Joe Sacco – Tough SOB

It’s all about the A. Dater said the other day in his Twitter feed that Sacco is a tough SOB. I’ve suspected as much for a long time now. Here and there I’ve seen interviews and such that made me think that he projects this persona, or perhaps it is not a persona, that you don’t want to mess with the guy.
I don’t get the feeling that he is a players coach. You aren’t going into his office to have a warm sunny chat. If you are in that office at all you are probably in big trouble.
Sacco has sent TJ Galiardi down to the minors to “work on his game.” While I agree that Galiardi hasn’t been as good as we’ve seen, I’m not really that surprised either. Couple reasons, the first is that I never thought the kid was 1st line material anyway, nor do a lot of bloggers/fans. Second, seems like Sacco wants 3rd line mentality on the 1st line and that might be a bit difficult to achieve all the time.
Regardless, Sacco is sending a message once again with his tough love.
Will it work?
I have no idea.
But if it doesn’t, get ready for the fall out.
Sacco seems to have a tendency to look a bit schizophrenic with his lines. Defensively he has really messed with a few guys…but mostly with good results.
Liles got a little bench time last season and that was shocking, to say the least.
Hunwick is finally getting the seat after the fans have ridden him mercilessly for weeks. We saw this same thing with Wilson earlier in the season where it seemed that Sacco could have benched the guy a little sooner. However, I do have to think that perhaps Sacco should be given a little credit for trying to let guys play their way out of a slump.
We all saw what a mess you can make of a player (goalies specifically) when Quenneville was here with his quick hook. So maybe Sacco should be given a little credit for being patient with really young guys?
But when he does drop the hammer, he’s not fooling around. For now at least, the message seems to be getting through.

-From the Point

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 - Sharks Game 3 Photoblog

It starts and ends with Andy

Andy's name spelled wrong.

Playoff beard sighting!

O'Reilly dropped his breezers and got his shorts taped on, mid-game.

For the Boods fans!

Crowd rockin' it!

Picking up after the yard sale.

Tired penalty killers.

AN-DY! AN-DY! AN-DY!

-From the Point

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

Five for Fighting Monday

You want to show everyone who's boss?
Score a goal, tally a helper and top it off with a fight.
That'll show 'em!
Tonight the Avs and the Oil face off in a battle of the Gordie Howe hat tricks.
Chris Stewart and Zack Stortini are two of the only seven NHL players to register the elusive Gordie Howe hat trick so far this season.
Here's Stewie's GHHT, registered on Dec 2, 2009 against the Panthers. This is a particularly important fight for the Avs as a team. The victim, Bryan Allen, was taking a run at Matt Duchene and Stewart ended up taking the instigator penalty for this fight. But as you can see from the video, Allen wanted no part of this fight. And what a guy like Stewie is doing is sending a message that roughing up the Avs young stars will not be tolerated!

Zack Stortini registered his GHHT on Dec 9th 2009 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Stortini has duked it out with Wilson for his hit on the team captain. While that matter is probably settled, don't doubt for a minute that if Wilson lays another one of his hard hits on an Oiler, Stortini will be there to take care of things. And as Avs fans were witness to on Saturday, Wilson will back up his physical play.

It's interesting to note that teams with a GHHT have a 4-2-1 record.
Have a great Monday and an even better week.

Who is Ryan Wilson?

Let’s just get the basic data out of the way, Wilson, a native of Windsor, ON shoots left and is listed on the Avs roster as 6’1” and 207, he is 22 years old. Wilson was an undrafted defenseman playing for the OHL’s Sarnia Sting when he was signed by the Calgary Flames in 2008 and spent the season with the Quad City Flames. Look at that great pic from the Flames press release announcing his signing. Way to look alert Willie. Think the guys call him Willie? Haha, hope not.

Wilson’s time in the OHL with the Sarnia Sting was very successful; he led all defensemen in scoring for two straight seasons. His final season with the Sting saw him netting seven goals and 64 assists for 71 points in 58 games. Wilson also wore the “C” for the Sting for two years and totaled 220 PIM.

But despite a year on the Flames farm he never got a chance to play up in Cal Gary.

So how did Colorado end up with this sleepy tough guy? He came over when Colorado traded Jordan Leopold for Wilson, Lawrence Nycholat and a 2nd in the 2009 draft. Most Avs fans thought little of the two warm bodies that were thrown in to the trade. At the time I was thrilled to get a 2nd for Leopold after a pretty disappointing, injury-riddled stint in Colorado.

