Well, there is no question that he took the starting job and ran with it. None of the Patrick Roy successors have been rallied behind by the fans as much as Anderson has been in the last six months. This kind of recognition and accolade does not come automatically though. Craig has earned the respect that he has gotten not just by being better than our past Roy replacements, but by genuinely matching up to the top players in the game today.

Over the last few months there have been a lot of critics in the Internet “opinionsphere” constantly saying that they are worried about the possibility that Craig Anderson might be stretching himself out too thin, and playing too much. Maybe it is just the fact that we are not used to having a true starting goaltender that we can rely on each night, but after looking at the stats of the top goaltenders in the league, his amount of play is very typical. All of the big name net-minders have similar playing time to Andy.

Martin Brodeur (NJD) – 64 Games

Janathan Quick (LAK) – 61 Games

Craig Anderson, Miikka Kiprusoff (CGY), Henrik Lundqvist (NYR) – 60 Games

Ilya Bryzgalov (PHX) – 59 Games

Evgeni Nabokov (SJS), Roberto Luongo (VAN) – 58 Games

Again, the point here is that it is common for goaltenders at the top of their game to play this much. Even after all of the work, Andy has a 5th best .924 S%, and a 12th best 2.45 GAA. Andy has not shown that it matters a whole lot for him to play this much. Sure, he and his team have their off nights here and there, but I think Andy truly thrives on the challenge, and may even stay sharp with a lot of work. Baring an injury, the Avs look to ride his back into the playoffs. I am not under any delusion that the Avs will make a real deep run this year in the playoffs, but they sure have created the building blocks this season to be contenders again.

The Avs are back at it again tonight against the Blues, who they have completely dominated in three previous match-ups this season. In the most recent game against the Blues, Chris Mason was given the hook from the game for the second time in a row against the Avs, and Chris Stewart walked away with this first career hat trick. Hopefully the Avs can keep this hot streak going. Peter Budaj will get his first start since January, as the team looks to give Andy a little rest on a night against a pretty mediocre team in St. Louis.

Last night the Avalanche got an amazing overtime goal from young defender Kyle Cumiskey to give his team another 2 points in the standings, and giving themselves the Northwest Division lead once again.  The Avalanche currently has 74 points with 23 games left to play in the regular season.  Considering they only had 69 points all of last season, this year can already be declared a major improvement and success.  It looks like the Avs are going to make the playoffs, and may even win a series.  So, hopefully this season can be built upon, and is an indication of multiple years of success to come.  The team chemistry seems to be at an all-time high right now.  It has been quite a while since the players on the Avs genuinely seemed to buy into a system and play for each other the way that this group does.

We all know that the addition of Craig Anderson has been a tremendously positive addition to the club, but the main reason that this team is performing so much better this season is most definitely the young talent that is playing beyond their years.  Kids that are 18 and 19 should not be as mature and developed as they have shown so far.  After a fairly slow start to the season, Matt Duchene has really come into his own and leads all NHL rookies with 40 points.  The number one pick in the draft, John Tavares, is second with 33 points.  The Avalanche also has 3 players in the top ten of rookie goal scoring (Duchene – 18, Yip – 11, Galiardi – 9).  Brandon Yip has been a huge surprise so far, getting his 11 goals after being a mid-season call-up and only playing in 23 games.  I cannot remember this kind of rookie talent on the team in multiple players at the same time since Hejduk and Drury were in their first year with the team.  It seemed like those two guys had monster rookie seasons in 1998-1999 (Hejduk – 48 pts., Drury – 44 pts.), but Duchene is on pace to pass those numbers with 40 points and 23 games to go.  It will be tough for Matt to beat Paul Stastny’s 78 point rookie year, but he will definitely go down (baring injury) as one of the best rookies in Avalanche history.

Chris Stewart is the other major surprise of this season.  There are some players that you do not even need to see their name or number to know that they are on the ice based on the way they skate and play.  Stewart is one of those guys.  I do not think enough can be said about his level of play right now.  Last season he had just 19 points in 53 games with the team, but he has 41 points in 54 games this season.  His tough style of play, and work around the net probably has a lot of fans saying, “Lappy Who?”  Two Gordie Howe hat tricks this season are a testament to his versatility right now.

