GDT: S1G3 - Stars @ Avs - Low-Effort Gangstalking edition

[expatriatedtexan]

True. This happened roughly 20 years ago BTW.

The rest of y'all think what you want. I will say that I was raised to abhor violence against women, but again, all we got is some random guy screaming accusations. We have NO idea what actually happened after the scuffle went off-camera.

Anyway, I'm done talking about this. We can go back to moping about the Avs now.

You know me, I can't help but take one parting shot in every conversation...

Depending upon this afternoon's press-conference we may want to consider moving any future converstaion to the Injury Thread. I know it's just the absurdist in me, but I've got this mental image of AJ in a neckbrace with Saul Goodman sitting next to him at this press-conference.

 

[Pokecheque]

I don't know if either are hurt. Nate is definitely extremely emotional, that's why it's so important for him to stay even keel.

That said, he does kinda look the way he looks when he plays hurt. He just loses that confidence in his ability to compete. He's not really a guy that dials up the compete when he plays hurt, but rather relies almost completely on his talent.

He floats a lot more and just genreally doesn't skate anywhere near as hard. I'm guessing more so when it's lower body injuries.

That's kinda how he looked last night.

But it also mirrored a lot of the rest of the team's struggles. Also possible they had an adrenaline dump, or just let their compete drop, as they got Gabe back. This is farily common, used to be more so.

You get your star player back, the guy you think can be your savior, and you just stop working thinking he's gonna do it himself. I don't know if that's it or not, but it's possible.

Either way the problem wasn't coaching, it's just a lack of compete, and execution.

I'm still 10000000% convinced Nate is hurt. Again, the sea change in his play did not happen in game 3. It happened between the 2nd and 3rd periods of game 2. There was a moment in that period when 29 was just inside his own blue line and had the puck land on his stick, and instead of skating it out or making a play or chip out, he just stood there and let a Dallas player (Benn?) strip him of the puck. Much as MacKinnon can make some insanely dumb plays from time to time, that was wholly uncharacteristic of him. As soon as I saw that I knew something was off. And since then he's been making bad passes, deferring shots more than usual, and just not skating the way he usually does.

Yes, he has had some speed bursts and what not, and split the D late in the game, but those moments are few and far between, he's REALLY picking his spots, the rest of the time he's cruising around at 1/4 speed. Even when he's trying to power his way up the ice, it's just not nearly as fast or powerful as it usually is.

With Cale, it's harder to tell, he doesn't look labored like Nate does, but his shot accuracy has been HORRIFIC so far and he's just not getting the same separation he usually gets, even with a smothering defensive team like Dallas.

Drouin is the guy doing absolutely nothing out there. Can't make a play, can't take a shot, can't win a puck battle. He needs to be replaced.

 

[Foppa2118]

I'm still 10000000% convinced Nate is hurt. Again, the sea change in his play did not happen in game 3. It happened between the 2nd and 3rd periods of game 2. There was a moment in that period when 29 was just inside his own blue line and had the puck land on his stick, and instead of skating it out or making a play or chip out, he just stood there and let a Dallas player (Benn?) strip him of the puck. Much as MacKinnon can make some insanely dumb plays from time to time, that was wholly uncharacteristic of him. As soon as I saw that I knew something was off. And since then he's been making bad passes, deferring shots more than usual, and just not skating the way he usually does.

Yes, he has had some speed bursts and what not, and split the D late in the game, but those moments are few and far between, he's REALLY picking his spots, the rest of the time he's cruising around at 1/4 speed. Even when he's trying to power his way up the ice, it's just not nearly as fast or powerful as it usually is.

With Cale, it's harder to tell, he doesn't look labored like Nate does, but his shot accuracy has been HORRIFIC so far and he's just not getting the same separation he usually gets, even with a smothering defensive team like Dallas.

Drouin is the guy doing absolutely nothing out there. Can't make a play, can't take a shot, can't win a puck battle. He needs to be replaced.

