All-time Avs

Ok, so it's officially the dog days of summer and there isn't a whole lot going on in the hockey world right now.  There was a big free agent frenzy a few weeks ago and there are still a few names out there, but not a whole lot of activity overall.

Therefore, I've decided to compile my all-time Colorado Avalanche roster.  Here...we...go...

Starting Goalie:
Patrick Roy - No question here.  His resume with the Avs and throughout his career speaks for itself.  During his prime, no other goalie could even challenge him.  Enough said.

First Line:
At Center, Joe Sakic.  The longtime captain and surefire Hall-of-Famer holds virtually every offensive Nordiques/Avalanche record possible and is the NHL's all-time leader in playoff overtime goals.  Mike Haynes often called him the best clutch player ever.  On Sakic's Left Wing, I would put Matt Duchene.  Sure, Duchene is a Center, but he never got a chance to play alongside his boyhood idol and it would have been a sight to see the young #9 with the legendary #19.  On the Right side, I would play Chris Drury.  He's a former Calder Trophy winner and a versatile forward who has always played with tremendous passion and was a champion going back to the 1989 Little League World Series.

Second Line:
While the first line was purely hypothetical as Duchene never played with Sakic and Drury, my second line was in fact a very successful line; the AMP line.  Alex, Milan, and Peter.  Prolific scoring wingers Alex Tanguay and Milan Hejduk centered by probably the most talented Avalanche forward ever, Peter Forsberg.  While Sakic quietly accumulated points, records, and HOF credentials, Forsberg was a frustrating enigma.  With Sakic, you could barely notice he was on the ice and then he would get the puck, take one of his patented wrist shots, and the puck would be in the net.  When Forsberg was on the ice, everybody knew it. He could handle the puck in such a way where everyone in the arena was dazzled and no defender could possibly take it from him.  There was always an aura, a buzz when he was on the ice and especially when the puck was on his stick.  Deservingly so, his #21 will be hanging from the Pepsi Center rafters in a couple short months.

Third Line:
On the third line, I would have Stephane Yelle, Claude Lemieux, and Adam Deadmarsh.  Yelle won Cups with the Avs in both '96 and '01.  Deadmarsh was the youngest member of the '96 team and was recently promoted to the Avs' Assistant Coach posistion.  All Claude Lemiuex did was win 4 Stanley Cups with 3 different teams and prove to be one of the greatest playoff performers in the NHL.  He won the Conn Smythe in New Jersey and always seemed to elevate his game in the postseason.  Lemieux and Deader were two of the best power forwards the Avs ever had.  Hopefully Landeskog can fill the long void.

Fourth Line:
On the fourth line I would have Dan Hinote, Ian Laperriere, and Mike Keane.  Sure, they are not the most talented players who have ever played for the Avs, but they are three of the hardest workers.  Hinote always brought energy, grit, and intensity always with a smile on his face.  Laperriere did the same and even sacrificed his career by blocking two shots with his face.  He won the Bill Masterton Trophy in 2011 without even playing a single game during the 2010-11 season.

Defense:
The first pair would be Ray Bourque and Adam Foote.  Bourque, arguably the greatest defenseman to ever play the game, only spent parts of two seasons with the Avs, but the Cup win in 2001 was for him.  Adam Foote on the other hand, spent the majority of his career with the Avs and became only the second captain in franchise history.  He was the toughest, best shut-down defenseman to play in Colorado.  He played the final game of his career last year with a broken foot!

The second pair would be Rob Blake and John-Michael Liles.  Rob Blake could do it all.  He had a blistering slap shot from the point, he could stop breakaways with his long stride, and hit guys into next week with his freight train-like hip check.  Liles, while small, was fast and could cut through the slot and score like a forward.

The third pair would be Sandis Ozolinsh and Erik Johnson.  Ozo was the Avs' original offensive defenseman.  When he was on the ice, it was essentially like having four forwards out there.  While Johnson has only played a handful of game with the Avs, he is now the anchor of the Avs' D and will be the man on the Avs blue line.  A former #1 overall pick, he is loaded with potential.

