Third Annual Real Denver Sports Helmet Awards

With the season over for the Avs, I thought we could pass out some awards to some deserving Colorado Avalanche players. Real Denver Sports would like to acknowledge the players of the Colorado Avalanche with the meaningless Helmet Awards.
The categories, strictly made up on the spot by myself are:

The P. T. Barnum Award goes to David Koci
For suckering y'all into thinking he's as good on D as anyone on this team. Surround him with a team this bad and he actually looks like he can play hockey and fooled everyone from broadcasters to bloggers.


The Friends with Benefits Award goes to Peter Budaj
For always being there when Avs management fucks up the goalie situation. He’s that fall-back slut that will always answer the phone but in the end doesn’t really make you feel any better. But you keep telling yourself he’s better than nothing.

The Endorsement Award goes to Cody McLeod
For makin’ it far enough in this town to get a Subway commercial! It would have been great to see him take a bite without his two front teeth or beat up a Sandwich Artist but it was still an entertaining commercial. Unfortunately McLeod’s Subway commercial was about as entertaining as his on-ice performance.

The Player Most Likely to be a Car Salesman Next Year goes to Peter Mueller
For…wait, who? Oh yeah, the guy who looks like he’s in a Shakespearean troop. Let’s check back next year.

The Best Call-up Award goes to Kevin Shattenkirk
Yeah, well that really worked out well, for St. Louis.

The Most pointless Call-up Award goes to Ryan Stoa
This kid is so bad that even on this team he doesn’t look good. Greg Mauldin and Mark Olver look like keepers next to him. And they’re not.

The Twitter Pollution Award goes to Matt Hunwick
He singled-thumbedly muddied up my Twitter feed with the #blamehunwick hash tag for most of the season. Why wasn’t it #blamesherman?

The Head-Scratcher Award goes to Peter Forsberg
He shows up to practice a week before the All-Star break thus preventing him from practicing with the team while the team was away. Impresses everyone with his two road games but hurriedly announces retirement before the Valentine’s Day Massacre. Did he have a vision of the future? Clearly there are things going on in Foppa’s head that no one else understands. It’s like that itch on your head that you can’t get to because of the helmet you have on. Frustrating.

The Forget-me-not Award goes to Chris Stewart
Wow, I’m gonna miss this guy. It was man-crush at first fight. He is my perfect idea of what a hockey player ought to be. He’s got scoring swagger, he’s got attitude and he’s willing to bust you up if you mess with him or a teammate. I need another tub of ice cream to help me get over this.

The Survivor Award goes to John-Michael Liles
For not getting voted off the island. He won’t win the race for the Captaincy; he just doesn’t have the coconuts for the job. But every time the tribe tries to snuff out his torch he manages to survive. The Liles trade rumors are as old and tired as the stupid show I’m using here as a metaphor.

The Inaugural David Jones Broken Man Award goes to TJ Galiardi
So much promise, so many broken body parts. Jones finally had a reasonable unbroken season and he should be honored that such an award has been named after him. Here’s hoping Galiardi gets healthy and turns out to be the kick-ass 3rd liner that we all know he really is.

The Worst Gordie Howe Hat Trick Award goes to Brandon Yip
It was one of the many things he did poorly this season, but this one just shames the idea of a GHHT. I refuse to recognize it but officially it’s there.

And finally, Adam Foote whose head is so hard he doesn’t need a Helmet Award
Nonetheless he gets the Helmet Award for being a True Avalanche. The man said he “bleeds burgundy and blue” at his retirement press conference. Man, that was beautiful.

-From the Point
  

Game 4 - Avalanche VS Sharks

               I had the opportunity to go the Game 4 last night.  Although I didn’t have the best seats in the house, didn’t matter, the place was packed and there was a lot of energy.  I hadn’t seen that place that packed since Joe Sakic retirement night.

                Overall, I thought the Avs played a pretty good game, a lot better than they did in Game 3.  They didn’t get out shot like last game which to me was a big thing.  When you only get 17 shots and you let the other team get over 50 shots, you’re just making winning the hockey game a whole lot harder.  And those 50 shots were the only the ones that actually made it to Anderson, the Sharks had over 30 shots blocked.

But, I do have a few negative things to say about the game.  Sacco decided to sit Wilson and put Salei instead.  I can’t say that I totally agree with that when Clark was available.  I’m not saying Salei played a bad game but when you have a team shooting like crazy at your goalie, you might considerer putting the guy that blocks a lot of shots ….and that’s Clark.

                Another thing I noticed was that the Avs seemed kind of slow compared to the Sharks.  The Avs are the younger team that and they’re supposed to have lots of speed.  What happened?!?!?  I thought Yip looked the slowest of all, maybe that was just me but every time he touched the puck, it seemed that he had Sharks players on him pretty quick.

                And Svatos, I don’t even know what to say.  I know he probably tries hard when he’s on the ice but I’m sorry, you’re no Hejduk.  I saw him make a bunch of mistakes which was hard to watch since he’s out there with someone as talented as Duchene.  To me, that second line of Duchene, Svatos and Yip just didn’t have any chemistry.  That’s where I think not having Hejduk/Duchene/Mueller really hurts.

                I wrote a post before the series started and mentioned that the Avs had a good chance of winning…..if the got/stayed healthy.  Mission failed!!!  Losing Hejduk is HUGE.  Now both Hejduk and Mueller aren’t making the trip to San Jose, two key pieces that the Avs could have used right about now.

                One thing that I do want to mention was the play of Darcy Tucker.  I thought he looked like his old self.  Let’s be honest, he doesn’t have the scoring touch from his Maple Leafs days ( he does actually have a few 20+ goal seasons)  but his intensity last night was awesome.  Tucker is not a big guy by any means but he’s out there hitting these bigger Sharks players.   Way to go Tucker!  Of course, Anderson looked good too.  And I have to say, when the starting line up was announced, when they said Anderson’s name, the crowd went nuts; they love him at the Pepsi Center.  He’s our number 1 goalie for sure!

                Game 5 tomorrow.  Let’s hope they can pull this together and come back here for the win.

-Frenchy