Yeah Nate has has random speed bursts before when he's played hurt. They're just MUCH more infrequent.

Drouin I'm even more convinced is hurt though. He was Mr Consistent pretty much every game he played this year. Now he can't make passes or anything, even with no one on him.

He also missed the last 6 games of the season with a lower body injury. Wasn't even healthy enough to get the last game or two in for conditioning, like the other injured guys.

 

[Alienblood]

It's just shocking to me watching 29 and 8 right now. I don't for one second buy that either guy is hurt, either. Everyone is banged up this time of year. MacKinnon with that burst in the 2nd last night going through both Stars defensemen with EASE and getting robbed by Oettinger's blocker showed me the guy is getting around the ice just fine.

Nate looks like he's in his own head again. We have arguably the most bipolar star in the league. When he is feeling it, he's unstoppable. When he's frustrated and moping, he stops himself and becomes so easy to defend that f***ing Ilya Lybushkin can do it.

Then there's Cale. I don't know what his problem is but he looks like a guy terrified to join the offense. A guy terrified to shoot the puck without a perfect wide open lane given. If he doesn't figure his shit out in game 4, the Avs are done in 5.

Cale was the worst defenseman on the team in the Cup year in the St.Louis series.

He gets like this sometimes.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

Read my post above. To assume AJ "did something wrong" with NO evidence to back it up is just asinine.

But it's okay to assume a dude just literally becomes uncorked and hits a random stranger for absolutely no reason while screaming about his GF being choked?

 

[Foppa2118]

My friend got jumped on the rooftop of the Sports Column. He did nothing whatsoever to provoke the attack. Some random drunk guy started talking smack but was incoherent, my friend simply said "what?" a couple times and the guy was all over him. Luckily my buddy is 6'2" and strong as an ox and caved that f***er's face in. He had to be taken away in an ambulance. The idiot's friend came in (BIG dude) and started swinging at everyone, I got clipped, my friend's brother got concussed, and an SC bartender got hit pretty good too, and he got all butthurt and brought charges against everyone, including my friend...but the prosecutor took one look at the case details and dropped them. Again, NOTHING provoked that guy. I later found out that the big dude and my friend talked it out in the jail cell and worked things out, he apologized and said his friend was a f***ing idiot.

So f*** that false equivocation. I'm not much younger than you. If you really think random, unprovoked violence doesn't happen, we do indeed live in different worlds. And in fact that random violence has only increased to the point where ERs and doctor's offices have to post signs warning legal action against anyone attacking one of their employees.

I don't know what happened with this incident. I will say though, that AJ kinda fits a certain "look" that can be mistaken for someone else, and memory is notoriously worse than people realize.

Less so though if they knew AJ before the incident, but seems doubtful he'd claim he didn't know that person, or the origin of the allegations, if someone could easily prove they knew him.

 

[AvalancheFan19]

Tough loss last night. Didn't want to get into this when emotions were high, but I really don't think there's ever been, especially now, any merit to this DeBoer owns Bednar idea, and here's why.

Cale and Nate probably had the worst games of their career, and it was because they kept turning pucks over, and making bad passes, with no one around them, and Nate had very little compete. That's not bad coaching by Bednar.

Everyone except Val missed the net on great chances all night. That's not bad coaching by Bednar.

Six power plays that looked like dog shit, because they kept turning pucks over, making bad passes, had no traffic in front, and they kept missing the net. That's not bad coaching by Bednar.

Dallas has led the series for 1:02 in three games. That's not good coaching by DeBoer.

Dallas didn't look dangerous all night and didn't play that well defensively. Avs had good chances and the Stars didn't really except for a few. That's not good coaching by DeBoer.

Corsi was 55-45 for the Avs. Scoring Chances 28-20 for the Avs. High Danger Chances 13-6 for the Avs. HDCF% 68.42% for the Avs. xGF 2.07 to 1.66 for the Avs.

None of that can be argued to be good coaching by DeBoer and bad coaching by Bednar.