I have been very entertained watching this team grow over the last 59 games, and I hope that more people start to come back to the games and support this team.  They have had some rough patches, but they are a lot of fun to watch.  The Avalanche have the 4th worst home attendance average out of the entire NHL this season, but these players deserve a lot more support than that.  There are plenty of ticket deals out there, and I always post to Twitter the ones I find.  So, if you are a true Avalanche fan, you owe it to yourself and these young players to go out and support them once in a while.

There is a lot of debate in the blog world over whether or not the hit was dirty.  I, for one, think that the hit was completely unnecessary and dirty, but that is not the main point in my opinion.  My main contention with the situation is that the supposed fire and intensity Koci was showing when the game was 5-0, was nowhere to be found by him or the rest of the team during the 35 minutes of hockey before this incident.  The phrase, “Oh, now you decide to play” comes to mind.

Whether you think that this particular hit was dirty or not, there is no question to me that David Koci is a complete waste of a roster spot on this team.  I will once again contend that there is no room in this league anymore for a 1/2 dimensional guy like Koci.  I say 1/2 because he isn’t even any good at the “Enforcer” job that he is supposedly on the team for.  Teams may need tough & grinding players, but they also need to be able to carry their weight in the puck handling, passing, cycling, and occasional scoring departments as well.  David Koci has none of that.  In the end, he is just a big dude that can stand up on skates.  I do not see one redeeming quality about him.

I am also sick of this whole enforcer tradition.  Back in the day when Marty McSorley was tasked with protecting Wayne Gretzky, he would often skate on the same line as Wayne (or at least on the next shift) in order to make sure that there were not any liberties taken against Wayne.  That “Bodyguard” mentality has somehow morphed into NHL teams just having giant 4th liners on their team that only fight each other.  Supposed enforcers on teams are rarely on the ice to stick up for the star player at the moment that the enforcement needs to happen.  That enforcement generally just comes from one of the player’s other teammates on the ice and on the same shift as a perceived infraction.  To that end, Cody Mcleod and Adam Foote are more of the real enforcers on the Colorado Avalanche than David Koci is.

If you would like to try to argue that the Avs need Koci, please think about this first…he is by far the Avalanche player with the least amount of ice time this season, averaging 3:07  & 5.2 shifts per game.  He was on the ice for only 1 shift & 2 seconds in the win over Calgary last Sunday.  Just how much enforcement is he really doing on this team?

The Avalanche try to put the bad Capitals loss behind them on Saturday when they face the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Pepsi Center.  The game will start shortly after 7pm mtn.

Also, please check out the Avs Hockey Podcast.  Jay Vean is doing doing a great job of breaking down the games.  You can now also find the podcast on iTunes.

1.  Referee suspension needs to be immediate, and made public.  We always hear about players getting a game suspension here or there for rough hits or other dirty plays.  It is time for NHL referees to be held publicly accountable for their blatant mistakes like this one.  I want to read in the NHL news wire that the league has suspended Justin St. Pierre two games for a blown call.  I know this sounds drastic, but so is losing a point in a league where every single point counts.  Overall, I think NHL referees are some of the best in all of professional sports.  Do we really want to start looking like MLB umps with completely obvious blown (or wrong) calls without any ramification? The NHL owning and acknowledging the mistake is important to me.

2.  Eliminate the, “Meant to blow the whistle” clause in the rules.  It is completely vague, and something so subjective should not be in the rule books.  If anything, the subjective nature of the calls should side in favor of the goal being scored as long as the whistle did not effect the play itself.  If a whistle causes players to stop their action (basically stand around) before a goal is scored, then a goal should be disallowed.  Everyone and their mother (hell…even M.A. Fleury’s mom) know that Galiardi should have been awarded a goal on that play.

