Pre-Game Talk: Week of Hopefully Home Wins (Tues vs. NYR, Thur vs. EDM, Sat vs. DAL)

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Avs have looked tired all year in Denver for whatever reason and energized on the road.
But during the last long road trip the concensus here was that they were playing like garbage because it was a long road trip and they were tired?
 
Probably should put to rest the speculation of a mitts injury. He’s not contributing anything positive and has been demoted to fourth line duties. He’d have been left out to recover as he’s bringing nothing at that point, if he were injured.

Not only that but its that Bednar is calling guys out. And even further to that, he's taking Mikko off his preferred position (RW) and putting him at 2C almost as if Mittelstadt is the primary person hes calling out.

But simultaneously, he could be putting Mikko at C suggesting he doesnt care if Mikko likes it or not because he will likely be gone soon.

Could be wrong about this but there seems to be a lot going on at the same time. Could be simply trying to light a fire under Mitts though.
 
I'm gonna guess that after how they have played lately, and Bedsy calling them out, you'll probably see a motivated team tonight.

Saturday vs Dallas is a different story. I fully expect them to get waxed in that one.
 
I'm fully confident the Avs will be on a mission against Edmonton. Anyone that has any decency after that shit effort against NYR (even if it was a win) will show up like it's the f***ing playoffs. Our guys don't shit the bed twice in a row. They also absolutely owe it to Blackwood to be on their a-game defensively.
 
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So Malinski gets a game in the press box for being awful lately.

Pretty sure he sealed his fate when he tried to out-skate Panarin around our net in the 2nd period, got caught, then tried to dangle the oncoming Rangers forward and had it stripped for a mini-breakaway.

Bednar must have wanted to punt him to the AHL right then and there.
 
Why not just promote Pärssinen to the 2nd line?

Maybe CMac has told Mikko that if he wants to get paid he needs to play C in the future lol...
 
This is the way.

You want $13M a year? Prove you can carry your own line and hey if you can do it at Center, even better!


If Landy returned, we'd still have plenty of wingers to make a damn good Top 9. Ship Mittelstadt out to make the space for Landy and you'd have:


Drouin - Mack - Nuke
Lehky - Mikko - Landy
LOC - Colton - Wood I guess :(
Kelly - Parsnip - Kivi
 
Don't like his answer about the PP. Makes it seem like he/they don't really care if it's good or not. And they aren't gonna change anything with it because, according to his answer, everything ebbs and flows throughout the season, and eventually it'll just start working again.
 
I still think JD could be key to getting Mitts back on track.

RosCo-Nate-Rants
Mitts & JD-Lehky

I've never once wanted JD to be slotted in as a center for us before. But I'm watching him doing center like things out on the ice most every night. He's also probably the highest IQ player in our top six.. Lehky could be right there with him though. Get those two with Mitts, ask JD to take the center duties for a couple of games and just try to get chemistry between the three. Then just start shifting JD and Mitts back and forth from LW to C and see if that gets him Mitts back to full time C.

I seriously doubt playing him on the 4th line is going to help him, but it sure will embarrass the hell out of him. Maybe that's a form of motivation he reacts well to, but that would put him in the extreme minority. To me, this is more Bednar giving up on Mitts than trying to fix him. I still believe what he needs is to be scratched, not demoted. Get him out of the game personally and allow him to watch it from above and talk him through it.

He's not really a kid anymore, but he still needs perspective.

Well, if I'm right..

Less minutes is what Mitts needs right now to get back on track.

Obviously Drouin is key for Mack if Mikko isn't on that line too.

I think Mitts playing less will eventually result in more quality minutes. That's my theory though.

If he didn't learn his conditioning needed to come up last year, he certainly does now. That was also something I said he needed to learn early here to have success.

We're another level of hockey from Buffalo on a per night basis. He's usually figured out how to adapt at each level, but it takes a minute.

This is me being optimistic too, because I'd like to punch him in the balls for not being ready for a long season, with 2C minutes skating more.
 
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Since the Scott Wedgewood trade the Avs at 5v5 are:

14th in Shot Attempts For
10th in Shot Attempts Against
16th in Scoring Chances For
18th in Scoring Chances Against
30th in High Danger Chances For (!!!!!)
21st in High Danger Chances Against
27th in xGF
20th in xGA

Their record is 14-6-1.

This is not good. Not good at all.
 
The way I see it, the Avs right now need to be:

Drouin - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Lehkonen - XXX - Nichushkin
Colton - XXX - XXX
Kiviranta - Kelly - O'Connor

Toews - Makar
Girard - Manson
XXX - XXX

To think this team has five holes seemingly to plug, it's unfathomable that this team becomes a contender. They have no 2C, Mittelstadt's value tanking by the day, no cap space, and no assets.

Enjoy your 1st round 5 game exit, boys.
 
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