Meanwhile their best player was the guy who hasn't played in three years, and it was because he looked dialed in, focused, and he competed.

That's the kind of thing that's not a coincidence, not losing to DeBoer again. Get your shit together Avs and you can definitely win this series. If you don't, you won't, and everyone is gonna be pissed.

Thank you, great post. Keep seeing these posts about wasting Makar and Mackinnons prime, it’s self inflicted wounds this series. At least MacKinnon found himself on the scoresheet G1 and G2, Makar has been embarrassing.

 

[Foppa2118]

Poke... I think sometimes we live in different worlds. When was the last time you actually saw someone get hit? In that altercation... would you say one side was completely innocent and played absolutely no part in the altercation other than to receive some random punch to the head?

'Cause I've never seen that shit in my 53 years. I'm not saying everyone I've seen get punched had it coming... but I am saying they definitely were not an innocent bystanding minding their own business.

I'd say generally, you're probably right, this is very true when they know the other person's name and have a specific allegation. As opposed to random agro drunks.

But like everything there are exceptions.

Call it 5% of the time, or even 1% of the time, someone just has the wrong guy. Especially when they're as drunk as that guy sounded. Who knows though. Hope nobody got hurt.

 

[AvsGuy]

This was one of the worst efforts I've seen from the Avs in years, in one of the most important games for the Avs in years

Can't wrap my head around it honestly. Hugely missed opportunity, and frankly I think this series is over already

The media was taking the Stars too lightly, and maybe the Avs were too - even with their key injuries, they're deeper and hungrier than us, simple as that

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I'd say generally, you're probably right, this is very true when they know the other person's name and have a specific allegation. As opposed to random agro drunks.

But like everything there are exceptions.

Call it 5% of the time, or even 1% of the time, someone just has the wrong guy. Especially when they're as drunk as that guy sounded. Who knows though. Hope nobody got hurt.

It's just weird that the thing that rubs me wrong the most was AJ saying something like, Don't worry everyone... I'll let you know what happened before the show.

One... you're a jouralist, not the star of the show. Two, this appears to have been personal... I don't want to know your personal shit. Three... ah, this is the biggie. There are three sides to every f***ing story: Yours, mine and the truth. What is AJ hoping to accomplish by providing just one of those? Him talking on-air about what should be a criminal investigation is probably not the best course of action. But then again... I'm no Saul Goodman.

 

[the_fan]

At least this AJ story is dominating the conversation here. We don’t have to keep reading how the Avs suck, DeBoer owns Bednar and we losing this series

 

[Foppa2118]

It's just weird that the thing that rubs me wrong the most was AJ saying something like, Don't worry everyone... I'll let you know what happened before the show.

One... you're a jouralist, not the star of the show. Two, this appears to have been personal... I don't want to know your personal shit. Three... ah, this is the biggie. There are three sides to every f***ing story: Yours, mine and the truth. What is AJ hoping to accomplish by providing just one of those? Him talking on-air about what should be a criminal investigation is probably not the best course of action. But then again... I'm no Saul Goodman.

Yeah, again I have no idea what happened, but they did kinda have to address it, and addressing it personally on video is commendable IMO, if the the allegation is false. As opposed to just a tweet.

Reading it off his phone makes sense too if he wanted to get his words right instead of just speaking emotionally.

AJ seems like a sensitive person who has admitted to issues with depression before, and iirc taking leaves of absence because of it. So that checks out too.

If it were me, I would have handled that much differently to begin with (for better or worse) but then made sure to not let one asshole (assuming it's not true) disrupt my life or my show.

Just out of principle, like how they handled that thing that happened that one time in Washington that I don't want to get into.

But AJ is a differnet guy. He has a different priority over his mental well being and that's cool too. Again, all of this is assuming it's not true. If it is, then it's obviously much differnet.

My initial read though, is that it's probably not true, at least in the way it was portrayed.

 

[Chiarelli]

Both actively left the PP early last night with one of those shame moments like they suck.