3.  Institute a mandatory “3 Mississippi” count before a referee can blow the whistle after losing sight of a puck.  I actually do not care if said zebra does not like Mississippi.  Have them use “Alligator” or any other 4 syllable word of their desire to make them resist the urge to stop a play so quickly.  If you really want to get fancy, make them sideways karate chop the air 3 times like basketball refs have to do when a point guard is taking his sweet time getting to the other side of center court.

Okay, I feel a little better.  I want to reiterate that I realize the Avalanche should have taken care of business with the other opportunities that they had to score.  It is just disappointing to see one bad call have that much impact on the actual outcome of a game. The main point that should be taken out of this is that the rule is plain and simply flawed.  A league that is criticized as much as the NHL is for not having enough scoring, should not have rules in the books that take away the legitimate scoring that does happen.

The Avs give it another shot tomorrow night against the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets.  The Avalanche played well last night, and they should be able to get the 2 points with a similar effort.  The game will start shortly after 5pm mtn.

Also, please check out the Jay Vean’s new site and latest podcast at www.TheAvsHockeyPodcast.com.

Injuries:  Just between Hejduk, Jones, Liles, Mcleod, Tucker, Cumiskey, Foote, and Stewart, the Avalanche has lost 49 man games due to injury.  David Jones is in the worst shape of the bunch with his recent knee injury, and he may be out for the rest of the season.  His case is particularly disappointing because he was just starting to show some promise with his 10 goals and 6 assists in 23 games played.  He also had two of the three short-handed goals that have been scored this season by the Avs, so he will definitely be a loss on the penalty-kill.

This Every team is going to have people get hurt.  It is just part of the game.  The difference is that good teams have people step up when their teammates go out.  The Avalanche do not have a whole lot of depth in their possible minor league call-ups, so this scoring burden will mostly fall on the shoulders of the youngsters Duchene and O’Riley.  I will talk a little more about Duchene in a second, but O’Riley does seem to have lost a bit of the swagger he had in October.  After an 11 point October, Ryan only had 6 points in November, and he is currently on a 4 game scoring skid.  We do not want to demand too much from our 18 year-olds, but maybe we as fans got spoiled a bit by his fast start out of the gate.

I would put Marek Svatos in the stepping up list, but he has not really shown any long stretches of consistently strong play in quite some time.  Needing him to step up, and actually having the ability to do it are two completely different things.  Svatos is like a flower that never blooms.  We have waited patiently for Svatos to break out, but all he seems to do is break (or injure) a limb.  Last season was his longest with only 69 games played.  I think most Avs fans are tired of waiting for Svatos to be a standout.  Five years in the league is a big enough data sample to be able to say that he is not ever going to be a 30 goal scorer again for this team.  He is an unrestricted free agent after this season, and I am fairly confident that this will be his last season with the Avalanche.

Consistent 60 minute play:  It has become major cliche in sports that everyone says they need to play strong and consistent for the entire length of their contest.  If any of you watch Avalanche broadcasts, you have heard the phrase (or a derivative) from announcers and player interviews, “We (They) must play a full 60 minutes to win,” just about every night.  In October, the Avalanche struggled at the beginning of games, and had to fight back to take wins.  As of late, the Avs look good early, get ahead by a couple of goals, and then falter in the 3rd period.  During the month of November the Avalanche was outscored 21-6 in the 3rd period.  I am not sure what the deal is with this team not having the energy to finish games strong, but they really have to find a way to stay tough late in games.  They have tried taking shorter shifts, and that really has not changed much, so it seems like the problem is more mental.  They get into the dangerous mode of sitting back a bit too much with a lead.  You know what they say about the “prevent” defense…it prevents you from winning.  I know that is cheesy, but it does happen a lot in all sports.

The Month of November was not all bad for the Avalanche though.  It is a little early to tell, but it looks like Matt Duchene may finally be getting the breaks that he deserves.  He is on a 3 game point streak with 3 goals and 1 assist in those games.  In many of the losses where it looked like the team just did not have the legs, Duchene was often the best skater on the ice for the Avalanche.  He seems to be a real competitor on every single shift.  His vision is also getting a lot better on the ice, as he has showed some real good passing ability around the net.  I think we may start to see him break out a bit and really be a focal point of the scoring for the Avalanche during the rest of this season.  He just skates and stick handles too good to continue to be denied like he has been for much of the last two months.

