Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

It's an afternoon game on NBC as Colorado rolls into Dallas for the last meeting of the year between these two teams. So far, Colorado is 0-2-1 in the series and will be looking to remedy that situation. After a tough 6-3 against the Thrashers on Thursday, I hope the Avalanche come out p*ssed right off. If they don't, Dallas is going to toss them around and walk away with a win. The Avalanche buckle against physical teams and Dallas has some grinders out there who are always willing to finish their checks.

The overwhelming response from the Avalanche locker room was that the team came out absolutely flat and couldn't recover, even after a decent third period. Giving up a 4-0 lead pretty much counts you out of the game even in the "new" NHL. The players had nobody to blame but themselves and realize that they simply need to buckle down and fight out there. There's no point to team meetings or calling anybody out. They just need to gather up as a team and get it done on the ice or they'll be getting it done on the greens very soon.

The odds are that Peter Budaj gets the start after back-to-back starts for Jose Theodore. It's now official according to the Denver Post. I wrote most of this up last night and get a gold star for predicting the goaltender ;) As I've said before, I don't think Theodore played terrible lately, but he did nothing to earn the #1 job back. Hopefully Budaj has rested up and is ready for the stretch run b/c if this team doesn't get some solid-to-stellar goaltending, they're not going to make it. No pressure Peter!

It should be interesting to see if Q keeps running with 7 defensemen or decides to prune it back to 6 and have a D be a healthy scratch instead of 3 forwards. Turgeon, Richardson, and Rycroft were the scratches last game. I can't see Turgeon making his way back into the lineup so it's between Rycroft and Richardson. If it were me, I'd go with Rycroft. He's second on the team in hits and is the only other player to have a fighting major this year. He brings more grit than Richardson and I thought he and Guite played well together.

Injuries
Brisebois - back, LTI

Morrow - wrist, IR
Barnaby - concussion, IR
Ott - ankle, IR

Hot
Stastny and Sakic have 4 in 2, Arnason and Mclean have 3 in 2, Hejduk has 5 in 5.

Jokinen has 3 in 2, Miettinen, Hagman, and Zubov have 2 in 2.

Cold
Svatos has 0 in 3, Klee has 0 in 18.

Lindros, Ribeiro, and Lehtenin have 0 in 3, Sydor has 0 in 9.

Goaltenders
Peter Budaj - 16-13-3, 2.67 GAA, .908 save pct
Marty Turco - 26-17-2, 2.33 GAA, .908 save pct

Standings
Colorado - 26-24-4, 5th in NW, 10th in West
Dallas - 33-20-2, 2nd in Pacific, 6th in West