a team with one top 6 line to game 7 of round 2 of the playoffs and only didn’t make it to the WCF because Lando couldnt get onside.

That seems a weird point considering that Roy never came close to doing as badly as Bednar did in his first season; so it's not like we can say that Bednar did as good of a job with a worse team even if we accept that Bednar's first season squad was worse than Roy's final season squad. Especially when Roy never had a team as good as Bednar's 2nd season.

 

[UncleRisto]

go avs go ! will be tuning in after the sens game I love watching cols top line play

Good, I don't think we have the best reputation on the Sens board after last year.

 

[Foppa Frossa]

With the Avs depth, Bedsy should be able to get MacKinnon away from Suter a bit.

 

[hockey20000]

Good, I don't think we have the best reputation on the Sens board after last year.

dorians stupid fault not the col fans fault lol.

 

[Foppa Frossa]

According to Russo, Parise is playing on their third line now.

 

[CB Joe]

Sens are the only Canadian team I don't hate.

 

[Avsboy]

Avs should dominate this game

 

[Freaky Styley]

Hope they are more dominant against the green filth. Want seven past Dubnyk.

I have an irrational hatred for Dubnyk for whatever reason. Might be because I think he's been severely overrated for years. So ya let's light him up

 

[falconski]

I have an irrational hatred for Dubnyk for whatever reason. Might be because I think he's been severely overrated for years. So ya let's light him up

He’s a goalie that throws cheap shots and dives constantly, the latter is expected the former is weird(in the way he does it, it’s not just stick taps)

 

[klozge]

f*** the Wild!