One of the other brighter spots has been the contribution of Wojtek Wolski.  I have read a lot of criticism of Wolski on Twitter during the games and in some other Avs blogs, and it is a little unfair.  He may have times during games where he makes puck handling mistakes, or does not look like he is skating as hard as he should be, but he is definitely contributing.  Wolski is currently the second leading scorer on the team behind Stastny with 23 points.  He had a point in 10-14 games in November, and he is a +5 on the year.  His points are mostly coming from assists lately, with only 2 goals in November, so hopefully he can get back on track in that department.

Even with the rocky November the Avalanche are still right in the playoff picture.  The team is currently holding 2nd place in the Northwest Division with a 15-8-5 record (35 pts.), and they are 4th place in the Western Conference.  They are only 2 points behind Calgary for the top spot in the division, but the Flames do have 2 games in hand.  They also still have to be considered one of the better teams in the NHL right now, because only 5 other clubs in the entire league have more points than the Avs.  That is a far cry from finishing last place in the West a season ago.

Hopefully the Avs can continue their momentum from Monday night’s big shutout against the Lightning, when they face the Florida Panthers tonight.  The puck will drop shortly after 5:30pm mtn.  It will be Craig Anderson’s first trip back to his old barn since signing with the Avalanche this past off-season.  He should be pretty fired up to face his old team, so look for a big game from Andy.  The Panthers have not been particularly good so far this year.  So, the Avs, with a disciplined game, should be able to come out of this one with another 2 points.

I welcome and encourage your comments.  Please feel free to tell me your opinion on things, what I have all wrong, or what I have missed.  Thanks for reading, and come back often.  I always post the highlights from the previous game as soon as I can.

Please also check out Jay Vean’s new website and latest podcast at www.AvsHockeyPodcast.com.

I’ve had a few revelations having to do with some Avalanche online resources that I thought I would pass on to you guys.  These revelations have really helped me be more informed, and much less frustrated, between and during Avs games.  I hope you find these suggestions useful so you can enjoy your Avs online connections as well.

Let’s start with Twitter.  My initial thinking when it came to Twitter was, “Let me find as many Avs fans as I can on here and follow them all!”  Upon further review, that wasn’t a very good plan.  It didn’t work out well at all for me.  I found that most fans do a pretty good job of finding positives to balance out their complaints, and then I found a few people that complain about absolutely everything and totally overreact when things go wrong.  It’s not breaking news when I say that, during an 82 game season, there will be stretches when things just don’t go well for our team.  That’s the nature of sports.  If that frustrates you to the point that you have to rant each and every time your team or a player on your team struggles, it’s time to choose something else to fill your time.  Bringing up negative point after negative point doesn’t make me want to follow you and actually tends to make me feel worse about my team playing badly.  In fact, I recently unfollowed a few strategic people on Twitter and that has helped me enjoy things there way more.  So, when dealing with Twitter, choose the people you follow carefully and you will get more out of it.  Anyone that bugs you or rubs you the wrong way, just  unfollow them.  It’s nothing personal and it’s your account.  You can do what you want with it.

Facebook has some nice opportunities to connect with other Avs fans from all over as well.  I’ve had a great time there so far.  I’ve met a lot of passionate Avs fans through my Podcast Fan Page.  Same rules apply there though.  Befriending every Avs fan you know will just lead to headaches.  Stick closest to the people you know have similar fanatic tendencies that you do and you’ll be just fine.  I make an effort to balance the good with the bad when commenting about games.  I also try to not be overly “sunshiny” like the Altitude announcers we all know and love.  It’s definitely a balancing act.  I do my best to be strategic and thoughtful with my words when it comes to comments on players and how they’re playing.  “So-and-so really sucks tonight” isn’t going to cut it with me at all.

There are some outstanding sites that will help you keep you very well-informed too:

The Avs’ main site can be found here.  It’s your typical sports website, but it’s all about our favorite team, so how bad can it be?  Sure, there are always a few things they can do more effectively, but for the most part, if you need anything about our Avs on the official end, it’s obviously the place you’ll want to go.

