Colorado Avalanche

Today we've got an early game and a late game. Nothing in between. #7 detroit red wings at #1 Chicago Blackhawks (1-0 CHI) 1:00 Eastern, NBC, CBC Game 1 of this one was pretty fuckin dull. Here's hoping Amway's team comes out with some desperation and makes a game out of it this afternoon. #5 Los Angeles Kings at #6 San Jose Sharks (2-0 LAK) 9:00 Eastern, NBC Sports, TSN, RDS Now here's one that's gotten good. LA jumped out to a 2-0 lead in Game 2, at which point Dater tweeted that despite the Sharks starting to out play them, they had this in the bag. Then San Jose scored three unanswered to lead 3-2, and Dater apologized to Kings fans for the jinx. Minutes later, as the game wound down, San Jose took a bad penalty (hooking, I think) and a penalty that is bad (super borderline puck over the glass) to go down two men. LA would score twice in 22 seconds to win 4-3. The Dater Jinx is alive and well, and also this series is pretty exciting now, and also fuck the puck over the glass penalty in that situation. Jeez. Poll Go: Sharks Kings Home 1 votes | Results

As the Colorado Avalanche count the days until the June 30th draft, there is likely to be many within the organization focused on the city of Saskatoon over the next few days. There, the hometown Saskatoon Blades (WHL) prepare to host the 2013 Memorial Cup, which starts tonight. The annual Memorial Cup tournament features a host team, along with the playoff champions from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League, and the Western Hockey League. Joining the Blades are the Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL), London Knights (OHL), and the Portland Winterhawks (WHL). Saskatoon Blades Host Saskatoon features Avs 2011 first round pick Duncan Siemens. The defenseman suited up for 70 regular season games for the Blades with three goals and 29 assists; to go along with a plus 31 rating. It was an inauspicious start for Siemens and the Blades as the Alberta native was stripped of his captaincy in the early part of the season. Despite the apparent distraction, the club finished second in the Eastern Conference behind the Edmonton Oil Kings. The highlight of the season was an 18 game winning streak. Despite the strong finish, the club was swept in the opening round of the WHL playoffs by the Medicine Hat Tigers. How rusty can a team be? The Saskatoon Blades have not played in a game for nearly two months. Portland Winterhawks The focus of Avalanche fans during the Memorial Cup will be on defenseman Seth Jones. His Portland Winterhawks compiled the best record during the regular season with 57 wins. Jones had 14 goals and 42 assists in 61 games; garnering WHL Rookie of the Year honors. A couple of other interesting Winterhawks are Troy Rutkowski and Ty Rattie. Rutkowski was drafted by the Avs in the fifth round of the 2010 draft. He and the Avalanche could not come to terms on a contract last spring and the defenseman became a free agent. He signed a three-year entry level contract with the Ottawa Senators in March. The overager led all Portland defenders in scoring with 66 points. Ty Rattie is a name Avs fans are familiar as he was selected by the Blues in the second round of the 2011 draft with the pick that St. Louis obtained from Colorado as part of the blockbuster Erik Johnson trade. He was recently named MVP of the WHL Championship Series and had 36 points in 21 post-season games. Halifax Mooseheads The two players most often mentioned in the same sentence as Seth Jones to be potentially selected first overall in the June draft are Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin. The diminutive Drouin tore up the QMJHL with 105 points in 49 games during the regular season. Nathan MacKinnon finished with 75 points in 44 games for the Mooseheads. The duo continued to fire on all cylinders in the post-season. Drouin and MacKinnon were first and third respectively in playoff scoring. The Mooseheads dominated through the playoffs losing only once all post-season. Will their strong play continue? London Knights Max Domi may not be receiving as much hype as some of the other prospects entering the Memorial Cup, but he carved himself out a fine season with the London Knights. He was the top playoff scorer for the OHL champion Knights with 32 points in 21 games. London compiled the top record during the regular season, producing 50 wins. The team won a gritty seven game series over the Barrie Colts to secure their bid to the Memorial Cup. Schedule Friday, May 17 -- London vs Saskatoon -- 6:00 PM MST Saturday, May 18 -- Portland vs Halifax -- 5:00 PM MST Sunday, May 19 -- Saskatoon vs Halifax -- 5:00 PM MST Monday, May 20 -- Portland vs London -- 6:00 PM MST Tuesday, May 21 -- Halifax vs London -- 6:00 PM MST Wednesday, May 22 -- Saskatoon vs Portland -- 6:00 PM MST Broadcast The Memorial Cup is available to Canadian viewers live on Sportsnet. US viewers will also have an opportunity to watch the event on the NHL Network; sadly the games will be tape delayed.

