Wow. THat was some of the best hockey I've ever seen.
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Poop.
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Yeah, only two games on all night and it has to be a double header with zero time in between games. :-) Not sure I've caught the beginning of any game besides the one I stayed up for over last weekend that started on TruTV..... not that it matters a whole helluva lot, since the Avalanche haven't gotten into gear until they're down a goal or two (if at all).

I wasn't exactly giddy to get up this morning and watch (and then to see it missed the first ~13 minutes), and while it's great YoutubeTV records the entire event (once it starts on that channel :-) ) and not just a start/end time, it takes out some of the drama towards the end seeing the recording is only 2 hours long and unless the Avalanche pulled off the miracle of 3 goals to win it in regulation, there wasn't going to be any OT.



Hopefully with Makar back at least, they'll have some urgency Friday night. I guess there's still no details around Nichushkin's absence.
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Release the Kraken!!
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Nichushkin and his 8 year deal going AWOL with the playoffs on the line might be the straw that finally breaks the Avs' back when you throw that in with all the other guys out.

Hopefully he's okay and some of the wilder rumors going around aren't true.
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Yeah, I refuse to pay attention to any of the rumors. Bednar has only said that 1) it's personal, 2) it's not disciplinary, and 3) it's not a legal issue, so that pretty much rules out most of the rumors. Until there's something concrete, I'm gonna assume no one has a clue.

But agreed on him being just one too many guys gone. If you look at last year's team, we're essentially down an entire 2nd line (Kadri, Nichushkin, and Burakovsky). Adding Rodrigues is fine, but he would have been a 3rd liner last year. And everyone else we added are 3rd liners at best and realistically would have been fighting for ice time last year.

We're just getting nothing from our depth at all. We're having to overwork MacKinnon and Rantanen as a result, and they're already starting to look tired. Having Makar back will help a little, but it's pretty clear that winning it all again will require a shit ton of things to go our way, and that has absolutely not been the trend this season.

At this point, I'm hoping for the best but resigned that this probably just isn't our year. At least if we go down, it'll be the Kraken, who are a hard team to hate.
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And Landeskog.

They never really addressed the 2C thing, but I'm sure had some confidence Landeskog would make it back... and him + Nichushkin right now would make a huge difference.
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Ha, it's been so long since he's been on the ice I almost forgot about him.

But yes. Huge losses all around.
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Stolen from reddit, but if you wonder why the Avs are struggling...


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Safe to say the Devils got their shit together after those first two games.
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And the Rangers can't score goals anymore despite all that big name firepower.
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It’s happening again.
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First game where they looked like themselves. I always feared a bad start since our 3 biggest young forwards are not big on contact and the team likes scoring off the rush and driving play up the middle. But Nico has grown the **** up.

I'm not shocked they figured it out. I am shocked they have become the more physical, defensively stubborn team. Also been saying Schmid deserved more time all year.

Regardless of result the only thing I was worried about with this talented young group for the future was if they could handle playoff style hockey. I just hate the Rangers so much.

Good luck to the Avs. Took me 22 years to get over it but I'm finally there.
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Yeah, they've been playing with fire going down multiple goals against the best shutdown team in the league over the past few years. And I think they've given up a goal within a minute or two of scoring like 3 or 5 times by now (or it feels like it, at least).

Maybe use some of that final-2-minutes energy in the first 58. :-)
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