Mile High Hockey is the #1 Avs blog on the internet.  It can be found here.  The two main Avs contributors are David Driscoll-Carignan and Joe Dunman.  They are intelligent, funny, and insightful with their posts and input.  You can’t say that about every Avs or sports blog in general.   If you need anything from a fan’s perspective, this is the place to go.

Aaron Musick’s Avs page on Hockey Buzz is another place to go for Avs information from a passionate fan’s perspective.  His page can be found here.  The guys I like to follow are the guys that have some sort of a comment on every game, and Aaron is someone I’ve learned to count on.  I realize people have lives and are busy, so a post a game can be tough to get done with life happening all around us.  Aaron does a great job of breaking down every Avs game and does it in a classy way.  His blog on Hockey Buzz is one you’ll want to bookmark as well.

There are many, many other bloggers/Tweeters/Facebookers/etc. who I could also mention here, but I just wanted to give you some ideas and places to start with.  It’s tough to get everyone in one post, but I think you see where I’m coming from.  If you need more resources, check our blogroll, or get in touch with Kevin or me.  We can help you out.  Overall, I just want to encourage all of you out there to not settle on following whatever Avs fans you can find.  There are people out there who cheer for the same team you do, for the same reasons you do, you just need to find them.   Follow people that help you become a better fan.  Follow people that help you learn more about the game.  Follow people that have the same passion as you do for our favorite NHL team.  Settle for less and you’ll definitely regret it.

See you around Avs fans, and, of course, hope to see you somewhere online!

24 – This is the number of blocked shots that the Avalanche had during the game.  Brett Clark is probably feeling it this morning with 5 of them on his own.  Other than Adam Foote, who left early with a jaw injury, all other Avalanche defensemen had 3 blocked shots each.  This stat is a testament to the defensemen staying in their lanes, and literally taking one for the team.  A team cannot get this many blocked shots without some real hustle on every shift.  It was fun to hear Mike Haynes on Altitude say repeatedly in the 3rd period, “Another blocked shot!”  He was definitely amazed by the effort.  On the flip-side, Calgary only managed to get 6 blocked shots.

32/51 - This is the number of face-offs that the Avalanche won during the game.  They won a dominating 63% of their draws.  Matt Duchene was the standout, winning 10/12 of his attempts.  Paul Stastny won 55% (12/22) of his draws, and Ryan O’Reilly won 57% (8/14) of his.  No Calgary player won more than 50% of their attempts.  The Avalanche completely dominated the 2nd period in this department winning 16/19 face-offs.  The face-off domination by the Avalanche just goes to show how mentally focused and determined the team was during this game.

Overall, the Avs did all of the right things that were mandatory if they were going to hold onto the Northwest Division lead.  They skated hard, won battles along the boards, did not chase too much in their zone, killed all of their penalties, and they got some production on the powerplay.  They did give up a shorty in the 2nd period, but it is tough to blame that on the team since Quincey’s stick broke on a slapshot attempt that led a rush by Calgary in the opposite direction.  Quincey could not cover the passing lane without a stick, and a good shot went past Anderson.

Craig Anderson was back to top form as well with some absolutely amazing saves.  He stopped 34/36 of the shots he faced.  Mike Haynes was also on top of this one by declaring at one point late in the 3rd period after Andy made 2 great saves on Olli Jokinen that, “Craig Anderson should be arrested for robbery.”  It was exciting to see him shut things down.  We really have not had this dependable of a goaltender in quite some time; dare I say since the days of the great #33?  Jose Theodore had a few moments and stretches of good play, but he was not nearly this consistent over long periods of time.  Again, this is all rational Avalanche fans asked for.  We just want the guy to give his team a chance to win each night, and I think he has exceeded that expectation by carrying the team on his back at times.  Craig Anderson is a real competitor, and he is probably the best free agent signing that the team has made since Patrick Roy retired.

