Post-game vs Calgary - Mar 14, 2007

The Avs have won their most important game of the year! And they did it in regulation time which keeps them in the hunt for the final spot. They're hanging on by a thread but they're not about to let go without a fight. That sort of team mentality has me extremely happy. Pierre McGuire, and far be it from me to give him kudos, pointed out a couple times during the game how energetic the Avs bench is and how they really feel they have a chance. None of those giving in and tanking the season stuff. *cough*Edmonton*cough*Oilers*cough.

The win puts the Avalanche 8 points behind Calgary with two more games to come against the Flames. Those two games are later in the season though so they need to concentrate on taking care of the Wild, Canucks and Oilers in the meantime. That trio forms 5 of the next 8 games for the Avalanche and are obviously all crucial games.

On a brief side note, I shall be at the Avs-Oilers game on the 23rd as my company has generously provided me with tickets and lodging for the night. It was supposed to be a surprise presented that day but I managed to accidently wriggle it out of them by requesting the day off this Thursday to watch the Wild-Oiler game as I could have accepted some freebie tickets for that game. But I'll be at work tomorrow anxiously awaiting next Friday!

Paul Stastny waited until the third period to do it but he scored the game winning goal to keep his point streak alive. He's at 19 and counting which ties the franchise point-streak record, held by his father Peter Stastny of course. I am not aware what the NHL point-streak record is so if somebody could enlighten us, that would be great. Has Stastny got a shot at it?

Darren Dreger, in the span of a microsecond, made me like him even less. When asked who he thought the #2 candidate for the Calder is (and this is shortly after Duthie et. al. were espousing Stastny), he immediately went with Jordan Staal. Now, I've got nothing against Staal as he's a real gem for the Pens this year but to put him above Stastny without so much as an afterthought? Ridiculous. But kudos to McKenzie for going with Vlasic (and for calling the entire panel idiots).

The Sakic-Brunette-Wolski line was looking better today as they accounted for the first goal of the night. Sakic and Brunette are solid as always but Wolski still confuses me. One play, he'll be dogging the forecheck to avoid a hit...then the next play he'll lay someone on their back. Then he'll make a weak play to avoid a hit...then go finish his check on the next play. He needs to quit that streaky playing style, take a few solid checks from time to time, and get his nose dirty and start getting more points.

How fast is Matthew Lombardi? I know we don't have the most nimble D in the world but he makes them look like pylons. He's got some sort of afterburner contraption in his skates I think. Luckily the post didn't like his style tonight and denied him - as it did to many! And for all the talk of Phaneuf's point shot, I'm more scared of Hamrlik's. He's got a rocket of a shot and has used it many times against the Avalanche this year.

And I could be biased because of my general distaste for Dion Phaneuf. I'd take him on my team in a heartbeat, but he just annoys me with his attitude. The worst thing is the shots he throws after every whistle if an opposing player is anywhere near the crease. It's unnecessary unless said player is bothering the goaltender. Otherwise, it just makes you look like an ass.

Oh and speaking of looking like asses, or whiny babies, good job Tanguay on getting the last minute penalty call by whining to the ref. I suppose I'd take it if I was cheering for the Flames, but with a grain of salt because I hate whining. So I shall now stop whining!

The Good
- regulation win
- Statsny streak soaring on
- Hejduk still going
- Brunette getting 2 assists

The Bad
- 2 PK goals against (in the final seconds no less)
- Parker and Godard not going

The Ugly
- Phaneuf's attitude

Pre-game vs Calgary - Mar 14, 2007

A five-game winning streak was snapped in an OT loss against Minnesota on Sunday. During that 6-game run, the Avs took 11 of a possible 12 points. And yet they remain 10 points out of a playoff spot. It's frustrating to watch but it appears that the Avalanche locker room is no worse for wear right now. The typical "most important game of the year" and "take it one game at a time" cliches are being bandied about, but it truly seems like this team still feels they can make it. I suppose bouyed by an ever-calm leader in Joe Sakic as well as not having the team gutted by the GM at the deadline went a ways to keeping spirits up.

