Miscellaneous
More Cuts & Preseason Update
01 year ago
The preseason cuts continue as earlier this evening the Avalanche reassigned four more players. These players join the seven who were sent back to their minor league teams yesterday.
The four players sent down were:
G Calvin Pickard (OHL)
C Justin Mercier (AHL)
C Evan Brophey (AHL)
C Garrett Meurs (WHL)
The Avs played their first preseason game last night against the Dallas Stars. The Stars won 5-2, but the Avs left a lot of their veterans at home, which is the standard for preseason games.
Calvin Pickard and Trevor Cann split duties in net. Tyson Barrie and Brad Malone led the way with a power play goal and assist each.
The Avs face-off at home against the St. Louis Blues tonight and Semyon Varlamov will get the start and is expected to go the distance. Many of the Avs veterans will be in the lineup tonight. The only two players participating tonight who played last night are David Liffiton and Barrie. Cann is the backup tonight who played half of last night’s game.
The game isn’t being televised, but the radio broadcast can be streamed on Cruisin Oldies 950AM.
A Little Break From Avs News
01 year ago
Well this is not hockey related, but it’s something I decided to write about. Why am I writing about this? I have to, and well I want to share it with all of you as well.
I was contacted a few weeks ago by Easy Canvas Prints in regards to receiving a free product from them for nothing more than simple product review and link to their site on this blog. At first I thought it was a scam and was a bit hesitant, but after multiple e-mails with the representative who contacted me I was comfortable in believing that it wasn’t actually a scam.
Easy Canvas Prints takes any ordinary photo and brings it to life by placing it on a canvas as if it were a painting. I wanted to use a photograph from one of the Avalanche games I attended for my free 8×10 canvas, but none of the photographs really spoke to me so I took a different route and decided on this:
It’s a photograph I took in mid July of Nubble Lighthouse in Maine while I was vacationing there. I wouldn’t normally promote things that weren’t related to hockey on this blog, but this is actually a really cool product. I wasn’t expecting to open the box and find something I wanted to immediately put on my wall, but I was mistaken.
The quality of the color and the piece in general is excellent. The only negative thing I have to say is that I wish the canvas was pulled a little tighter before being stapled to its wooden frame. If you are looking for a way to display photographs in a new way then I would recommend checking out their website and giving it a try.
The prices are very reasonable and there is a variety of sizes, colors, and other options to choose from. Yeah, mine was free so of course I am speaking highly of the company and their products, but my parents were impressed by it as well and are thinking about ordering a larger size with another one of the photographs I took while on vacation.
I’m also considering taking the time to edit one of my Colorado photographs and buying a larger size that I can place on another wall in my room. This is an excellent product and the turn around time was great! My order was shipped just a few days after I ordered it!
Christmas is only a few months away and in my opinion this would make a great Christmas present for a family member of any age.
Now back to your regularly scheduled Colorado Avalanche news…
Ten Year Anniversary
01 year ago
June 9, 2001. To many that date means nothing, but to us loyal Colorado Avalanche fans it means a hell of a lot. As the final buzzer sounded in Game 7 of the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals Avalanche players, management, and fans everywhere rejoiced as the scoreboard read 3-1 in favor of the Avs over the New Jersey Devils.
This was the teams second cup since moving to Denver from Quebec prior to the start of the 95-96 season, but this one was special. Long time NHL veteran Ray Bourque had never won a Stanley Cup and asked for a trade to a cup contender, such as Colorado, to help reel one in.
I remember watching the game and being able to see the emotion on all of the guys faces, but one special moment will always stay fresh in my memory. As per tradition, the captain of the winning team always steps up to accept the trophy and Joe Sakic did just that. It’s what he did next that has stuck with me for the past ten years. He immediately turned and handed the trophy off to Bourque who, grinning from ear to ear, kissed it twice and held it over his head reveling in his first Stanley Cup championship in his 22 year career.
What is your best memory of the Avs winning the cup in 2001? Leave a comment below, I would love to read it!