Backup Goalie:
Let's face it, there's Patrick Roy and then there's everyone else.  You could go with a stalwart backup like Craig Billington or Peter Budaj or go with someone who enjoyed flashes of brilliance as a starter that could not be sustained like Jose Theodore or Craig Anderson.  Overall, I'd probably go with Craig Anderson.  During the 2009-10 season, Anderson had the best season in net of any Avs goalie not named Roy.

Honorable Mentions:
The Avs have also seen noteworthy players like Jari Kurri, Theo Fleury, Pierre Turgeon, Teemu Selanne, and Paul Kariya don the "A" but it was either at the end of their careers like Kurri and Turgeon or their seasons were injury plagued and disappointing like Selanne and Kariya.  All those players did great things in the NHL, but mostly with other clubs.  Valeri Kamensky was another staple during the Avs' '96 Cup run and definitely deserves a shout out as does Paul Stastny, who is currently the Avs' most experienced center.  On defense, Alexei Gusarov was the longtime partner of Adam Foote and guys like Jon Klemm and Greg deVries were always dependable as well.

Well, there you have it.  I kinda feel like I'm missing a player or two and I'm sure a couple of my picks could be debatable.  Until next time...

Starting Goalies and Captains...

Here are my predictions for each team's 2011-2011 starting goalie. 

Anaheim Ducks - Jonas Hiller
Boston Bruins - Tim Thomas
Buffalo Sabres - Ryan Miller
Calgary Flames - Mikka Kiprusoff
Carolina Hurricanes - Cam Ward
Chicago Blackhawks - Corey Crawford
Colorado Avalanche - Semyon Varlamov
Columbus Blue Jackets - Steve Mason
Dallas Stars - Kari Lehtonen
Detroit Red Wings - Jimmy Howard
Edmonton OIlers - Nikolai Khabibulin
Florida Panthers - Jose Theodore
Los Angeles Kings - Jon Quick
Minnesota Wild - Niklas Backstrom
Montreal Canadiens - Carey Price
Nashville Predators - Pekka Rinne
New Jersey Devils - Martin Brodeur
New York Islanders - Rick DiPietro
New York Rangers - Henrik Lundqvist
Ottawa Senators - Craig Anderson
Philadelphia Flyers - Ilya Bryzgalov
Phoenix Coyotes - Mike Smith
Pittsburgh Penguins - Marc-Andre Fleury
St. Louis Blues - Jaroslav Halak
San Jose Sharks - Antti Niemi
Tampa Bay Lightning - Dwayne Roloson
Toronto Maple Leafs - James Reimer
Vancouver Canucks - Roberto Luongo
Washington Capitals - Tomas Vokoun

Winnipeg Jets - Ondrej Pavolec

Of the teams currently without a captain, here's whom I think will be named before this season starts:

Buffalo Sabres - Derek Roy

Colorado Avalanche - Paul Stastny

Florida Panthers - Stephen Weiss

New Jersey Devils - Ilya Kovalchuk

New York Islanders - Mark Streit

New York Rangers - Marc Staal

Philadelphia Flyers - Chris Pronger

St. Louis Blues - David Backes

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSMOKIN'! (that's a reference to the Jim Carrey movie, The Mask)

Since the Avs' acquisition of goalies Semyon Varlamov and Jean-Sebastien Giguere, a question that's been on my mind has been what their new Avalanche masks will look like?!  Ever since Patrick Roy was traded to the Avs in late 1995 and went from the generic white mask during his Avs debut to his trademark Avalanche mask (below), I have been intrigued by goalies' choice of design for their respective teams. 



Of course, my favorite NHL mask of all-time is Roy's second and final Avalanche mask, which was debuted in the 2000-2001 season (when they won their second Cup) and it's also the mask I've worn myself since 2002.  BTW, they do not sell masks that cool anymore.  Wholesalers and retailers need to step it up!



