They were the champs last year, but this year was quite different.
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37 Comments
You enjoyed seeing Georgie flourish. Loved him on NYR. He’s got talent.
The injuries and the Avalanche. Well they practice at a family event center and don't have their own practice facility. It would be great if Kroenke spent some money and built a top of a line facility for the Avs. That will never happen and I'm pretty sure Kroenke doesn't even know he owns a hockey team.
When your bottom 3 lines fant score changes are needed
This is the more notable storyline to me vs the Bruins.
Colorado is the defending cup winner and the pre season favorite to win it again, while the Bruins were bumped in the first last year and were expected to likely miss the playoffs. Nobody really talking much about Colorado and Tampa out in the first round it seems.
The only way anything happens with Nichushkin is if this thing turns into a legal issue that would necessitate a contract termination. The reporting is extremely vague at this point, but it doesn't appear that is going to be the case now, so expect him back come training camp. The more likely place for cap space will be with the Landeskog situation. He did say in his press conference that he is confident that he'll play again, but also that this might drag into next season. How far into next season will be the biggest question and then what decision does management make. Depending on how negotiations go with Toews once they're able to start negotiating with him, I could see either him or Girard as the most likely trade bait along with that first round pick.
The dumpster fire known as the bottom six needs to go. Rodrigues also needs to go. I know every other Avs fan are high on Byram, but I'm not. He is not dependable regardless of whether he is healthy or not. I would gladly trade Girard or Byram for some good forwards that can fill up the 2C or a wing in the bottom six. As for Newhook, I told y'all that this unnecessary pressure was bad for him. He played so poorly that he was demoted to the 4th line. His days as an Avs may be numbered
I don’t see anything coming from the Nuke situation. I hope Landy and Cogs are back, and it’s not career ending injuries, if not I see them offering Landy at least some position with the team maybe in a coaching or advisory role as he’s such a fixture with the organization. I see them trying to keep Eller and Rodriguez if they can, they keep Bo, not sure about Newhook who hasn’t performed as well as last season. Helm, and Malgin I only see coming back if they’re cheap. Neito I could see staying, he did well back with us, I know he’s hopped between the Avs and Sharks so he might go back, but I think he’d do well with the team. I think they need to do some Defensive shopping but idk they they would, I like Manson, Jack Johnson and Girard but Manson dealing with so many injuries, Girard making so many mistakes and being undersized I could see him being more effective elsewhere, he just seems too expensive for his performance in my opinion. Jack Johnson I think just doesn’t produce enough and there’s plenty of other defensive players they could get. EJ is a fixture the only way I see them get rid of him is if EJ retires, EJ would likely take less money for a 1 year contract for as long as he wants to play, I don’t see him leaving for money, but horses are expensive and he loves his horses. Jimmothy Timmothy is pretty solid and has been great with the Avs so unless he wants and expensive and long contract beyond what Sakic wants to spend I see him staying and Toews will get a contract renewal as long as he’s not wanting too long or expensive of a contract. He’s been solid for the Avs.
The injuries killed the Avs this season, the team needs to get healthy and some changes are gonna be made I’m sure. I think that the team did amazing given the circumstances and the Colorado Eagles were clutch for the Avs, glad to see them doing well in their Calder Cup run. It’ll certainly be interesting to what moves come and I’m sure Sakic will find some diamonds in the rough which should be big impacts on the team moving forward. Go Avs!
as avs fans have said to me years before: "Excuses excuses"
Val…..Val…. Val?? I can't see a situation that validated what he did by exiting. I hope he's there next year..but do his teammates?
The way things are happenning with Nichshuskin , im wondering if we will see him again in the league. Usually stuff leaks or insider reports on players , but this is pretty much dead silent.
The team achieved way more than they should have, and every true fan is proud of what they accomplished. Their core is one of the strongest in the league, save 2C and Landeskog's pending return. Girard takes up way too much money for a bottom 6 and needs to be dealt. 2C is the primary concern with neither Compher, Rodrigues, nor Newhook adequately filing that role. Would love to have some of the oldtimers back on the cheap if they can be healthy and effective. Hopefully, Val hasn't dived too deep into Russia's crime world and will return without any trafficked Ukrainian prostitutes.
Number 1 question is why one of their star forwards flew a Russian hooker over to Seattle in the middle of the playoffs and almost kilt her…
Yeah, we lost to Seattle but a lot of one goal games. The series feels like a coin flip. They beat us by 2 once and we beat them by 2 twice. That game 4 OT loss looks huge now.
I’d trade girard in a heartbeat to bring in new guys he looked suspect
I'd have to look at the statistics for it, but I'm pretty sure Colorado had the most injuries and man games lost of any team in the league this year, by a long shot. Additionally, not having our captain has been a HUGE issue. It's not just his leadership that is missing, he is one of the best left wingers in the league, and was by far our best guy in terms of tipping pucks and getting in front of the goalie for screens. He was also a hugely important factor in terms of the teams physicality.
I think whether or not the Avs can bounce back and win a cup next year depends entirely on what happens with Landy. If he determines that he's willing to have an additional surgery done and is able to recover from that surgery and feel 100% before next season, I think we can go on a run for sure. But if he decides that he either needs another season to deal with this, or decides he is going to retire, that will leave us scrambling to find someone who can even remotely attempt to fill his shoes, which is way more difficult than I can even begin to comprehend.
There's also a possibility that Val could be cut from the team, as we don't really know the seriousness of everything that went down, and if that happens in addition to Landy being out, we will be left trying to fill our 2C, 2R, 1L, just to start, which is a mess. Mgmt is probably going to have to use that 1st rnd draft pick at that point to try and get some leverage on a good trade.