Just one game tonight. Pittsburgh took Ottawa to school in a 4-1 victory that saw stellar performances from Evgeni Malkin (1G, 1A) and Tomas Vokoun (36 SA). #7 Ottawa Senators at #2 Pittsburgh Penguins 7:30 pm Eastern, TV: NBCSN, CBC, RDS The Sens lost game one but according to Mark Parisi of Silver Seven we shouldn't expect the same story tonight: Good adjustments appear to be a big part of head coach Paul MacLean's playbook. We saw it all year with the injury situation. We saw it when the team was on a 5-game losing streak--a tailspin that threatened to kill its playoff hopes. We saw it in game three against Montreal when the team responded to a 3-1 loss with a 6-1 victory. However, as Hooks Orpik of PensBurgh notes, MacLean will have to figure out how to stop the Pens' dynamic offense: Perhaps as expected, since they've only had a few games to mesh, but the chemistry between the top lines is growing right before our very lines. Dupuis looks fine on the left wing (a change for him) and Sidney Crosby and Jarome Iginla are gelling more and more every shift. For the other big line, there's no doubting the chemistry between Chris Kunitz, Evgeni Malkin and James Neal. Should be a good game. Poll Who is the better netminder? Craig Anderson Tomas Vokoun 1 votes | Results

Oates thinks he could take on Torts. Host LaVar Arrington then asked Oates if he would "beat (Tortorella) up in a one-on-one situation?" "Yes. Easily," Oates said without hesitation. Torres is out for the remainder of the playoff series. San Jose Sharks forward Raffi Torres was suspended for the rest of the Western Conference semi-final series against Los Angeles on Thursday for a hit to Kings forward Jarret Stoll’s head. Torres was assessed a minor penalty for charging for the second-period hit Tuesday night in the Kings’ 2-0 victory in Game 1. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Torres is considered a repeat offender. How would Tippett look behind the Avalanche bench? There are very few coaches that a team could hire and expect immediate positive results. The late Pat Burns was one of them. Ken Hitchcock is one of them. So is Dave Tippett, which is why his situation is one of the most fascinating of the postseason and/or off-season. Tippett has made the playoffs in eight of 10 seasons as a head coach in the NHL. His system turned the Phoenix Coyotes into a playoff team in three of four seasons, under inconceivable conditions with the franchise’s ownership mess. Eric Staal was injured by a knee on knee hit. Canadian captain Eric Staal had to be helped off the ice after a knee-on-knee collision with Sweden defenceman Alex Edler in the first period of the quarter-final game at the world hockey championship. Staal clutched his left knee and was in obvious pain after Edler skated into the Sweden zone and clipped Staal’s knee at 15:52 of the first period.