The kings of overtime, the Minnesota Wild, managed to get a game to OT after being down going into the third. This gave the Wild 2 points, and the Canucks 1 point in another NW overtime battle. I suppose I don't watch the other divisions closely enough to really make this call but...doesn't it seem like every NW matchup goes to OT lately? It's terribly frustrating to watch every team gain points in every single game. If this keeps up, it looks like the magic number to hit the playoffs could approach the 100 points plateau. And that's just ridiculous.

But as it stands, the drive for 95 continues on as the Avalanche welcome the Calgary Flames in this weeks Wednesday night game on TSN. I can't wait for the soothing sounds that come out Pierre McGuire's...mouth. Cliches well in check, this is a huge game for the Avalanche. With 3 games left to play against the Flames, they have a chance at cutting their playoff deficit in half if they can win all 3 games. It's a tall order but it's the only option on the menu for the Avalanche.

And speaking of TSN, they messed up the Paul/Peter Stastny thing countless times (4) in today's game preview. I never knew Paul scored so many times with the Nordiques and that Peter has been on a tear as of late! Nonetheless, Paul has a chance tonight to move into a tie with his father Peter for the second-longest streak in franchise history if he can get a point tonight.

The person most likely to help him achieve that mark tonight is Milan Hejduk. He has continued to have the hot hand lately as he has scored in eight consecutive games for the Avalanche, a vast majority of those being hookups with Paul Stastny. The development of those two as a potent combo has me very excited lately. Every time they're on the ice you feel they have the potential to do something amazing.

Karlis Skrastins and Marek Svatos will be out again today as they continue to rest their respective injuries. I guess it's good in a way that Karlis went down a with a legitimate injury and not some weak injury that only made him sit out one game. Hopefully people see what I mean by that. As for Svatos, it seemed he was starting to find his touch again and now he has to set up in the press box while he recovers. It's unfortunate as he has obviously had a very rough season. Fortunate for the Avs as they'll save a bundle when re-signing him, if they do. If they don't, they can still save a bundle by switching to Geico.

Injuries
Brisebois - back, out for season
Leopold - wrist, mid-March
Turgeon - calf, IR
Skrastins - knee, day-to-day
Svaots - groing, day-to-day

Conroy - upper body, day-to-day
Richie Regehr - consussion, IR
McCarty - hip, IR

Hot
Stastny has 16 in 10, Hejduk has 7 in 4, Clark has 2 in 3.

Iginla has 20 in 13, Langkow has 12 in 14, Huselius has 4 in 2.

Cold
Sakic has 1 in 4, Arnason has 0 in 4, Guite has 1 in 4.

Amonte has 0 in 6, Lombardi has 1 in 5, Stuart has

Goaltenders
Peter Budaj - 23-15-5, 2.72 GAA, .906 save pct
Miikka Kiprusoff - 34-19-9, 2.46 GAA, .916 save pct

Standings
Colorado - 34-29-6, 4th in NW, 9th in West
Calgary - 37-22-10, 3rd in NW, 8th in West

Post-game vs Calgary - Feb 20, 2007

A much needed win to preserve the meager playoff hopes of Avalanche fans worldwide. This moves the Avalanche over top of Edmonton as they lost in a shootout to Ottawa. The Wild stayed out of reach as they were able to get past the Stars in a shootout. So the Avalanche are now in 4th spot in the NW, 9th in the West but are still 8 points back from the Flames. That could be viewed as a good thing as these two teams still have 3 more games to play against each other, 2 of those being at the Pepsi Center.

It was a back and forth first period that saw 5 goals scored in total. Paul Statsny got the Avs off to a good start as he buried a PP goal. However Tony Amonte answered right back to tie it all up again. Not to be outdone, Stastny one-upped Amonte with his second of the night, banging in a loose puck in the crease. Double Dion himself scored his 11th powerplay goal to tie it all and once again, Paul Stastny helped overcome that deficit as he was able to get the puck to Milan Hejduk who fired a backhand through Kiprusoff.