Varly and Giggy have both had cool masks in the past with the Caps, Ducks, and Leafs respectively, so I'm interested to see what they'll do with the Avs' design and colors.



Other masks around the NHL that I've liked a lot are Kari Lehtonen's Joker mask while he was with the late Atlanta Thrashers and his maks from Dallas last year featuring the movie Tombstone.



I'm a sucker for comic book-themed masks such as former New York Rangers goalie Steve Valiquette's Spider-Man mask and former Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj's Red Hulk mask.  Boods went with the Red Hulk to match the Avs' colors better.  His response when asked about it was, "You don't see us wearing green, do you?"  Let's hope he carries his trademark Ned Flanders over to Montreal.



Speaking more of Avalanche masks, I also like Jose Theodore's and David Aebischer's.  Brian Elliott's was pretty blah except the Casey Jones was cool.



The worst mask in the NHL belongs hands down to Chris Osgood.  I mean, what is that?  It's like he forgot his real goalie mask and just borrowed someone's helmet and threw a facemask on there.  Lame!

Thoughts on the new look Avs...

Quick Tuesday morning blog...

Sad to see JML go and wish the Avs would have gotten a bit more for him in the trade.

Love the Landeskog and Siemens picks.

Jan Hejda - solid signing.  He'll add more size and provide leadership to the D core.

Chuck Kobasew - Former 1st round pick and didn't cost the Avs much.  Not expecting the next Mueller or Fleischmann, but maybe he'll stay healthier than those two have in the Burgundy and Blue.

Semyon Varlamov trade - At first I thought the Avs overpaid to get him, but after Washington's bargain basement signing of Tomas Vokoun (the Avs initial target), I think the Varlamov acquisition was a good one.  Vokoun's signing proved that the Caps do not have faith in their remaining two goalies (Neuvirth and Holtby) and that McPhee and Boudreau do not handle their goalies well at all.  Best of luck to Sacco with Varly!

Giguere signing - Love it.  Always been a fan of Giguere.  He's still got some gas in the tank and he'll make an excellent mentor for the young Varlamov.

Sad to see Boods go, but it was time.  Best of luck to him in Montreal.

*Updated*

I wasn't a huge fan of Varlamov before, but like I said, I don't think the Caps handle their goalies well. Like 2 years ago, when Jose Theodore had a solid season and was benched after 1 game in the playoffs. Hopefully Varly will justify the Avs' faith in him!

"He was our guy pretty much from the start."

Those were the words of Avalanche Executive Adviser/Alternate Governor Joe Sakic regarding #2 overall draft pick Gabriel Landeskog.  I considered doing a blog entry before the draft, but it was hard not having seen the prospects play beforehand and not really knowing too much about them.  However, I will say that I am very glad with the way it went down.  Prior to last Friday, speculation had the Avs taking either Landeskog, Jonathan Huberdeau, Adam Larsson, or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.  RHN was pretty much a dark horse because most people had Edmonton taking him #1 overall, which they did.  Would the Avs have taken him if he did slip to #2?  We'll never know. 

Despite not being the #1 pick, let alone the projected #1 pick, Landeskog seemed to be the face of the draft, similarly to Duchene in 2009.  Landeskog had a draft blog on Yahoo! and a video feature on NHL Network showing him and a several of the other guys at The Mall of America before the draft.  From everything I've learned about this kid, he seems like the real deal.  He's well-spoken; originally from Sweden, but played juniors in Canada so you couldn't even detect an accent in his English.  His boyhood idol was Peter Forsberg and he's been compared to current players like Ryan Kesler and Mike Richards.  He was also proclaimed the most "NHL-ready" out of the entire draft class.  He's very polite and looks like a Swedish model.  He's saying all the right things about knowing that his work has just begun and that he's going to have to work hard to make the team in September.  Not a hint of haughtiness or entitlement at all.  If he's for real, the Avs may have struck gold and have their top power forward for years to come.

