OffThePost.org

Nice win off the hapless (but still strangely hot) Sharks, which is good. Former Av Jacob MacDonald got five and the gate for a bad hit on Sam Malinski. Personally I thought it was a penalty for sure, but not egregious enough to warrant the hook. Regardless, Avs nearly shat the bed for the entire five minutes before FINALLY scoring with 30 seconds left. They also scored on the next power play and pretty much controlled the game from then on out.

Nathan MacKinnon gets First Star of the Week honors, well deserved (10 points in 4 games). Dude is carrying this team on his back right now, especially in the wake of Makar's absence.

As for Makar, Bednar admitted there's something nagging that's keeping him out of the lineup, they want it to heal up more before putting him back in. No idea when he gets back.

Makar still out, Cogliano now out too for tonight vs. the Bedardhawks.

Avs lay a giant egg in Chicago, lose to the league-worst Blackhawks 3-2. Defensive breakdowns (REALLY BAD ONES) aplenty.

Later, Devon Toews called out some players for a lack of accountability. Lists roughly six or so, not by name mind you. But the way he described it he’s gotta be calling out Bo Byram, who had at least two insanely bad and lazy turnovers tonight. Byram has really struggled this season and frankly, it’s fair to wonder if his development has stalled badly or if this really is as good as you’re going to get from him.

Unfortunately the roster freeze has kicked in so even if management wanted to do something about it, they can’t until the 28th.

So as we stand heading into the holiday break, Avs are at least in a very decent spot. They're most definitely benefiting from a VERY soft schedule in a shitty division, but regardless, they've won a majority of their games.

Unfortunately, they have no second line to speak of, their highly-touted acquisition who was supposed to solve that particular issue has largely been relegated to 4th line duty, and the goaltending has been spotty at best.

Management knows they gotta do SOMETHING between the end of the roster freeze and the deadline, as to what, we will see.

Avs get a much-needed comeback victory at home against the struggling Ottawa Senators, 6-4 on the back of a four-goal night from Mr. Nathan MacKinnon, who extends his points streak to 17 games to tie William Nylander's streak earlier in the year, and also scored his 300th career goal.

Kinda crazy that it was the first-ever four-goal performance in Avalanche history. Last time four were scored in a game for the franchise, you'd have to go back to 1994 when they were still the Nordiques, Mike Ricci.

I just don't know what to make of this team. The extraordinarily talented core refuses to let them die, but nonexistent depth and shaky-at-best goaltending is costing them dearly. No idea how MacFarland fixes this but come December 28th he'd better get his ass in gear.

Well, it’s just gonna be one rollercoaster ride after another this year. This time the Avs blow a 4-0 lead and lose in OT, and everyone could see it coming.

Georgiev gives up at least two that I think he should’ve had, the wraparound goal by Zucker was inexcusable. But the Avs just basically shut down in the third period.

Bednar is clearly getting fed up with Bowen Byram. Benched him for the overtime period after he played a part in some of the goals against, but this move backfired. A tired Josh Manson had the puck and turned it over, which eventually led to the GLG. Putting Manson out there was a mistake, put Malinski out there if you must but if you’re gonna bench Byram you don’t put your 2nd worst puck handling defender out there.

Rumor mill keeps linking the Avs to Elias Lindholm but I don't see how in hell they pull that off. Unless Gabe Landeskog is done for good and packing his bags for Robidas Island, there's no way to make the cap work in 2024 and beyond. Not to mention that a lot of teams will be bidding for him around the deadline.

Another interesting name that appears to have come up...Jake Allen? The Avs certainly need a goalie who can get them some saves but that's another situation I don't see working, especially since losing the starting job to Shesterkin had Georgiev leaving New York in a snit.

I hope the Habs find a taker for Allen sooner rather than later. Hughes is patient and that usually is a good thing, but Allen in Montreal has developed a tendency to start fast and fade early. Not sure at his age he's got the conditioning to withstand a full season.

Primeau has done enough to get a real audition at backup. And Monty is a real number one, and a borderline all-star at 5v5.

_________________

Sammy Girard to make his return to the lineup tomorrow!!!!!

He talked briefly about his struggles today.

https://coloradohockeynow.com/2023/12/3 ... e-program/

Girard played relatively well for a guy who missed 20 games. Bednar didn't overdo it with the ice time but also didn't go out of his way to shelter him either.

I personally cannot wait until the Avs move on from Kurtis MacDermid. He is objectively the worst player in hockey (despite some truly WTF highlight-reel goals this season) and Bednar only trusts him for maybe 3-4 minutes a night at most, meaning an already-taxed forward group is taxed even further because there isn't even a full 4th line to eat up minutes.

Anyway, season series against the Lonely Island comes to a close tonight.

Nathan MacKinnon named 1st Star of the Month for December. 29 points in 15 games, that's pretty good.

Nice comeback OT win over the Isles (necessary because of yet another slightly horseshit performance by Alexandar Georgiev) with the winner scored on a classic Nathan MacKinnon power play cannon.

The best player on the ice though was Valeri Nichushkin, who scored a pair himself, including the game-tying goal, and all but secured the victory by causing a turnover in the final seconds and taking on three Isles defenders driving to the net, drawing a holding call that bled into OT.

Not surprising that the worst player on the ice for the Avs was Ryan Johansen...again. He couldn't even win a fuckin' faceoff.

Well...shit.

Avs are in a quandary, and right smack dab as they venture further into their toughest stretch of the season.

