Pre-Game Talk: Week of Regular Season End (Tue vs. VGK, Thu vs. VAN, Sat @ LAK, Sun @ ANA)

[RoyIsALegend]

The NHL regular season comes to a close for the Colorado Avalanche this week with four remaining games. We welcome Vegas and Vancouver in Denver during the week before heading out to California for a double-header in Los Angeles and Anaheim to close out the 82 game regular season schedule.

Health is the only thing that matters right now and we have a few concerns, to say the least. Up front, we lost both Martin Necas and Jonathan Drouin to injuries against Chicago. Coach Jared Bednar states both players are day-to-day and are not long-term concerns. In Avalanche land, day-to-day could mean they aren't even ready for playoffs in two weeks, we never really know. Gabriel Landeskog continues to ramp up his skating, having spent a couple of days with the AHL Colorado Eagles while the big team was on the road. On the backend, Josh Manson continues to recover from an upper body injury while Sam Girard has completely disappeared since Monday's game against Calgary. Nobody knows where he is, what his injury is, if any, and nobody has asked Bednar about him. Concerning, to say the least.

Our playoff position is pretty much sealed as the 3rd spot in the Central, however our opponent isn't yet decided. Dallas can still catch Winnipeg atop the Central and there's an outside chance that St. Louis can still catch us in the 3rd spot. The latter is unlikely, though, so our opponent will almost surely be Dallas or Winnipeg. Least likely chance we face Los Angeles or Edmonton; we would need to fall into a wild card spot and one of them would need to pass Vegas for 1st in the Pacific.

Schedule:

Tuesday, April 8th vs. Vegas Golden Knights - 7:30 PM MDT​

Thursday, April 10th vs. Vancouver Canucks - 7:00 PM MDT​

Saturday, April 12th at Los Angeles Kings - 2:00 PM MDT​

Sunday, April 13th at Anaheim Ducks - 8:00 PM MDT​

​

National Hockey League:

Central Division:

Nathan MacKinnon remains atop the Art Ross race for the NHL points lead, but Nikita Kucherov has 2 games in hand and can explode for huge, multi-point games at any time. It'll be a race down to the wire.

NHL Scoring Leaders:

Avalanche top 10 point leaders:

Avalanche goalie stats:

Active roster is at 24 players; 14 F + 8 D + 2G.

Forwards (14):

Artturi Lehkonen​

Brock Nelson​

Charlie Coyle​

Jack Drury​

Jimmy Vesey​

Joel Kiviranta​

Jonathan Drouin (injured)​

Logan O'Connor​

Martin Necas (injured)​

Miles Wood​

Nathan MacKInnon​

Parker Kelly​

Ross Colton​

Valeri Nichushkin​

Defensemen (8):

Cale Makar​

Devon Toews​

Erik Johnson​

Josh Manson (injured)​

Keaton Middleton​

Ryan Lindgren​

Sam Malinski​

Samuel Girard (injured?)​

Goaltenders (2):

Mackenzie Blackwood​

Scott Wedgewood​

Long-Term Injured Reserve (2):

Gabriel Landeskog (Knee)​

Tucker Poolman (Head)​

 

[flyfysher]

The NHL regular season comes to a close for the Colorado Avalanche this week with four remaining games. We welcome Vegas and Vancouver in Denver during the week before heading out to California for a double-header in Los Angeles and Anaheim to close out the 82 game regular season schedule.

Health is the only thing that matters right now and we have a few concerns, to say the least. Up front, we lost both Martin Necas and Jonathan Drouin to injuries against Chicago. Coach Jared Bednar states both players are day-to-day and are not long-term concerns. In Avalanche land, day-to-day could mean they aren't even ready for playoffs in two weeks, we never really know. Gabriel Landeskog continues to ramp up his skating, having spent a couple of days with the AHL Colorado Eagles while the big team was on the road. On the backend, Josh Manson continues to recover from an upper body injury while Sam Girard has completely disappeared since Monday's game against Calgary. Nobody knows where he is, what his injury is, if any, and nobody has asked Bednar about him. Concerning, to say the least.

Our playoff position is pretty much sealed as the 3rd spot in the Central, however our opponent isn't yet decided. Dallas can still catch Winnipeg atop the Central and there's an outside chance that St. Louis can still catch us in the 3rd spot. The latter is unlikely, though, so our opponent will almost surely be Dallas or Winnipeg. Least likely chance we face Los Angeles or Edmonton; we would need to fall into a wild card spot and one of them would need to pass Vegas for 1st in the Pacific.

