GDT: Game II: Avs @ Flames: Familiar Faces, Familiar Foes (9:30pm ET)

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Is this when we talk about Girard being redundant, paying him $5 mil to play 15 minutes on the 3rd pair, etc.? Or do we need to wait for a few more losses

I think its a fair conversation... Simply put we have too many Dmen that are deserving of bigger minutes, and not enough of those minutes to go around. Especially if Bednar continues to insist on playing Cale/Toews north of 25 minutes a night. The reality is you only need a really good Top 4 Defense. If you've got that you can throw out some league minimum guys for ~10 minutes a night against the other teams 3rd and 4th lines without issues.

That said, Girard was really good tonight. He was literally the only Dman on the team tonight with an xGF% above 50%, and he was actually over 60%. Makar was 2nd at 47%.

But I definitely think its a pretty obvious reality that will play out soon enough that the Avs have too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to LD, and the result is its hurting our depth elsewhere in the lineup. Whether it ends up being Girard(IMO his $5M for 5 more years makes him a mistake to trade) or one of the other two LD, somebody is going to get moved between now and October 2023.

I think if its Girard, it'll end up being a draft/summer time trade and it will be focused on a futures package(And an underwhelming one most likely at that). If its one of the other two guys, I think they get moved for a good young 2C that will solve that problem long term.

 

[nammerus]

Eh, who knows what happens if we got Danault. He'd be perfect now, but there isn't a single move that I wish Sakic did considering what he did brought us a cup. Wouldn't be surprised if Kadri was shipped out if we signed Danault that offseason.

JTC out for Danault would have been perfect.

 

[Bone Breaker]

damn, from Cup champs to a .500 team, what a downfall. what management have been doing???


on a serious note, is there a reason why McDermid is playing instead of Blidh? also, I was expecting Meyers to start the season in the 4th line (while many here were putting him on the 3rd), fine, but I was not expecting him to play so few minutes. it will be very hard for him to fit in and show something when playing seven minutes together with two AHLers...

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

Every year I expect an 82-0 season, every year I get disappointed

I really don't think it's too much to ask for.

 

[Grigowski]

Expected loss. Take a look at our schedule: Within the next 3 weeks, 3 B2Bs..... Whoever is responsible for this nonsense......

Homeopener for the Flames, Being on a B2B after Banner-Night, Travelling to Canada... Didn´t expect much or a win. At least no injuries. Take the loss, get some rest, move on. At least no one was injured.

Calgary looks good, as they should with this team. Gonna be a fun season in the pacific and west.

 

[Jazzguitar]

Someone probably already made this low hanging joke already but “waste of a day.”

 

[RECKLESS]

Yawn. Scheduled loss. It was obvious we'd be a step behind against a fresh Flames on home ice proving a point on opening night.

One positive note is we scored the last two goals of the game in the final frame. I was expecting the opposite.

Get rest and move on.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Yawn. Scheduled loss. It was obvious we'd be a step behind against a fresh Flames on home ice proving a point on opening night.

One positive note is we scored the last two goals of the game in the final frame. I was expecting the opposite.

Get rest and move on.

This loss is fine so long as they win the next 4.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

This loss is fine so long as they win the next 4.

Next 96 games yes

 

[Polite HKYDiscussion]

Enjoy the long weekend boys. Back to work on Monday .

 

[John Mandalorian]

ERod had redeeming features. He tried some snipes. Newhook is just skating around really fast losing puck battles

Newhook has a big/tough job. He plays with a legitmate top 6 forward from a SC champion team while also playing with a low IQ player who's been with the team for 5 minutes. And he has to try to blend that together.

 

[Avs_19]

Come back, Naz!

 

[Muffin]

I'd like to see Newhook with Lehkonen and Rantanen when Landeskog is healthy before writing him off, I think it's a bit much to ask him to carry a line right now.

 

[Nihiliste]

Pretty rough game. Obviously this won’t be the roster we head into the playoffs with. I’ll worry about it after the deadline

 

[chet1926]

Newhook has a big/tough job. He plays with a legitmate top 6 forward from a SC champion team while also playing with a low IQ player who's been with the team for 5 minutes. And he has to try to blend that together.

Newhook needs to worry more about just being a serviceable NHL player than who he is playing with at the moment. Focus on making NHL plays for the time being. He looks lost in all 3 zones.

Right now he looks like Jost 2.0.

So if he wants to be more than a 3rd/4th line floater. He needs to reassess what he's doing.

We're trying to give him a role where he's getting more minutes with better players, and so far in 2 games he's looked pretty out of place.

He needs to take a deep breathe and clear his head on this 3 days off and come in fresh Monday with a different approach.

 

[Koolboss]

If the Avs resigned Kadri they probably would be winning 3-1 lol

Bigger hole in the line up than everyone assumes without Kadri

 

[chet1926]

I'd like to see Newhook with Lehkonen and Rantanen when Landeskog is healthy before writing him off, I think it's a bit much to ask him to carry a line right now.

I'm not writing him off, but he's got to start showing that he can make NHL plays in all 3 zones before he can even start to progress as a player. He's completely lost out there.

 

[Nihiliste]

Bigger hole in the line up than everyone assumes without Kadri

Last year specifically he played like a 1C for us. Everyone knew it would be a big loss

 

[chet1926]

Bigger hole in the line up than everyone assumes without Kadri

Yep it is. Been saying this since summer. Our team couldn't do anything until we fixed 2C with Kadri. Now we are back to huge hole.

Back to 29 backpacking us up front and teams loading up to stop him. Then taking 3 shifts off because there is no offensive threat outside of 29s line.

 

[Spilot23]

Bigger hole in the line up than everyone assumes without Kadri

Agreed there but same thing can be said with Landeksog being out. I think with him in the lineup the lines would be more balanced. Right now we're a 1 line team.

 

[shadow1]

I missed the first period, and when I started watching the game the shots were something crazy, like 18-4 in favor of Calgary (finished 27-25).

I thought the Avs battled back well, but from what I can tell this was a classic Joe Sacco game.

I sense trouble in paradise with Alex Newhook; JT Compher took his place on the 2nd line to finish the game.

 

[myperbixhurts]

I sense trouble in paradise with Alex Newhook; JT Compher took his place on the 2nd line to finish the game

Yeah, it's only been 2 games, but so far there are no signs of Newhook being ready for 2C. I can understand being quiet in this game against the Flames, but the 1st game against Chicago he was also a ghost. He only has until trade deadline to show he can be a 2C, he doesn't have the full season, and I really have doubts

 

[nammerus]

I'd like to see Newhook with Lehkonen and Rantanen when Landeskog is healthy before writing him off, I think it's a bit much to ask him to carry a line right now.

Who’s asking him to carry a line? They’ve stapled Nuke to his left to help with all the heavy lifting, and Newhook is still rocking a sub 30% xGF.

People preaching patience must have blinders on. Is Newhook all of a sudden going to learn how to win board battles in 10-20 games? Learn to create space in the offensive zone? He is what he is..a middle 6 winger.

 

[LTCPain75]

Anyone have a video clip of Makar's reverse hit on Lucic? I missed periods 2 & 3 of the game last night

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Everything outside of the first line and first PP has been awful so far. We should break up newhook and Erod for sure. I wouldn't mind if we get Meyers up there to give it a shot.