The Avalanche are right back at it tonight against the Edmonton Oilers.  The puck will drop shortly after 7pm mtn.  It will be interesting to see if the Avs can continue their momentum from last night, or if the players spent themselves on the tough road win.  Hopefully it will not be the latter.

The first sign of a more tired club is taking unnecessary penalties.  There were some hooking and interference calls last night that were the product of the Avs players not skating hard enough.  They also had 2 too many men penalties against them during the game, which is just a lack of mental focus.  Too many men penalties are like false starts in football.  They are completely mental and avoidable, but they happen all too often.  During the penalty kill last night, the 4 skaters left on the ice looked out of place, they had no aggressiveness toward the puck carrier, they lost all of the battles along the boards, they let the Oilers pass wherever they wanted, and this led to 4 powerplay goals against them on only 7 chances.  The 5th goal by Edmonton might as well have been a powerplay goal because it happened right after the penalty had expired.

Craig Anderson also had a rough night in net.  He did not look nearly as sharp as he did in the previous starts he has made this season.  Yes, the skaters had their problems, but I know Andy would like to have a couple of those goals back.  His lateral movement was off, and he did not track the puck as well as he should have.  There have not been many instances of Anderson not seeing a shot at all on its way to  the net this year, but it happened at least twice last night.  He is not going to be a superstar every night, but hopefully he can bounce right back on Wednesday with a strong performance.

Coming from behind to win a game is entertaining for the fans, but it is not a long-term winning formula that they want to get used to struggling with each night.  There are too many talented teams out there that are going to be able to lock the game down with a lead (aka playing like Minnesota).  Edmonton is a good example of this.  They may not have the best record, and they have not played well on the road so far this year, but they are still plenty dangerous.  I am not sure if there is a lack of mental or physical preparation by the team, but they have had too many games were it has taken them 7-8 minutes into the first period to wake up and get their legs under them.  The Avalanche need to start coming out of the gate with more energy and intensity.

- Next game Wednesday night in Chicago at 6:30pm mtn.

First of all, I do not subscribe the the “tired on the road trip” excuse as much as some people seem to.  These guys are professional athletes, and it does not take that much rest to be able to play another game.  I can see falling off slightly on back-to back nights, but having a day of rest between games should be enough to physically be ready for the next night.  The way the Avalanche played over the last two games looked more like they ran a marathon in the morning, and then still had to play that night.  The errors seem to be mental, rather than physical in nature.

As for the injuries, losing grinders like Tucker, and McLeod hurts a little, but it is still not the reason that the scoring well dried up over the last two games.  Where are the guys with the first letter of the alphabet stitched on their shoulder?  Stastny and Hejduk are supposed to be the leaders of this offense, and they have been a non-factor on the ice.  I think I only heard Stastny’s name mentioned 3-4 times during the whole game last night.  I am obviously not able to hear what goes on in the locker room, or on the bench; but it does not seem like there is a whole lot of leadership, motivation, fire, or excitement coming from Stastny or Hejduk over the last two games.  Why would the top skating line look completely flat when they are fully healthy?  That has nothing to do with Tucker or McLeod.  I realize that they are still at the top of the team in scoring, but at least over the last two games, I get the feeling that they are just going through the motions.

It is also no secret that Marek Svatos is completely lost out there right now.  In 15 games, he only has 3 points, and he is a team worst -8.  I honestly do not know what the deal is with him, but he is a complete non-factor on the ice at this point in the season.  The problem is that there really is no other player to give his ice time to.  Our call-ups have not exactly set the world on fire in the few games that they have played.  Granted, Dupuis and Durnos looked like they had more energy than the rest of the team at times last night, but it was nothing that convinced me that they need to stay in the big show for any length of time.  Svatos is basically begging someone to take his ice time, or even be healthy scratched, so the door is definitely open for one of these AHL’ers to step up.

On the back end, the defense is also playing a little soft right now.  Anderson has shown that he is going to make the first save on nearly every shot.  Most of the goals have come from our defensemen not clearing the puck out after Anderson makes the first save, which coincides with  them not being tough enough on the opposition when they park in front of the net.  There is not enough physical play in our end, and that is leading to teams being able to cycle the puck extremely easily.  There was a point in the 3rd period of last night’s game where Adam Foot chased a guy around the zone for about 10 seconds.  Even when they got near the boards, he just kept chasing.  There has to be a point where you just stick that guy to the glass.