The only goal in the second saw Kristian Huselius score the Flames 2nd powerplay goal of the night. I'm not sure just who Kristian Huselius thinks he is with all these points lately but it's getting tiresome. Then an untimely penalty on Jarome Iginla led to Liles putting Marek Svatos on a breakaway. Svatos made no mistake on this one and buried it top-shelf as Kiprusoff tried to poke check him. That held up to be the winner even with a brief 5-on-3 chance for the Flames.

Svatos' goal was scored during one of the mere 13 shifts he took. Hopefully this goes a ways to boosting his confidence again. He's still got wheels out there but he's not making the moves and getting those dirty goals in traffic like he used to. He's become a perimeter player and that's not going to get it done for him. He needs to be down low, sneaking around and making himself available. Unfortunately, it worked well when Turgeon was feeding him from down low or behind the net. It doesn't work so well when you're playing on a line with Ben Guite. No slight to Guite, who I am liking more and more, but he's not going to help Svatos break his slump.

Jeff Finger had his debut tonight and played well in the limited ice-time he had. And the limited times I looked up at the tv while trying to do some work. He was only out there for 8 minutes but I saw some good fight and decent physical play from him. Q may have seen something I did not since he saw limited ice-time. Or he didn't want to push him too far in his first NHL game.

Peter Budaj started shaky but really got into it by the end. He was a big part of killing the 3 third period powerplays. If a goalie is going to be shaky in a game, I'd certainly prefer it to be at the start rather than at the end. Of course, I'd prefer to not see it at all but I can let it slide since the team got the win.

The Avalanche tonight were actually the more physical team, at least by the stats sheet. They threw 19 hits to the Flames 11. I saw Klee finishing a lot of checks and Guite is also never scared to throw the body around. It doesn't mean that they played much better at digging pucks out of corners or getting to pucks first. I still saw a lot of defensemen let up on a puck and have the Flames forward get to it first then try to get it away. That's backwards if you ask me. If you get to the puck first then you don't have to take it away...because you have it. See how that works?

The Good
-3 PP goals for
- big 2 points
- against a divisional opponent

The Bad
- 2 PP goals against
- shaky start by Budaj

The Ugly
- Budaj taking one off the chin again

Pre-game vs Calgary - Feb 20, 2007

The trifecta of games between Calgary and Colorado will come to a close today. I'm sure both teams will be glad to see it end. Facing the same team 3 times in 6 days can get a bit frustrating as troubles from previous games don't have time to subside. If Colorado can pull out a win, it's another step towards clawing back into the playoff hunt. The hill gets steeper and steeper each game though so the chances of them slipping are pretty high at the moment.

Neither Wojtek Wolski nor David Moss are expected to be in the lineup tonight. Moss is still recovering from the hit by Vaananen on Saturday and likewise for Wolski from Conroy's hit. Given that those are both highly promising rookies on each team, the odds of someone looking to exact revenge is fairly high I'd say. Let's hope nobody acts like an idiot and causes any more injuries.

I'm taking a stab that Peter Budaj will start tonight. Sure, he gets lit up by the Flames but you can always pull him and see if the team can sneak out a win again. Angry sarcasm aside, if I was the coach, it would be a tough decision. Budaj has faltered but Theodore hasn't looked stellar himself. And since it is still a bit too early to call the season done, I'd likely go back to Budaj and keep a close eye on him. Mentally, he's just not there yet but give him another year or two and he should become more consistent.

If the Avalanche can pull out a win against the Flames and then against Minnesota on Thursday, they will keep their meager playoff hopes alive. And with a slew of divisional games coming up, they do still have a chance at climbing back into it. They need to get more consistent on the back end though both in terms of goaltending and defensive coverage. It seems the team can score on anyone (not many teams get 4 on Luongo) but they just can't back it up with adequate defensive coverage. Great defensive coverage would be better but I'd settle for adequate right now.

Injuries
Brisebois - back, LTI
Leopold - wrist, day-to-day
Wolski - head/shoulder, day-to-day
Turgeon - calf, IR

McCarty - hip, IR
Richie Regehr - concussion, IR

Hot
Sakic has 7 in 3, Brunette has 6 in 3, Hejduk has 8 in 5, Stastny has 9 in 7, Skrastins has 4 in 3.