While most of the talk around town has been about the golden-haired Swede, Duncan Siemens may prove to be just as vital of a piece in the Avs future plans.  He has been described as the toughest player in the WHL.  Physical, mean, tough.  These are all words used to describe the Avs' #11 pick.  Perfect considering the captain and frachise staple on defense Adam Foote recently retired.  Siemens is only 17 however and will likely need another year in juniors before making the jump to the NHL.  Especially with Stefan Elliott and Tyson Barrie expected to be NHL-ready this year.

When I first started this post, I was expecting to write about what seemed to be the inevitable signing of coveted free agent goalie Tomas Vokoun.  I'll say one thing about the recent Avs transactions, they're unpredicable.  First, prior to the draft, they traded away veteran defenseman and fan-favorite, John-Michael Liles for a 2nd round pick.  Although I was a fan of JML, I do see the reasoning behind the move.  Money, wanting to get bigger on D, etc.  However, I would have liked to see them get more than just a 2nd rounder for a guy who had a career year last season. 

On to today...the Avs signed Jan Hejda.  I'm ok with that.  A big, hitting, stay-at-home defensemen, who's further proof that the Avs are trying to get bigger and tougher on D (despite them retaining Cumiskey and Hunwick).  The Avs also signed Chuck Kobasew today.  Ok with that signing too.  He has underachieved throughout his career for being a former 1st round pick, but he always played well against the Avs so maybe he'll be able to put together some consistancy and hopefully gel with a center like Stastny.

Initially I was going to stay away from the goaltending sitch since that was what my last blog focused on, but I would be remiss if I did not address it here and now.  So, the Avs traded away a 1st round pick and a 2nd round pick for Semyon Varlamov.  At 23, Varlamov is young and could certainly establish himself as a bona fide #1 goalie.  However, a 1st round pick is a steep price to pay.  Greg Sherman just bet his job on Varly.  Bottom line.  The Avs also signed veteran and former Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup winner Jean-Sebastien Giguere.  I've always been a fan of Giguere.  I like this move.  If he's healthy, he can still be a #1 capable goalie.  Varlamov is the big gamble.  What happened with Vokoun?  Who knows, but as of this moment, he's still out there.  Maybe he'll join the Evgeni Nabokov club.  While Vokoun would have been the safer option, Varlamov's 23 years are more appealing than Vokoun's 35 and Varlamov is also a former first round pick with a lot of potential.  At 23, perhaps he's just hitting his stride and will be the Avs starter for years to come.  Only time will tell.

The Men Behind The Masks

In December of 1995, the Colorado Avalanche acquired Patrick Roy, arguably the best goaltender of all-time.  Until his retirement in 2003, a goaltending controversy was the furthest thing the Avs experienced.  The Avs and Roy went on to win 2 Stanley Cups during that time, captured a record number of consecutive division titles, and almost always had lengthy playoff runs.

However, since Roy hung up the skates in '03, the Avs' crease has been just as crowded and uncertain as the Denver Broncos' starting quarterbacks since John Elway's retirement.  Sure, part of the problem could be that Roy and Elway set the bar so high that their successors could not live up to the tremendous expecatations, but the fact remains that the Avs and Broncos are still waiting for their next big goalie and quarterback respectively. 

The season following Roy's retirement, his understudy, David Aebischer was tapped to take the reigns.  The feeling that year was that even if Aebi was no Roy, the Avs had enough talent in front of him to make a run for the Cup.  They had just signed coveted free agent all-stars Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne in addition to Avs' staples Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Milan Hejduk, and Rob Blake and Adam Foote on defense.  The Avs made it to the second round of the playoffs before losing to the San Jose Sharks in 6 games.  The next season (2 years later due to the lockout), the Avs brass lost faith in Aebi and brought up Vitaly Kolesnik to compete for the starting job with Aebi and Peter Budaj.  Never a good sign when a team is carrying 3 goalies.  Eventually, Aebischer was traded for former Montreal Canadiens MVP Jose Theodore.  Unfortunately, Avs fans had to wait a bit to see Theo as he was injured at the time of the acquisition.  Once he regained his health, he became the starter and guided the Avs again to the second round.  In his 2+ years with the Avs, Theo experienced some success, but never the level he once achieved in Montreal nor the level Avs fans were hoping for.  He eventually left for Washington, leaving Peter Budaj the starter.  After the tandem of Budaj and Andrew Raycroft led the Avs to their worst season since moving to Colorado, the Avs signed Craig Anderson from Florida.

