Second Annual Real Denver Sports Helmet Awards

With the season over for the Avs, I thought we could once again 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 and the staff are:

For taking more Shit than any other Avalanche Player that actually did his Job-David Koci
People who say Koci is worthless clearly don’t understand his role on this team. He wasn’t here to score goals, kill penalties or skate fast. He was here to fight and I never saw him shy away from a fight. So you can assault (pun intended) his role, but it’s hard to say he didn’t do his job. Did he win every fight? No. But I’m pretty sure that every guy he fought could kick your ass easily. Unless Scott Parker is reading this. (hopeful)

Highest pay per TOI Award-Ruslan Salei
Salei wins this by a mile racking up a whopping $12,452.00/minute of playing time. Don’t tell me about injuries, all the runners up were injured as well. And some of them were benched extensively.

Best ball cap Award-Peter Budaj
No Competition.

What?  I couldn't find a pic of Budaj in a cap, seriously.
I think he scrubbed the internets of them!!
So here is a pic of a cap...and an ice girl.
WHAT??

Meanest Nickname- Marek Svatos for "Midget"
According to Liles that is one of his nicknames, which he pointed out during an interview. Joking or otherwise…that's just mean!

I’m not Granato Award-Joe Sacco
Nope, not even close. Did you notice those Pens are done? Granato.
The only thing that worries me about Sacco is the hard-ass mentality. I saw an early season interview with him and he was asked if the players could talk to him, did he have an open door policy? The answer: No. Emphatically.

Was G-Money driving the Zamboni after the Pens loss??

The Mike Milbury Just Hit Someone Award-Ryan Wilson

If Wilson can stay healthy I think he has a future on this team.  I like a D-man that knows when to hammer a guy and when to make a play.  Wilson at his best can do both.  Pretty good for a guy that was a throw-in on a trade.

Peter Pocklington Award-Greg Sherman
For trading Ryan Smyth. Captain Canada! I love that guy! I’m still pissed! I can’t let go!
Ok, maybe that is a bit overboard but was Kyle Quincey really THAT valuable this season and Preissing sure wasn’t. Just imagine if this young team had the experience leadership and scoring ability of Ryan Smyth?

Best toothy(less) grin-Ryan O’Reilly

Best Duo since Drury/Hejduk-Duchene/O’Reilly
While The Duke and Drooooory were pleasant surprises for such late round picks. You’ve got to give the kids a lot of credit for living up to the expectations at 18 years old. These two should be great for years to come. Until we trade O’Reilly and THAT will be the worst trade EVER….sheesh!

Avs Falter vs. Frantic Flames

The Avs played with a lot of hustle and toughness but not a lot of smarts. But there’s a silver lining. Let’s break it down…

Hustle

It took the Avs nearly half the game to get their motor running. But it was the unlikely line of Ryan O’Reilly, Kevin Porter and Marek Svatos that suddenly gelled like a checking line that had been putting pressure on the opposition all year, forechecking hard and forcing the Flames to scramble in their zone.

Tonight Svatos was suddenly noticeable, stealing pucks, going hard to the net and best of all staying out of the sin bin. After a great shift they seemed to get the whole team playing well. Unfortunately the score was already 3-0, Flames. To the Flames credit they never let up.

The 3-2 score was not really that close.

Toughness

How about this odd stat for ya: when the Avs have two or more fights in a game they are 10-1-1. Make that 10-2-1 after tonight.  Just realized that I'm lumping Tucker's fight in with tonight's game for some reason.  Ooh, that was a slobber-knocker!  Ok, so if they would have just initiated another fight they might have won!  No, I do like the fighting in hockey but I don't believe that last line.  Settle down Koci-haters!

Not did they lose the game but they may have lost another defenseman in the process. I’ve really liked Ryan Wilson’s abilities as a solid D-man, a big hitter and a guy that will drop the gloves when needed. But he took one in the jaw in this bout that might have him seeing stars. Like Dancing with the Stars while he recovers.



Tough as the Avs were, the Flames were up for it and responded in kind, they were not intimidated.

Smarts

So what do you do when a team matches you straight up with hustle and toughness?

Play dumb!

Wrong-O rookie Avs!