Iginla has 7 in 3, Tanguay has 7 in 4, Huselius and Conroy have 5 in 3, Langkow has 4 in 3.

Cold
Arnason, Laperriere and Mclean have 1 in 4.

Amonte has 0 in 8, Friesen has 0 in 3

Goaltenders
Peter Budaj - 17-14-3, 2.78 GAA, .906 save pct
Miikka Kiprusoff - 29-17-7, 2.34 GAA, .920 save pct

Standings
Colorado - 28-27-4, 5th in NW, 10th in West
Calgary - 31-20-8, 2nd in NW, 7th in West

Post-game vs Calgary - Feb 17, 2007

It was tough to watch another loss on CBC. I stuck with it until the bitter end but it was hard to do. The team came out well and the game was completely different from last game. 0-0 going into the second but then each team had a quick two-goal outburst towards the end of the 2nd. Unfortunately, the Flames had already scored one early in the second so they were going into the third with the lead. One more PP goal by the newest Avalanche killer Kristian Huselius and that was pretty much all she wrote. With a Minnesota win tonight, the Avalanche are now 9 points back from a playoff spot and it's looking bleaker and bleaker.

Jordan Leopold was scratched due to an as-yet-undisclosed injury. Given that Jeff Finger was recalled this afternoon, I'd say Leopold is out for another set of games. With Liles still recovering from his foot injury apparently, the Avs defense is looking depleted again. Not that it was ever stacked to begin with but still. Unless Finger comes in and puts up some Rob Blake circa 2002 style play, then I'd hate to be a goaltender for this team.

The first goal by Huselius illustrated the type of defensive lapses this team has. Huselius found himself wide open in front of Budaj for a good 2 or 3 seconds, until someone fed him the puck. He then dialed up his dad and said "this ones for you" before potting it past Budaj. It must be terribly frustrating as a goaltender to look up and see opposition jerseys all around you and no burgundy to be found nearby.

The penalty kill started out pretty good, and they have been so far these last few games. They killed off the full 5 minutes of the Vaananen major (more on that later), as well as killing the two other penalties surrounding that one. However, the Avalanche continued to head to the box and sooner or later, you're going to pay. Stastny took a tripping penalty, giving up a brief 5-on-3, which then led to the go-ahead goal by Phaneuf. Then Clark, one of the main PK men, took a tripping call of his own and that sealed the deal as Huselius potted his second, going top-shelf on the short-side.

Brad May continued his play on the 2nd line and, while doing a good job of being a gritty player, it's fairly apparent that he's got cement for hands. Every time he got the puck, it ended up in his skates and he was doing the old dog-chasing-tail move. And my goodness, the breakaway was painful to watch. It wasn't the best pass but he should have been able to corral it and at least get a shot off. Instead, he bobbled it off his skate and gave Regehr a free pass to poke it away. But, I give May credit for battling well with Phaneuf and laying him on his ass at one point with a clean check. Phaneuf was caught looking the other way, much like he catches other players the other way.

Ossi Vaananen was ejected from the game towards the end of the first after he delivered a nasty looking hit to David Moss. Moss turned to gather in the puck and Vaananen kept right on coming. After watching the replay twice, it became pretty apparent that Ossi had all kinds of time to at least let up. He didn't and Moss ended up going face-first into the boards and was bleeding pretty well. He didn't return to the game. That kind of hit has no place in the game and I'm glad that Vaananen got the major. The ejection...no, I don't agree with that unless it was to protect him. I abhor seeing hits from behind and think they should be dealt with very severly, no matter if it was "my team" or not. And I don't believe for one second that Moss "turtled". He was simply trying to take, and keep control of, the puck.

However, if the Vaananen hit gets called like that, then the Conroy hit has to be called as well. Again, after seeing the replay, it was clear that the puck was not close to Wolski, nor was the hit unintentional. Conroy tossed his shoulder right into Wolski's head (which I'm sure wasn't the intent) and Wolski went down and it looked bad. He was very wobbly and laid face first on the ice for some time. Yet there was absolutely no call. I'm at a loss on that one. Conroy is not a dirty player but that was a hit that should have been punished in the same way as Vaananen's hit, as unintentional as it may have looked.