Schedule:

Tuesday, April 8th vs. Vegas Golden Knights - 7:30 PM MDT​

Thursday, April 10th vs. Vancouver Canucks - 7:00 PM MDT​

Saturday, April 12th at Los Angeles Kings - 2:00 PM MDT​

Sunday, April 13th at Anaheim Ducks - 8:00 PM MDT​

​

National Hockey League:

View attachment 1007485

Central Division:

View attachment 1007486

Nathan MacKinnon remains atop the Art Ross race for the NHL points lead, but Nikita Kucherov has 2 games in hand and can explode for huge, multi-point games at any time. It'll be a race down to the wire.

NHL Scoring Leaders:

View attachment 1007487

Avalanche top 10 point leaders:

View attachment 1007489

Avalanche goalie stats:

View attachment 1007491

Active roster is at 24 players; 14 F + 8 D + 2G.

Forwards (14):

Artturi Lehkonen​

Brock Nelson​

Charlie Coyle​

Jack Drury​

Jimmy Vesey​

Joel Kiviranta​

Jonathan Drouin (injured)​

Logan O'Connor​

Martin Necas (injured)​

Miles Wood​

Nathan MacKInnon​

Parker Kelly​

Ross Colton​

Valeri Nichushkin​

Defensemen (8):

Cale Makar​

Devon Toews​

Erik Johnson​

Josh Manson (injured)​

Keaton Middleton​

Ryan Lindgren​

Sam Malinski​

Samuel Girard (injured?)​

Goaltenders (2):

Mackenzie Blackwood​

Scott Wedgewood​

Long-Term Injured Reserve (2):

Gabriel Landeskog (Knee)​

Tucker Poolman (Head)​

What do you think happened to Girard?

 

[a mangy Meowth]

What do you think happened to Girard?

Nobody knows and I think we should probably try to not spiral out on this one via speculation

 

[forsbergavs32]

W
W
L
L

 

[LOFIN]

Nobody knows and I think we should probably try to not spiral out on this one via speculation

Maybe the team should actually say something about (and our reporters ask about it) to keep the narrative under control.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Maybe the team should actually say something about (and our reporters ask about it) to keep the narrative under control.

Yeah, I think you're right. Hopefully they say something soon

 

[Balthazar]

What do you think happened to Girard?

Team won't say anything and the reporters either don't know, don't care or won't say it. I asked @The Mars Volchenkov and Jesse Montano on Twitter and both simply ignored the question.

Officially he isn't injured, that's all we know.

 

[flyfysher]

Team won't say anything and the reporters either don't know, don't care or won't say it. I asked @The Mars Volchenkov and Jesse Montano on Twitter and both simply ignored the question.

Well, I hope G returns for the POs but taking care of one’s health is the paramount concern. in this regard, hockey isn’t a concern.

 

[the_fan]

No one is gonna give out accurate injury report this time of year. Teams don’t want other teams to know who’s gonna be in their opening night lineup to start the playoffs.

Just like we don’t know for sure if Heiskanen is gonna be in the lineup for the Stars, we don’t want them to know who’s gonna be in for us.

 

[Balthazar]

No one is gonna give out accurate injury report this time of year.

It has nothing to do with accuracy.

Per CBS, who's very accurate at reporting injuries, Girard isn't injured (unlike Drouin and Necas).

 

[LOFIN]

Team won't say anything and the reporters either don't know, don't care or won't say it. I asked @The Mars Volchenkov and Jesse Montano on Twitter and both simply ignored the question.

Officially he isn't injured, that's all we know.

It's a shitty situation for reporters too, and this is a general problem around the industry. They might know, but if the source (as in the Avs in this case) don't want to say it out loud, doing so can mean losing your access. There are only a very few hockey reporters out there who are willing to publish everything they know, and actually willing to go against the team narrative.

This is not just an Avs problem, the coverage around the Kyle Beech situation was a prime example of how most insiders simply ignored it because their sources around the league didn't want the story to be public. Rick Westhead is one of those journalists who is willing to publish it all, without fearing how he's perceived. On a team reporting scale, Larry Brooks who covers the Rangers also falls into this category. He's old enough that he doesn't give a f*** what they think about him at the Rangers FO, and if they were to just cut him off they would feel it anyway because Brooks is such a big name in NY sports journalism.

