Riding the Youngsters’ Shoulders

First of all, I want to apologize to any readers that care for not posting any updates since December.  It was not my intention to let the blog stay stagnant for this long, but sometimes life gets in the way of hobbies.  My 5 month old son, Nalen, is taking up a lot of my time, and it has just been so much fun to watch him develop and learn something new each day.  I also did not start this blog with the intention of posting game summaries or comments on each game.  There are plenty of other sites doing that.  My motive is to post feature articles with my opinion on the state of the team when a topic strikes me.  As the season winds down into the playoffs, I intend on making much more regular posts, so please check back often to see what is going on.  At the very least, I will always post the previous game’s video highlights even if I do not have something to say about the game.  With that disclaimer out of the way, here are my latest comments:

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.