Now the Avs have to try and rebound from this in a game against Vancouver tomorrow evening. As I mentioned, and should be pretty apparent, Theodore should get the start. He is 3-0 against them this year and, aside from the game where he injured his hip, has been very good against the Canucks this year. Hopefully that can hold true b/c the Avs need to go on a 10-game winning streak right about now if they want to see the playoffs this season.

The Good
- good start
- May owning Phaneuf

The Bad
- bad ending
- 5 goals against
- poor defensive coverage

The Ugly
- Vaananen and Conroy's hits

Pre-game vs Calgary - Feb 17, 2007

It's deja vu time as the Avalanche and Flames are set to do battle again. This time, it'll be on Hockey Night in Canada. Ah, how I love the soothing sounds of the HNIC theme song. It will be the second of three meetings over a 6 day span as they are due to battle it out in Colorado this coming Tuesday as well. Obviously the Avs are happy with the outcome so far but they really need to pick up the remaining 4 points between these teams if they want to remain in the playoff hunt until the bitter end.

Joe Sakic scored his 600th goal on Thursday in unceremonious fashion. But empty net or not, it was still a remarkable feat that only 17 other players have done. I wonder how many of them did it while putting on a 5-point performance, carrying their team to a much needed win. Throughout his entire career he has put up consistent numbers, no matter who the supporting cast is. No Forsberg? No problem. No Tanguay? Who cares. He saddles up, sticks the team on his back and gets it done.

And how about Milan Hejduk getting it done. A hat-trick on Thursday and 5 points in his last 2 games. He is now on pace for a 30-goal season which would go a fair ways to deflecting critiscism of him being nothing without Forsberg setting him up. Not that having Forsberg isn't a huge benefit, but it appears he's starting to show he can get it done without him.

Unfortunately, Marek Svatos hasn't been able to get it done without Pierre Turgeon this year. At least, that's how I'd like to see it. I'd hate to think that Svatos is simply too tiny and fragile to put up a 30+ goal season anymore. Maybe a two (possibly three) game streak of being a healthy scratch will give him a little incentive to get out there and prove some folks wrong as well. I like to think there is nothing as motivating as proving everyone wrong about your capabilities.

Peter Budaj gets the call in goal tonight after a shaky start which saw him yanked after 4 goals. Jose Theodore stepped in for the win and will likely start tomorrow against Vancouver. It appears lately that both goaltenders have leveled out in terms of performance. Budaj is still the better of the two, but not by much. This week, I have have a dream. And in that dream, I see two straight games where an Avalanche goaltender won't have to be pulled. Can that dream be achieved?

Injuries
Brisebois - back, LTI
Turgeon - calf, IR

McCarty - hip, IR
Richie Regehr - concussion, IR

Hot
Sakic has 6 in 2, Hejduk has 5 in 2, Brunette has 4 in 2, Stastny has 7 in 5, May has 3 in 3.

Tanguay, Iginla, and Conroy have 5 in 2, Hamrlik has 6 in 4, Huselius has 18 in 15.

Cold
Clark has 1 in 4.

Amonte has 0 in 7, Yelle has 0 in 4.

Goaltenders
Peter Budaj - 17-13-3, 2.75 GAA, .907 save pct
Miikka Kiprusoff - 28-17-0, 2.35 GAA, .920 save pct

Standings
Colorado - 28-25-4, 5th in NW, 10th in West
Calgary - 30-20-8, 2nd in NW, 7th in West

Post-game vs Calgary - Feb 15, 2007

What a roller-coaster ride that was! I laughed, I cried, I cheered, I cried some more, I jumped for joy, I had a heart attack (I'm ok now), and finally was able to exhale a sigh of relief. The Avalanche walk away with a huge 2 points against a team that they have had nothing but trouble with lately. It was no different tonight, except for the result.

