Well, that was fun. Kinda wish they had done that to the Sharks instead, but we fans shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Late night at work, tune in to see it's already 1-0, Avs get pelted (as usual) but the Isles fail to tie it after one. I head home w/the wife, turn on the TV to see the Avs are up 4-0. I guess I'm a jinx.
Some thoughts on both teams.
1. Chris, aren't Frans and Taveras good at faceoffs? Because holy shit, if they're getting spanked on draws by the Avs, who have been even worse than usual this year (Stastny took a ton of d-zone draws and was above-average, MacKinnon is horrible at them, Duchene and Mitchell are okay, and O'Reilly is usually good but hasn't been this year), I fear for your club. I thought I read Grabo was good at them, maybe have him take a few. Given how many centers are on the squad, surely this problem can work itself out.
2. I love a good debate as much as the next guy, but caman, Tavares is better than Dutchy. Not complaining about #9 though, he's currently the team's best player not wearing goalie pads.
3. Snow made a possibly fatal mistake this offseason. Halak is decent enough, but only works well in a tandem situation, meaning the "backup" better be good. Chad Johnson was absolutely horrid tonight. Conversely, Varlamov bailed the Avs out. Again.
4. Despite some very good pick-ups in Leddy and Boychuk and a healthy de Haan and Visnovsky, the Isles D sinks or swims with Travis Hamonic. Sure wish for their sakes he could stay healthy.
5. Clutterbuck...ugh I hate that guy. What a spineless weasel.
6. Nathan MacKinnon finally gets the monkey off his back and scores two goals, and was flying all over the ice in the third.
7. He's a shell of his former self, but man, Iggy is good.
8. Defense is still a hot mess. Two delay of game penalties in a row in the first. As ESPN writer Drew Spevak tweeted, that's what happens when you live in your own zone.
9. Boychuk took an ill-advised run at Maxime Talbot in the closing minutes of the game and came up hurt. No one ever said that kid was smart. I think he's still mad at the Avs for trading him. He was so thrilled when Colorado drafted him he wouldn't give them back the photo-op jersey. He was traded as a still-then prospect to the Bruins for Matt Hendricks, BTW. Yeah, bad trade. I blame Quenneville for that one.
10. Avs, especially Landeskog, have got to quit taking so damned many penalties, despite the awesome run the goalie...er...PK is on right now.
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