I believe they even had Toews out with PP1 instead of Makar at one point

 

[Foppa2118]

Rudo drives me nuts on the pod, but god damn do I respect him going full "I'm going to kill someone" mode because someone shoved his buddy.

Eric LaCroix meanwhile

Seemed like a group effort with Rudo and the guy next to him.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I believe they even had Toews out with PP1 instead of Makar at one point

I don't actually believe Bednar calls line changes anymore. They players just kinda go out where and when they want. It's not so much coaching as it is herd mentality at this point.

 

[Bender]

Can we wait until he says something before we judge him?

No.

 

[flyfysher]

Yeah Nate has has random speed bursts before when he's played hurt. They're just MUCH more infrequent.

Drouin I'm even more convinced is hurt though. He was Mr Consistent pretty much every game he played this year. Now he can't make passes or anything, even with no one on him.

He also missed the last 6 games of the season with a lower body injury. Wasn't even healthy enough to get the last game or two in for conditioning, like the other injured guys.

Agree, Drouin is hurt and that’s responsible for his poor play. I wouldn’t have an issue if he was put on the third line. Truthfully though, I would prefer he be scratched and let Landeskog, Kiviranta and Colton play with Coyle.

 

[Foppa2118]

I know it’s not right, but I’m laughing envisioning this whole thing.

Somebody comes looking for AJ who has certainly never been in a fight his entire life.

AJ gets slapped.

Rudo goes nuts and manhandles the guy and then chokes out his girlfriend to boot.

f***ing lol

I'm kind of having a moment like that too, listening to the drunk guy dramatically yell, "It's time buddy! Let's f***ing goooooo!"

Then the woman there just very calmly goes, "Nobody knows who the f*** you are bud. Get the f*** outa here."

 

[Chiarelli]

The only thing AJ would choke is himself on a chicken wing or some steak

 

[CobraAcesS]

I don't understand this idea that the Avs tried to sit back with a 1-0 lead.

After the 1st period:

Shot Attempts 58-33 Avalanche
Shots on Goal 23-14 Avalanche
Scoring Chances 28-18 Avalanche
High Danger Chances 13-7 Avalanche
xGF 2.94 - 2.02 Avalanche

They didn't sit back. They improved as the game went on and this is me acknowledging they didn't play their best.

The Avs had chances. Some of them glorious chances. Oettinger was good, and the Avs didn't battle enough in front. If they can get to the front of the net, they will start scoring goals OR they will get goalie'd by Oettinger and if it's the latter you simply tip your cap.

Two untimely penalties (one awful from MacKinnon) cost the Avs. The Stars had NOTHING going for them before those two PPs.

I - for some reason - still believe they can win this series. But 29 and especially 8 have to play way, way better.

Yeah, the biggest problem I have is the dumbshit power play, and Bednar for whatever reason keeping Necas and Mack together.

Instead, he goes with the less effective version with Drouin too.

It's actually what makes it so infuriating, the adjustments are simple, and the power play has been pathetic for a long time.

 

[Tralfamadore]

At least this AJ story is dominating the conversation here. We don’t have to keep reading how the Avs suck, DeBoer owns Bednar and we losing this series

It was actually DeBoers girlfriend that AJ supposedly chocked out.

 

[dahrougem2]

I think jf Landy says cardio wise he can handle it, you get him on that top line and top PP unit and punt Drouin to the f***ing moon. There is ZERO compete in Drouin's game right now and even less situational awareness. I'm almost at the point of wanting Miles Wood back in for the 3rd line and healthy scratching Drouin.

 

[Foppa2118]

It was actually DeBoers girlfriend that AJ supposedly chocked out.

Unlike AJ, DeBoer is actually 100% a guy I can see doing that.

 

[the_fan]

It was actually DeBoers girlfriend that AJ supposedly chocked out.

So he chocked out Bednar?

 

[Foppa2118]

So he chocked out Bednar?

Ok this was funny.

Still not out coaching him tho damnit!