The Avs had a severe case of standing around and looking at the puck in the D zone. That or they were being drawn to the man with the puck. Terrible, just terrible decisions being made defensively in this game.

There were at least three clean breakaways by the Flames, one of them resulting in a short-handed goal.

One in the 2nd period went right through 3 Avs on its way to the blue line.

The Avs were giving out breakaways like candy on Halloween!

The Flames were playing to win, like playoff hockey. Something the Avs need to learn to do soon. The need to step up to that level of play is going to be a challenge to a lot of these guys; it’s a first for many of them.

Silver Lining

Cheer up Avs fans, the Flames are 2 points closer to overtaking the Wings and knocking them out of the playoffs!

-From the Point

Avs New Years Resolutions

Did you see Attitude doing those lame locker room interviews before the Wings game? Asking the guys what their New Year’s resolutions are? I mean, you gotta have some connections, like me, to get straight answers outa these guys. So I sat down for a beer with each and every one of the guys, all in one night, so I might not remember all this correctly, but here we go;

Stats said he is gonna give up the wooden twig – the highest paid guy on the team is playing with the cheapest stick. So maybe Dad’s advice isn’t always gospel.

Svats said he is gonna fight more often, if he ever gets back in a game.

Budaj resolves to play no more games for the Avs this season, thereby making him the highest paid player-per-game for the Avs.

David Koci gave Boods a look on that and said, Whatever, I’ll still be the highest paid player-per-minute! Koci’s reso is to find time to read more books.

Milan Hejduk: I recall he told the Altitude crew last year that he didn’t think he had any personal improvements to make, therefore no resolutions! That’s some funny stuff Milan. Ok, I agree, you have been one of the most consistently producing Avs for a long time, don’t change! I really have no idea what he told me, I was pretty drunk by then and he is pretty tough to understand sober!

WW said he is going to live up to your expectations no matter how unreasonable they are!  And he reminded me that he dated her,  so how is that for a start?

Liles said he is going to stop growing that pathetic looking beard until the Avs make the playoffs.

Dater is going to give the attendance issues a break till next season, wait, how did that get in here???

David Jones said he is gonna stop getting hurt so much…then promptly slipped in my vomit. If it wasn’t for bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all.

McLeod said he is gonna throw more octopi, more punches and more pucks at the net.

Andy said he is gonna be the #1 star at home more often so he can give those great interviews that the crowd loves.

Stewie said he is going to get more Gordie Howe hat tricks Trivia, how many Gordie Howe Hat Tricks did Gordie have? Leave a comment with your answer!

-From the Point

Five for Fighting Monday

Last year David Koci was with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Today the Colorado Avalanche will play the Bolts, but the subject of Five for Fighting Monday is the game later in the week. The Pittsburgh Penguins. David Koci fought a member of the Pens 5 times last season. Paul Bissonnette twice in one preseason game and Eric Godard on three different occasions. Here is the bout from the preseason, I chose this one because it got the highest rating at HockeyFights.com. Frankly, looking through Koci's fight log you don't see many wins. I guess you could say he holds his own as often as not and that's about it.

It's odd to see Koci wearing 33, obviously that had to go when he came to Denver, looks like it could be his number of choice since I saw him wearing it on a couple different teams, maybe he wanted to be a goalie?
The Pitts game is the halfway point of the road trip. If the Avs are sucking maybe we will see that old tough guy, Marek "Slugger" Svatos throw down with Sidney Crosby! They are about the same size and it might be pretty entertaining! Ok, let's make it a two-fer today and watch Marek Svatos and Claude Giroux from last Monday. They drop the gloves in what was a surprise for fans and announcers alike! Watch for Chris Stewart at about the 20 second mark bangin' his stick on the boards. And the replay is worth watching because at 57 seconds you can see Svatos nod his head in an invitation to go.

You've got to give Slugger some credit for that one. He had been frustrated and I think it righted his ship for a bit. But obviously he can't (and won't) do that every other game to get himself fired up. Of note is several reports that that was his first fight ever, even according to Svats himself. Nonetheless, HockeyFights.com lists two more back in the day, but no video. Too bad.
Enjoy your Monday, enjoy your week and remember, if the week gets tough...throw down!

-From the Point