All that being said, I'm super proud of the Avs for making it as far as they did. With all the injuries they had, call ups from the Colorado Eagles, non stop changes to the lines and everything, it's honestly a miracle they made it to the playoffs to begin with. Hopefully they can all take some time to rest up and get conditioned for next year properly.
You made a great point about them going out in the first round and the amount of time they will have to recover. They had 3 straight years of making the second round until finally breaking thru last year. They got less rest than any other normal Stanley Cup champion because of COVID and schedule adjustments that were made. This team will be back but I have been saying since Christmas that someone needs to explain why I shouldn’t think Landy’s situation is career ending….
Thanks for your amazing coverage of the entire league each and every day Hockey Guy!!!!!
bo is a fantastic player. makar lite. the problem is he cant stay healthy. obviously most of that falls at the feet of douche bag extraordinaire keegan kolesar, but the fact remains. im interested to see if he signs long term for less aav or bets on himself with a bridge deal. if he gets a bridge and stays healthy he could easily play himself into cale makar money. i would love to see the avs lock him up on a deal similar to girards.
i also hope with all this drama around nuke they can find a way to terminate his contract. he improved a lot and was a huge part of that cup but i have not for one second agreed with the contract they gave him.
i think they have to move either girard or manson. manson is another contract i never really liked, especially if they knew how injured he was.
You forgot the biggest problem the Avs have: no one in Colorado can watch their games on TV. There's no end in sight to resolving that problem, either.
I think the avs need to not get injured from a bunch of dirty hits that don't get called all season to win
I hope they go all in and bring in evander and patrick kane
they were just so inconsistent this year, and it showed up in Seattle. The powerplay completely disappeared, and it cost them the series. Not sure if it was just the roster depletion through injuries, or they just ran out of steam. Will be a very different team next season, but looking forward to what they do to build that roster and find way to stay healthy
Small correction: Nichushkin pulled his disappearing act on the Avs' first visit to Seattle, so he missed games 3-7 in the series.
😂😂😂
As an Avs fan, I felt some semblance of relief when they lost in Game 7. This season was rough in spite of finishing #2. The Top 2 lines did well in the playoffs but they didn't get nearly enough scoring from Line 2 and Lines 3-4 were just pummeled into submission by a neutral zone trap. I think rest to get our defencemen back to 100% singled handedly can get us twice the scoring. Getting Gabe & Val back can make up another 60 goals that Line 1 doesn't have to break their back to get. Really, having 2 strong lines up front + 2 healthy defensive pairings is more than enough to get back to WC #1.
1 and done?
Avs are in good shape if Landeskog gets back and stays healthy. A very nice long window.
Say what you want, but Joe Sakic is a smart GM. Not trading a bunch of 1st round picks is very smart especially looking at the team throughout the season and looking at all the injuries. Most teams would try to load up in that situation and trade out 1st round picks to replace guys and go deep. When he made that Matt Duchene trade that completely changed the entire franchise, thats when he showed how good of a GM he was.
Do they have clauses in contracts for things like if a personal thing causes you to miss games or you get arrested or whatever? Like a team being able to get out from under Nuke's contract if his personal stuff is legal issues and the Avs want to not deal with character type stuff that makes them look bad
Avs won cup last year, so there was probably less of a will to win. That said, Nathan MAcKinnon is making an ass of himself…complaining to the referee while the other team is going on to score for example…
I feel like the injuries the Aves suffered through this year in the end were a wash since they won the division anyway. Once the playoffs start, its a brand new blank slate. Landeskog being out for the playoffs hurts for sure but you have to find a way to overcome.
Seattle didnt have Burakovsky (who Aves fans may remember) so injuries are always there for every team.
The chuche-chuche train will be back. He loves being an Av
As a short term assessment, I kind a saw an early playoff exit coming as early as March and I don't think I was the only one. The injuries not only shortened their bench in the series against the Kraken, it also hindered them from developing the kind of chemistry you need for a deep run.
From a long term point of view, the Avs are one of those teams getting hurt by the cap freeze at the moment. Prior to the season, they had to give up their starting goalie (for the second year in a row) and 2 top 6 forwards. With Georgiev, Sakic made another top notch trade actually improving us at that position. But the lack of depth on offense was never properly addressed. Then you add the absences of Landy and Nichushkin and all the sudden, you really have a problem and 2 big questions for the off-season.
The two aspects that look promising though for the Avs are that 1) when healthy they are still stacked on defense, which was in fact my only real hope for a deep play off run. 2) The Avs core is second to none in the NHL and still on the younger side. MacKinnon (27), Rantanen (26) Makar (24) and Byram (21)…just makes you giddy to think of what we will see for years to come.
Thanks for the great video. I'm mainly just glad this season is over. Too many obstacles this year, and losing Val under mysterious circumstances was just the nail in the coffin. I hope the long summer and the front office can fix a lot of the problems we saw this year.
It's impressive that they won the division, despite the adversity. I think this cursed season came to a head when Nichushkin left the team. The Avs never really replaced Kadri with someone like him and Landy never ended up playing, so when Nichushkin bounced the losses were too big to overcome. The depth scoring never materialized all season. I was at game 7 and afterwards I felt relief more than anything. This season was rough.
I'd argue Landeskog is the best captain in the NHL. Hopefully he's back healthy next year.
Was gutted when Burakovsky left as well, was def a favourite of mine, miss the skill and creativity he provided
Wild that there is a possibility that we don’t see Nichushkin or Landeskog play another game for the Avs