In his late 20s at the time, Anderson had never gotten the chance to be a starter, but had fantastic numbers as Tomas Vokoun's backup in Florida.  He came to Colorado at the change to be an NHL starting goalie and right out of the gate, he excelled.  He almost single-handedly guided the Avs from a last place team to a playoff team.  There was no All-Star Game that season due to the Olympics, but he would have almost certainly been named.  He was also almost named to Team U.S.A.  After that run, it seemed the Avs had found their next goalie.  However, after a couple of early injuries and struggles in 2010, Andy never really regained his 2009-10 form.  In February, in a surprise move, the Avs traded Anderson to Ottawa in exchange for Brian Elliott.  Elliott and Budaj both struggled mightily for the remainder of the season  while Anderson actually enjoyed some success in Ottawa and signed a 4-year extension.

Where to go from here?  If you would have asked me in April, right after the Avs season ended, I would have loved to make a run for former Phoenix and Anaheim goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.  However, he had a very poor playoff series against Detroit.  In his defense, Phoenix was simply outmatched.  His rights have since been traded to Philadelphia, who is apparently interested in paying him $7 million per year.  I don't think the Avs would have gone that route.  Of the other free agent veteran goalie out there are Jean-Sebastian Giguere, who is a former Conn Smythe winner and a former Stanley Cup winner.  However, he is 34 and has battled numerous injuries of late.  His signing as a starter would certainly come with a big risk.  A more likely and attractive candidate might be Florida's Tomas Vokoun (whom Anderson backed up in Florida).  Like Giguere, he is also 34, but has not battled chronic groin injuries like Giguere.  Vokoun was also recently quoted saying he wouldn't mind coming to Colorado because he thinks we have a chance to win a Cup soon.  I would be okay with that!

Another option for the Avs is to acquire a current backup deserving of a starting shot.  The top two candidates on my list are Los Angeles' Jonathan Bernier (22) and Vancouver's Cory Schneider (25).  In order to get either of these goalies, the Avs would have to make sacrifices via trade however.  They do have two 1st round picks this upcoming draft on Friday and could also trade current players and prospects.  The Avs did draft Calvin Pickard last year in the 2nd round.  A young goalie who many feel could be the future starter here in Colorado.  However, he is still only 19 and will require probably at least two more years in the minors.  If Pickard can eventually emerge as a #1 guy, a stopgap goalie like Vokoun would not be a bad choice for the interim. 

The Avs all but announced that Peter Budaj's days with the team are over.  His 6 years with the team marks the second longest tenure for an Avs goalie behind Patrick Roy.  Everyone had always said that Budaj is a good guy and a very hard worker.  At the end of the day however, he just was never able to elevate his game to the next level.  My guess is that he'll go over to Europe to start somewhere or take another backup gig in the NHL.  I think Elliott will likely be signed to a backup role.  At the end of the day, I would like to see Bernier or Schneider in the Avs net, assuming they do not have to give up too much.  If that fails, I would take Vokoun as well.

The thing with drafting goalies is that they never jump straight from the draft to the NHL. Even #1 overall picks like Rick DiPietro and Marc-Andre Fleury both spend considerable time in the minors. You would think that since goalie is such a vital position, they would be drafted more like quarterbacks in football, but it pretty much never happens that way. Patrick Roy was a 2nd rounder and Brodeur was late 1st round. Tim Thomas was 9th round and he didn't get good until his 30s! So, to answer your question, I don't know about Pickard. There does seem to be a lot of hype surrounding him, but that also might be because he's the only up-and-coming goalie prospect in the Avs system. It certainly would not hurt to draft another goalie or two this weekend, but definitely not in the first round. Maybe in like the 3rd round or later and hope they develop well in juniors.