Cup Final Prediction
21 year ago
The Stanley Cup Finals have arrived. The Vancouver Canucks will host the Boston Bruins tonight in Game One of the series. The puck drops at 8:00pm EST and will be broadcast by NBC (in the States, anyways).
As you know, I have made predictions for each round of the playoffs thus far, and have done fairly well. As it stands right now I have predicted the winner of the series nine times out of twelve. That, of course, doesn’t include the Conference Finals so let’s see how I did there.
I picked San Jose to win the Western series in seven games, but Vancouver ended up dominating and winning the series in five games with the help of a fluke game winning goal in double overtime of game five. I chose the team correctly in the East, but was off by one game as I predicted the Bruins would beat the Lightning in six games, but it took the full seven. Let’s move on to the finale of this playoff season that pits two great offensive teams against two All-Star goalies.
Stanley Cup Finals
#1 Vancouver Canucks vs #3 Boston Bruins
I am excited to see how this series unfolds. Both of these teams have some great offensive fire power, defensive monsters, and two very competitive goaltenders who are hungry for their first Stanley Cup.
Similar to the Conference finals, both head coaches will be using their home ice, and last change, to their advantage. Match ups are key to every playoff series and you can bet that with the extra days off both teams have done plenty of homework on their opponents.
I’d expect to see Zdeno Chara on the ice as much as possible whenever Ryan Kesler is out there. Kesler loves hanging around in front of the net, and his game tying tip-in against San Jose to force overtime in game five shows how dangerous he can be. Chara is a giant of a man and should be able to limit Keslers danger level by being physical with him in front of the net. As for the Canucks Kevin Bieksa and Dan Hamhuis will most definitely line up against the Bruins top line of David Krejci, Nathan Horton, and Milan Lucic.
Of course mismatches is what both coaches will be looking for to try to jump start their offense and taking advantage of having last change will be one way the home coaches will look to do this. If a mismatch does occur there is no need to worry because goaltenders Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas have been bailing out their teams throughout this playoff season. Neither guy has won a Stanley Cup before and they have battled for three rounds to make it this far and I can’t see either one breaking down soon. These are two athletic goalies who do what it takes to stop the puck and keep their respective teams in the game. Night in and night out Thomas and Luongo give their teams a chance to win, and this series will not be any different.
The final round of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs is going to be a battle right down to the final buzzer. Which game will mark the end of the 2010-2011 NHL season? Which team will be victorious when that final buzzer sounds?
in 7 games
Conference Final Predictions
02 years ago
Well after a decent showing in the first round in which I correctly picked seven of the eight teams who moved on, but only two of the eight correct teams and series length it’s time to look at my second round predictions.
I was spot in the Western Conference. I successfully predicted the Vancouver Canucks in six games over the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks in seven games over the Detroit Red Wings. However I was way off in the Eastern Conference as I chose the Washington Capitals in six and the Philadelphia Flyers in seven. As far as I’m concerned I still did a hell of a job and have correctly chosen nine of twelve teams correctly. Here’s to picking eleven of fourteen correctly!
Western Conference
#1 Vancouver vs #2 San Jose
This is shaping up to be a great series. Roberto Luongo found his groove in the semi-finals and Antti Niemi has been solid for the Sharks thus far. Both teams have superstars that know how to score goals and play defense. Ryan Kesler blew up in the last round of the playoffs and now leads the playoffs in points with 15. Fifth on that list is Ryan Clowe from the Sharks with 13. Clowe was injured in the last series against Detroit, but he did play in game 7. Watch to see if that injury effects him at all this series. I believe that each game will boil down to which ever team does the best at capitalizing on any mistakes their opponent makes.
Sharks in 7
Eastern Conference
#3 Boston vs #5 Tampa Bay
Dwayne Roloson and Tim Thomas are going to be the difference in this series. The opposing goaltenders are third and fourth in playoff goals against average and save percentage. Special teams will be a huge part of this series as the Lightning have one of the top power play and penalty kill units in the entire playoffs while Boston remains near the bottom half in both of these statistical categories. Boston needs to do their best to stay out of the box or this could be a short series for them.
Bruins in 6
Loading ...