Justin Goldman is the ultimate goalie nerd. He's the Director of Goalie Scouting for McKeen's Hockey, a writer for NHL.com, and the founder of The Goalie Guild. Some of you will remember him as the founder of The Avalanche Guild, the co-host of Avalanche Weekly on Mile High Sports Radio, and the guy on Uncle Nasty's show on KBPI that previewed Avs games. He covered the Avalanche for six seasons until he moved to Minneapolis, MN last summer to further pursue his goalie scouting endeavors and to learn how to ice fish. You can follow him on twitter @TheGoalieGuild and join him in admiring Jonathan Quick's flexibility and digging around for random goalie facts. 1. How important is a good goalie coach to the success and competitiveness of a team? If one can make the argument that goalies are the most important position in hockey, then it's clearly not a stretch to say the goalie coach is absolutely essential to a team's success. The proverbial "puzzle" is incomplete without one, and in my mind, the goalie coach

Two games tonight. Both will be on NBC Sports, TSN, and RDS. The second round has been a pretty hardcore letdown compared to the end of the first, but we get our first Game 2 of the conference semis tonight as well as a new series between: #6 New York Rangers at #4 Boston Bruins 7:30 Eastern Both teams required seven games to defeat their first round opponents. Both teams scored 5 goals in said seventh game. BWAAAH?? I think the Rangers are outclassed in this one. Washington made the playoffs by beating up on a bad division. The Rangers squeaked in by belonging to a bad conference. Boston will be a tough test for them... but then, Boston needed a third period comeback of historic proportions to remind the Toronto Maple Leafs that they are in fact the Toronto Maple Leafs, so maybe I'm giving them too much credit. #6 San Jose Sharks at #5 Los Angeles Kings (Kings lead series 1-0) 10:00 Eastern Jonathan Quick threw out a clean sheet in Game One as the Kings won 2-0. LA kinda sorta maybe almost look a bi

The season might be over for the Colorado Avalanche, but Giguere knows that he still has fans in the area. Teenager Logan Piz’s request was simply to spend the day with the Stanley Cup trophy. Hanging out with Colorado Avalanche goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere as well? Hey, he will gladly take that, too. This was certainly an experience Piz won’t soon forget, a day made possible through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The 13-year-old was completely surprised when the trophy was brought into his hospital room Wednesday. Later, he had a surprise of his own: Joining his hockey team on the ice for his first practice since being diagnosed with a form of bone cancer called Ewing’s sarcoma nearly six months ago. And who should show up? Giguere, of course, one of Piz’s favourite players. Torres is heading to a meeting with Shanahan. The play in question occurred during the Kings’ 2-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, when that battering ram of a human bei

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The Denver Post announced yesterday that Kirk McLean, goalie consultant for the Avalanche, has been dismissed. In his three-year tenure, the Avs have seen numerous goalies fail in Colorado, only to go on to other teams and perform up to (and sometimes beyond) their potential. Patience ran out this season, and fans called for McLean's head. They got their wish. McLean worked part-time with the Avs, retaining his home in Vancouver during his time with the team. One would hope the newly appointed decisions makers of Joe Sakic and Josh Kroenke will see how detrimental that situation really was and hire someone to work full time with Semyon Varlamov and JS Giguere, living and breathing the mile high air, as thin as it is. This move continues to show that the front office isn't just throwing around comments like "creating a winning culture" as lip service. There is some real interest in righting this ship. No candidates have been identified yet.

Yesterday was fairly quiet, as the site had some issues, San Jose/LA was kind of boring, and no one wanted to freely admit to watching an Ottawa Senators game. Tonight we start a series including the perennial MHH bandwagon favorite. #7 detroit red wings at #1 Chicago Blackhawks 8:00 Eastern, NBC Sports, CBC Chicago enters the series having cruelly steamrolled Masterton shoo-in Josh Harding (multiple sclerosis? I died!) and the Minnesota Wild in five games. detroit need seven to defeat the regression-bitten Anaheim Ducks, including three games that went to overtime (and Amway's team won them all, the fuckers). Corey Crawford has been amazing--to be fair, against Minnesota--but Ray Emery looks to be returning to health after the absolutely unbelievably regular season he posted. Jimmy Howard and Vezina Time are allegedly fighting through a hamstring issue, which seems weird to me that anyone would own up to it. I kinda wonder if it's really a pinky toe or a concussion or an outright farce. In the regular