What I'm Watching

Since this is primarily a Colorado Avalanche blog, and there has been relatively little Avalanche news over the past two months (I sure do miss the glory days when the Avs would be playing until at least late May every year), I've decided to temporarily depart from my usual hockey theme and discuss the current state of television.

This time last year, we saw the endings of Lost and 24, two shows that revolutionized network television.  Both series had ground-breaking, incomparable runs.  Lost, with its countless mysteries, online following, and dozens of likeable, yet flawed characters.  Some friends and I actually were in a Lost fantasy league during its last two seasons.  I even won the first year!  24, while implausible, was creative and captivating for its "real-time" format; every season consisting of one day and every episode being an hour within that day.  24 also brought us Jack Bauer, the single most badass character on network TV. 

Anyway, since those two series in particular have ended or at least shown signs of ending, networks have been unsuccessfully trying to recreate that success.  Once-promising shows like FlashForward, V, The Event, and No Ordinary Family have all been canceled after only one or two short seasons.  While I liked all of the aforementioned shows, they were not comparable to Lost and 24 in their glory days and the viewership must have reflected as much.  Another show that has been on the bubble over the past couple of years is Fringe.  Fortunately, it keeps getting renewed despite being moved to the traditional "death slot" of Friday nights.  Star Joshua Jackson contributed its renewal at least in part to a fan campaign to send in Twizzlers to Fox.  Twizzlers being a snack often consumed by the eccentric character Walter Bishop on the show.  I was glad to see Fringe get renewed and I would say it's the best hour-long network show on TV and certainly the most underrated.

Nowdays, the best shows are on premium channels and basic cable.  The Sopranos started the premium channel original programming boom in the early 2000s.  Today, HBO is still flourishing with shows like True Blood (which returns later this month), Entourage (which will end after the upcoming season), and the new hit series Game of Thrones.  Showtime has also done well for itself with Dexter, which is probably my current favorite.  Starz has also broken onto the scene with Spartacus and Camelot, two very good period pieces.  Basic cable shows have emerged as well.  They have more freedom then network shows and are more accessible than premium channel shows.  The Shield helped to pioneer this in the early 2000s.  Currently, Rescue Me is set to end this year, The Walking Dead will return in the fall after a very successful 6 episode run last year.  I certainly hope DirecTV will have AMC in HD by the time season 2 comes out!  I made an SD exception last year for The Walking Dead, but the non-HD is a big reason I've never gotten into Mad Men or The Killing.  Breakout Kings on A&E is also decent.  Not the best show out there and not as good as its predecesor, Prison Break, but it has the potential to last longer with the standalone episodes rather than the serialized storyline.

Now, on to comedies.  It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia takes the cake as the funniest show on television right now.  Next, I would rank the new show Happy Endings as the second best and also the best new show of the 2010-2011 season.  Glad that it got renewed.  30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother are also solid.  The Office has dropped of significantly.  Many people I know stopped watching last season and I do not blame them.  The departure of Steve Carell should have been the nail in its coffin, but the desperate network NBC decided to renew in anyway.  I will most likely not be watching season 8 unless they bring in someone really good to replace Carell.  As far as animated comedies, South Park and Family Guy are still holding strong.  I still watch The Simpsons out of obligation more than anything else.  I dropped American Dad a couple years ago and never got into The Cleveland Show.  Tosh.O and Conan are the best talk shows around.

Well, we're officially into the summer season.  Very few shows left, the NHL and NBA playoffs are wrapping up...should be a good summer for movies though!  Thor did not disappoint!  Gotta go see X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern comes out in less than two week and Captain America next month!