I don't see anyone of the Avs beat writers willing to dig deeper on this if the team doesn't want to, and I don't really blame them.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

It has nothing to do with accuracy.

Per CBS, who's very accurate at reporting injuries, Girard isn't injured (unlike Drouin and Necas).

On a side note, CBS moved Manson from week-to-week to day-to-day yesterday.

Given their accuracy, that is a good sign.

 

[the_fan]

It has nothing to do with accuracy.

Per CBS, who's very accurate at reporting injuries, Girard isn't injured (unlike Drouin and Necas).

I wasn’t necessarily talking about Girard. I’m just saying that in general, teams usually don’t give out return timelines for injured players this time of year. If we’re facing Dallas, does anyone know if they gonna have Heiskanen or not? We don’t know and that’s how teams like to keep it

 

[RoyIsALegend]

I wasn’t necessarily talking about Girard. I’m just saying that in general, teams usually don’t give out return timelines for injured players this time of year. If we’re facing Dallas, does anyone know if they gonna have Heiskanen or not? We don’t know and that’s how teams like to keep it

Girard… is… not… injured.

That’s the point being made. You’re missing it!

Nobody knows what is wrong with him.

 

[the_fan]

Girard… is… not… injured.

That’s the point being made. You’re missing it!

Nobody knows what is wrong with him.

Again, I wasn’t talking about Girard. I’m just talking about injuries in general before the playoffs. No one wants other teams to know who’s in and who’s out. We don’t even know if Manson is gonna be in to start the playoffs, or Necas or Drouin. We also don’t know if Stars gonna have Heiskanen, if that’s who we gonna face

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Why do people think we’re withholding information? No one is on the trip except Altitude and they won’t give us the info. Talk to McGahey who asked Bednar about the forwards but didn’t ask anything about G.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Again, I wasn’t talking about Girard. I’m just talking about injuries in general before the playoffs. No one wants other teams to know who’s in and who’s out. We don’t even know if Manson is gonna be in to start the playoffs, or Necas or Drouin. We also don’t know if Stars gonna have Heiskanen, if that’s who we gonna face

Dude, nobody has a problem with the information provided on Necas, Drouin, and Manson.

We now Manson is skating and should be good for the playoffs.

We know Necas is sore, day-to-day and not a risk of a long term absence.

We know Drouin has a lower body injury, unrelated to his previous one, is day-to-day and not a risk of a long term absence.

The Avs have shared that for those 3 and nobody has any issue with that.

This is literally all about the complete silence on Girard and pretending as if he doesn’t even exist anymore.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Why do people think we’re withholding information? No one is on the trip except Altitude and they won’t give us the info. Talk to McGahey who asked Bednar about the forwards but didn’t ask anything about G.

To be clear, I don't think you are.

 

[Balthazar]

Why do people think we’re withholding information? No one is on the trip except Altitude and they won’t give us the info. Talk to McGahey who asked Bednar about the forwards but didn’t ask anything about G.

I understand that you didn't travel with the team and are relying on TV coverage like the rest of us. However, it shouldn't fall on the fans to dig for information and investigate what's happening. Isn't it the reporter's job to uncover and share those details? Surely their role extends beyond simply describing what’s shown on TV.

 

[the_fan]

It’s like you guys are new to NHL hockey or something. Teams not giving out accurate injury reports when playoffs about to start is a normal thing and happens every year.

As far as our injuries, all we know is that Necas and Drouin are day to day, Manson too I guess, but no one knows who’s gonna come back when. It’s possible Necas and Drouin can come back before the playoffs, but what do we know about Manson?

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Isn't it the reporter's job to uncover and share those details? Surely their role extends beyond simply describing what’s shown on TV.

Naive thinking that McGahey's a reporter/journalist and not a spokesperson/mouthpiece

 

[Balthazar]

Naive thinking that McGahey's a reporter/journalist and not a spokesperson/mouthpiece

I wasn't replying to Mcgahey I was replying to Evan Rawal, who's a reporter for the Denver Gazette.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

To be clear, I don't think you are.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

View attachment 1007550

@The Mars Volchenkov please like me

 

[a mangy Meowth]

I wasn't replying to Mcgahey I was replying to Evan Rawal, who's a reporter for the Denver Gazette.

Yeah but YOU bolded the McGahey part???? I'm well aware of who TMV is lmfao