Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

In the last two games, the Avalanche have scored 10 goals and it's due to two reasons.

Reason the first: The Avalanche are spreading out in the neutral zone.

This has been so critical to letting them break into the offensive zone with speed rather than playing a dump-and-chase.

And that is what a run-and-gun strategy should look like.

Reason the second: The Avalanche are driving hard to the net.

The second component of a run-and-gun offense is to be able to capitalize on the changes generated.

There's no better way to do it than by being in front of the net looking for rebounds.

Reason the third: The Avalanche are working hard in the corners

A bonus reason! The Avalanche have started to forecheck much better down low. And when they do get the puck, they don't endlessly cycle along the boards. Ok, they did it once in the third but it isn't a part of their gameplan the way it was last year.

Notes
If I could marry Milan Hejduk's shot, I would. Then I'd divorce it just so I could marry it again.

David Jones really seems to have benefitted from playing with McCormick and Mcleod. I'm loving his new nose for the net. It's what I expected out of him from game one.

Ian Laperriere has two goals and four assists in his last five games. If he would just get in a fight or two this week, he'll be fantasy gold for me!

And how about Marek Svatos' recent awakening? Granato may have found paydirt with his current line combos.

According to Versus, that a career-high in goals against for Nik Backstrom and it was also the most goals ever in an Avs-Wild contest.

On average, the Wild scored within 28 seconds on their three powerplay goals (6, 71, 7)

Cody Mcleod yipping at Derek Boogard was awesome. Sure, Boogard would destroy Mcleod in a fight, but you've got to love his moxie.