Wilson only played three games for the Avs farm team before being called up. He hasn’t been back ever since. Not even when the Avs had a log-jam of healthy bodies on the blue line. No, the big $$ John-Michael Liles got the healthy scratch and Sacco raised a few eyebrows with that move. But it’s hard to blame him, the kid is a player!

Looks like James Crider over at the Bleacher Report agrees with me in his midterm grades:

Ryan Wilson - B
Okay, former GM Francois Giguere did one thing right. Wilson was practically a throw in during the trade that sent Jordan Leopold to Calgary
last year, yet has established himself as solid NHLer in no time, and has arguably been better than Leopold ever was in his three-year tenure with the Avalanche.

He’s been paired primarily with Avs captain and grizzled vet, Adam Foote. No doubt he’s been learning a great deal from Foote all season.
We’re overdue to look at some stats: Wilson is 3rd in +/- and 7th in the league in rookie defensemen for points, but it isn’t just about points.
Wilson is third in the league in hits, and although he doesn’t have a lot of take-aways, he doesn’t have a lot give-aways either. I mean you look at a guy like Tyler Myers that is getting some Calder talk and the guy has twice the give-aways of any other rookie in the league.
Now compare him to a guy like Del Zotto who leads the league in hits, but has a lot more give-aways and I think you’ll see what I see: Wilson doesn’t hit guys just to hit them. He picks his spots and lays the lumber like we haven’t seen in Denver since Rob Blake left.

I think it really makes the opposition think twice about skating into the zone with the puck. Personally I don’t want the other team thinking, “Hey look, it’s Liles, I’ll just bounce off of him and keep going.” No, I want “Hey look, its Wilson…crap! I need to dump this puck!”

Steven Stamkos and Wilson played on the Sting together, here’s what he had to say in a recent interview:

If you could lay a big, clean hit on anyone in the league, who would it be?

Ryan Wilson with the Avalanche. He was my captain in junior with Sarnia
(OHL) and he hits hard. Would be nice to turn the tables on him.

I’ll bet, Wilson was recognized as one of the OHL’s hardest hitting defensemen by the annual coach’s poll.
So you want to get Wilson in your sites and line him up, eh? Good luck tough guy.

Avs fans recently voted a hit by Wilson as the play of the week.

The Avs D needs to get tougher

The Colorado Avalanche have starting goalie, Craig Anderson back in net after missing four games due to a neck injury inflicted by goalie killer, Keith Ballard. With the recent report by Puck Daddy that former NHL goalie Martin Gerber suffered a neck injury while playing in the Kontinental Hockey League, maybe the league should reconsider their deafening silence on players that keep running goalies. If players continue to run Craig Anderson then I think it’s time a message was sent to the league. And I don’t mean the front office.

As the Avs take on their opponents this month I think they need to keep in mind that if anyone so much as looks at Andy cross-eyed, he needs to be pummeled by the Avalanche. Now part of the challenge here for the Avs is their lack of fighting toughness on the backline. Not that a forward can’t take on this roll, but I would like to see at least one Avalanche defenseman take on the role of being Andy’s personal bodyguard.

Adam Foote has dropped the gloves in the past, he’s getting a bit long in the tooth to keep doing that and he really hasn’t dropped ‘em much in the last few years. Footer has only three fights since the lockout and no fights in nearly two years. But if you think he isn’t up to the job, take a look at his last fight with Jordin Tootoo.

I like the captain showing the team what needs to be done, but I would also like to see one of the other guys take on this responsibility. So who else might take on this role? Well here is the last fight (only NHL fight) John-Michael Liles was in.

So I don’t think he is our guy. Way to protect the face pretty-boy.

How about Hannan, Clark, or Quincey? Combined, they average less than a fight per year since the lockout.

That leaves Ryan Wilson, who has shown a real penchant for putting the hurt on guys with his checks. Let’s watch this recent video of Wilson leveling Ethan Moreau and fighting Zach Stortini.

Now Wilson didn’t fare so well in that fight but looking at his 100+ PIMs in his last couple years in the OHL, it’s obvious that Wilson has done a little fighting. He could be the man for this job.

If the league isn’t going to protect our goalie, then things need to be handled by the Avs, on the ice. I don’t care who commits the infraction, someone needs to address it. Craig Anderson is clearly a key component to the winning ways of this new and improved Colorado Avalanche. Last I checked the league doesn’t have a skirt-rule for goalies and I’m not calling for one either. I’m calling for the Avs to stand up for one of the guys that have made this team a winner again.


-From the Point

A version of this article was originally published on HockeyIndependent.com