Ben Meyers, if he plays one more game, is no longer waiver exempt. Avs have been stretching that out as long as they possibly could but likely have no choice but to play him with injuries and illness hitting the team. If he's lost through waivers honestly it's not a massive subtraction as he just isn't very good at the NHL level, but it's just one more warm body the Avs won't have.

Apparently Josh Manson might be out tonight, and Bowen Byram is out for at least the next 1-2 weeks with what is termed as a "lower body injury."

And also, Miles Wood is apparently puking his guts up so he's likely a "no" for tonight against the Bruins.

The Avs went ahead and called up Jason Polin, and this might mark the first time in recent memory the Avs have called up a guy I have never heard of before. One assist in 13 AHL games played, and he just recently got back from suspension so...yay.

And of course the Avs face off against the best goaltending tandem in hockey when their own tandem could not be playing much worse at the moment. I don't expect a win here but...we'll see.

Kent Hughes has already hooked up with McFarland and Sakic on two trades: Lehkonen and Newhook, and I think they match up for a third.

What could he get for Monahan and Allen if he's willing to take back Johansen and maybe Meyers? Monahan on his own with salary retained probably nets him a late first elsewhere.

_________________

IMO Monahan doesn't any of the Avs needs. It'd be swapping a big, slow center made of warm, melty marshmallow for a big, slow center made of glass. I'd say he's an improvement over Johansen, but not enough of one, and at this point he may be even worse at the skating.

As for Allen, well he most certainly was the better of the two goalies last night. I don't know how they figure out what's going on between the pipes, but they better have a few ideas in place following the All-Star break.

Anyway...what an eventful 24 hours. Now Valeri Nichushkin enters player's assistance. Adrian Dater is getting roasted on Twitter for breaking the news early, I'll just refrain from commenting on that, but apparently he reported that this is "re-entry." Which implies he may have gone briefly earlier. But from what I understand, the Avs wanted him to go following that embarrassing incident in Seattle, and he refused. But anyway, he's getting the help he needs.

So, a tale of two games. Avs roll into Toronto with a piecemeal lineup up front where Caleb Jones had to skate as a forward, hand the Leafs a 3-0 lead after the first, and somehow roar back to win 5-3. They make their way to Montreal and lose 4-3 in a game where they once again played bad in the first and then came to life in the 2nd (though their third had way too many mistakes, including a Keystone Kops moment between Girard and Manson leading to Joel Armia's GWG).

The big difference: Georgiev was reasonably solid against the Leafs. He shat the bed against the Habs, giving up at least two bad goals. It's not all on him though--you can't go 1-for-5 on the power play, including a two-man advantage, against a bad penalty killing team icing their backup goalie, I don't care how shorthanded you are.

But yeah, All-Star nod or not, Georgie has largely sucked this year. They have to at least TRY and find a legit center that could play on the 2nd line as well as a decent goalie to back up #40, if not outright take the job from him.

Anyway, Ottawa tonight. All the core guys played like 30 minutes last night so I imagine they'll be utterly exhausted. Does that mean Ryan Johansen steps up? Definitely not!!!

That took a long time for Choo Choo to get into player's assistance. I am actually surprised he wasn't put in it when he went through his issues last year.

But maybe they gave him the opportunity to do it on his own before taking the next step or he did it on the down low last year if "re-entry" is the correct word.

Either way I hope he finds the help he needs so he can continue to play hockey if that's what is important to him. He's got talent and it would be great to see him have a nice career.

There's always time for questionable extracurriculars after the playing career is over if that's your thing. We've all got our demons.

_________________
No AI has been used in the making of this post

Well, Avs once again live dangerously, give up four goals and play absolutely atrocious defense in front of their top goalie prospect (Georgiev actually got the night off, Prosvetov was the backup) and somehow rally in the third down 4-2 to win 7-4. Probably the biggest reason was that the other team was the Ottawa Senators and Mads Soogard was in net, and while Justus Annunen didn't exactly look like a Vezina finalist back there, Soogard was absolutely atrocious, letting in at least two marshmallow-soft goals.

Hey I'll take it. No idea what the Avs wish to do with their goaltending situation but I don't think Annunen is the answer, but Prosvetov DEFINITELY isn't the answer either.

Avs have a bit of a break between games. Ended an Eastern road trip on a high note but unfortunately dropped two winnable games against Montreal and Boston, but surprisingly won the matinee in Philly in pretty decisive fashion, 7-4. Georgiev still let in two weak ones IMO but the Avs managed to make Carter Hart look like the worse goalie in that matchup.

The good news is that it sure looks like Bowen Byram and Arturri Lehkonen are making their return to the lineup. Jason Polin has already been sent down, I'm guessing Sam Malinski won't be far behind him.

Rumors abounding the Avs are in pursuit of a 2nd line center because they sure seem to have their top line and third line very much secure. If/when Nichushkin and Lehkonen make their return to the lineup and get up to speed, that's who will comprise 2/3rds of the 2nd line. Now all they need is someone to center them and of course the 200-lb. ghost named Ryan Johansen hasn't played at a remotely acceptable level all season long.

They also really need to find a worthwhile backup goalie, and I'm not sure how they go about it there. Too many backups who might fit the bill (Jake Allen, Dan Vladar) simply carry too much money with them.

Lehkonen and Byram activated off injured reserve!!!!

Conor McGahey has started referring to the "third" line of Miles Wood (#28), Ross Colton (#20), and Logan O'Connor (#25) as the "Roaring 20's" line and it appears to have caught on. I like it.

Avs Pride Night is tonight against the reeling Washington Capitals, who are fresh off a bad defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Wylde.