The bottom line is that it is time to get back to playing basic hockey.  Solid checking, crisp passing, and hard skating are a start in the right direction.  They have also been a little too cute on the powerplay.  The 5-3 last night without a shot on goal illustrated that point.  We should just plant guys in front of the net and slap away from the point.  Let anyone on the opposition try to block it if they want.  They will get through eventually, and delivering a few bruises to legs in the process is just a bonus.

It is not all bad news though.  Craig Anderson, even in the two losses, has been stellar in net.  He has at least kept his team in the game each night.  He gives the Avalanche a chance to win even when they do not deserve it.  As fans of this team, I think that this is all we ever asked for from our starting goaltender.  Just give us a chance to win, and hopefully the skaters can come up with a few goals on the other end.  The NHL has also recognized Andy’s play this season, and named him the first star for the month of October.

I don’t want this to sound like things are in dire straights already.  This team still has a lot of talent, and they are still at the top of the Western Conference.  Hopefully the leadership on the team can deliver a preemptive strike of motivation to make sure that this does not happen anymore.  Even the Stanley Cup winning teams had rocky patches.  It is all about making the right adjustments.  If this team is going to prove that they are not fool’s gold, they need to show some heart over the next few games.  4 of the next 6 are at home, and rest should not be an issue with 3 periods of 2 days off between games.  The competition does not get any easier though.  Phoenix will be at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday night, and they have played very tough so far this season.

- Please check out Jay Vean’s latest edition of The Avs Hockey Podcast #43.

Because of the dismal performance of the team last year, there are a lot of “experts” who are very cautious about giving this team any credit for where they are in the standings.  We have added some good players like Quincey, O’Riley, and Duchene, but Craig Anderson is the main reason for the team’s current success.  Here are his impressive numbers after making all 12 starts for the Avalanche:

Stats taken from the NHL.com Goaltending Summary page.

- 9 Wins.  Currently best in the NHL.

- 1.96 Goals Against Average.  This is the best GAA  in the NHL for all goaltenders with more than 2 starts, other than Ryan Miller (on my fantasy team by the way), who has 7 starts and a 1.69 GAA.

- .940 Save Percentage.  This is technically the 5th best S% in the NHL, but positions 1-4 are taken by players who only have 2 appearances for their team.  So, in my opinion, Andy is the true S% leader.

- 399 Shots Faced & 375 Saves.  Anderson has faced the most shots & consequently made the most saves in the NHL by almost 70.  Khabibulin is the next on the list with 330 shots faced.  This is probably something that the team as a whole needs to start working on.  Anderson has been great, but the skaters need to help take the pressure off.

- 2 Shutouts.  14 goaltenders in the league have a shutout this season, but only Ilya Bryzgalov also has 2.  Shutouts are pretty hard to come by in NHL since the lockout, but Andy has had 2 in 12 starts.  It is even more impressive that he has managed to get 2 shutouts while facing (by far) the most shots in the NHL.

- Anderson has managed to stay this consistent even after making back-to-back starts twice this season.  They will need to start getting him some periodic rest at some point soon, but right now he looks very solid, and it is hard to deny him on any given night.

Yes, it is still early, and there is a lot of hockey to be played; but even if Anderson has a few of bad games now and then, I believe he will be a top 5 goaltender when the season is over.  Streaks generally do not last more than a few games, and 12 is a lot more than just a few.  I think it is pretty obvious that we are looking at real ability, and not just a lucky streak.

Side Notes:

The Avalanche play their third back-to-back game of the season tonight when they go up against the Calgary Flames at 7:30pm mtn.  The Flames have been playing good hockey lately, so this will be another tough test for this new look team that is currently 1st in the entire NHL (Wow, that sounds nice).

This is also my first blog post on my brand spanking new MacBook Pro.  I think I am in computer heaven!