Up's and Down's
Posted 3:34 AM ET | Comments 0
Obviously everyone out in blogger world (for the NHL at least) is igniting this site with lock out news (we all know its looking grim for a normal season). So I figured A different blog could be beneficial to us who still want to discuss possible outcomes for the (hopeful) season.
I believe we Avs fans are on the verge of a season worth the wait considering how tough its been in the last five or six years to root for this fiscal and stubborn club. We have all been very patient watching the development of young power forwards and passed over defensemen and goaltending with great upside. But we need a break from the ups and downs don't we? Soaring and crashing back down to earth seems to be a regularity in the NHL these days, but when your squad is icing the youngest team out of thirty clubs things can get dicey when it comes to the highs and lows.
Take last season as a whole for instance. While we got a strong rookie term from "captain" Landeskog along with breakout numbers from third year center Ryan O'reilly, we had to suffer through a tumultuous and injury riddled season from our golden boy Matt Duchene.
Along with that issue we saw a jekyl and hyde season from our new prized young russian goaltender, Semyon Varlamov. Some terrific game stealing performances, along with a forgetable stretch down the middle that saw the young first rounder lose his starting job to veteran turned back up J. S. Giguere.
Considering all this to go along with the woes of general inexperience on the back end made this year feel like a lottery season come June. Yet, there they were battling right down to the last couple of games of the seaon for a play off spot. Unfortunently the inexperience caught up with the Avs as they went 1 for 5 in their last six games showing slow legs and large amounts of fatigue culminating in a 6-1 thrashing from the preds to close this one out.
I felt optimistic at the end of this season as I couldn't hep but feel good about what was being built through fiscal planning and risky aquisition's including cast aways like Erik Johnson, Semyon Varlamov and Jamie Mcginn. worthy return for what was sacrificed including giving up the 1st rounder for varly (i know)
I guess what I'm trying to say is beyond the roller coaster season we (Avs fans) saw last year was one riddled with growing pains of a young team getting to know each other in the room and understand one another on the ice which only spells danger for opposing teams considering the banked talent this young squad carries.
A little Idea for projected lines next year:
Mcginn-Stastny_Jones
Landeskog-Duchene-Parenteau
Hejduk-O'reilly-Downie
Macleod-Mitchell-Kobasew
Elliot-Johnson
Hejda-O'byrne
Wilson-Zanon
Varlamov
Giguere
So what do you guys think?
I believe we Avs fans are on the verge of a season worth the wait considering how tough its been in the last five or six years to root for this fiscal and stubborn club. We have all been very patient watching the development of young power forwards and passed over defensemen and goaltending with great upside. But we need a break from the ups and downs don't we? Soaring and crashing back down to earth seems to be a regularity in the NHL these days, but when your squad is icing the youngest team out of thirty clubs things can get dicey when it comes to the highs and lows.
Take last season as a whole for instance. While we got a strong rookie term from "captain" Landeskog along with breakout numbers from third year center Ryan O'reilly, we had to suffer through a tumultuous and injury riddled season from our golden boy Matt Duchene.
Along with that issue we saw a jekyl and hyde season from our new prized young russian goaltender, Semyon Varlamov. Some terrific game stealing performances, along with a forgetable stretch down the middle that saw the young first rounder lose his starting job to veteran turned back up J. S. Giguere.
Considering all this to go along with the woes of general inexperience on the back end made this year feel like a lottery season come June. Yet, there they were battling right down to the last couple of games of the seaon for a play off spot. Unfortunently the inexperience caught up with the Avs as they went 1 for 5 in their last six games showing slow legs and large amounts of fatigue culminating in a 6-1 thrashing from the preds to close this one out.
I felt optimistic at the end of this season as I couldn't hep but feel good about what was being built through fiscal planning and risky aquisition's including cast aways like Erik Johnson, Semyon Varlamov and Jamie Mcginn. worthy return for what was sacrificed including giving up the 1st rounder for varly (i know)
I guess what I'm trying to say is beyond the roller coaster season we (Avs fans) saw last year was one riddled with growing pains of a young team getting to know each other in the room and understand one another on the ice which only spells danger for opposing teams considering the banked talent this young squad carries.
A little Idea for projected lines next year:
Mcginn-Stastny_Jones
Landeskog-Duchene-Parenteau
Hejduk-O'reilly-Downie
Macleod-Mitchell-Kobasew
Elliot-Johnson
Hejda-O'byrne
Wilson-Zanon
Varlamov
Giguere
So what do you guys think?