The Flames jumped out to a 2-0 lead and had me hanging my head. Fortunately, I remembered I didn't have my hat on. So I shoved it on real tight and the Avalanche were able to feed off that and get within 1 before the period was out as Sakic scored his 599th goal. Early in the second, Brunette took a great feed from Sakic and tied the game up. As I stepped away from the tv for a brief moment, the Flames promptly took the lead again as Lombardi made Sauer look like a lumbering dinosaur. Then Tanguay and Iginla connected again and that spelled the end of Budaj's night. That, and me putting on my Avs jersey, was just the spark the team needed. Milan Hejduk had had enough and buried two goals in two minutes to tie the game up going into the third.

Then, a trickler headed towards the Calgary goal line and prompted my heart attack. I thought it didn't make it but on the replay it was clearly in and the Avs had their first lead of the night. It was short lived as Lombardi showed he not only has speed, but a hell of a shot. I guess if you have all the time in the world, you can really put some mustard on it. As I fumbled for some more Avalanche memorabilia, Milan Hejduk decided that he felt like getting a hat trick. So Ken Klee fed him a beautifl slap-pass and he redirected it past a shell-shocked Kiprusoff. Theodore decided to shut the door as he made a few key saves and Joe Sakic capped it all of with an empty-netter for his 600th career goal.

Joe Sakic had a 5-point night, which included 2 goals. So, I'll give myself a win for my prediction of 2 goals and 1 assist. I've got to. I'm never right on my point predictions...that's why I never do them. But it was great to see and, although I'm sure he didn't want it to be an empty-netter, it certainly was a great milestone for Joe. The entire team came out to congratulate him and to Sakic, it appeared to be just another day at the office. His calm, collected demeanor is one of the prime reasons he's one of the best leaders in the league.

As mentioned, Milan Hejduk grabbed himself a hat-trick tonight and has hopefully silenced the doubters. Night in and night out, Hejduk has been flying out there. Unfortunately, he just wasn't putting the points up so he looked to be underachieving. In any game I saw, I was still impressed with his play. He's got wheels, he's out there on the PP, he's out there on the PK and he's providing some leadership on the ice. For 3 1/2 million, I'll take him any day. Especially since he looks to be regaining his scoring touch with 5 goals in his last 3 games.

The Lappy-Arnason-Mclean line really showed some spark tonight and ended up with some great puck possession in the Calgary zone. Unfortunately, it resulted in no goals and that line was a collective -6 on the night. Wojtek Wolski joined those 3 in the minus category with a -2 on the night. Those results had him bumped down to the fourth-line for a while and he ended up with just 11 minutes in ice-time tonight.

John-Michael Liles and Ossi Vaananen ended up with very limited minutes tonight with 8:22 and 7:45 respectively. Now, I know Liles is struggling a bit at the moment and Ossi is a bit slow but...is he really slower than Kurt Sauer? The same Kurt Sauer who, after Lombardi blew by him, was back on the ice for the next shift? Does Sauer deserve special treatment for his mistakes or did Q feel the doghouse was full with Svatos, Liles and Wolski?

The Good
- comeback win
- 7 goals!
- 5-point night for Sakic
- hat-trick for Hejduk

The Bad
- 5 goals against
- another sleepy start

The Ugly
- another goaltender swap

Pre-game vs Calgary - Feb 15, 2007

It's that time of the year again. Time to nervously hold your breath as the Flames and Avalanche do battle. I have terrible memories of last time these two teams faced each other. It was what was marked as the wake-up call the Avalanche needed on the season. Unfortunately, I don't think they've answered the alarm yet. It was also the night that this site received record hits. The reason: Flames fans stumbled across my post-game rant, found it amusing, and linked to it from their forums. Now, as "neat" as it is to see lots of people coming here...I don't want that to happen again tonight! I want to see lots of people coming because they're celebrating an Avalanche win.

Recently, the Flames bolstered themselves by adding Brad Stuart to their already impressive defensive line along with re-acquiring Craig Conroy to center their top line with Iginla and Tanguay. If Conroy and Iginla can get going again, that will be one of the best #1 units in the league. Combine that with a hard-nosed, hard-hitting team, you've got just the kind of opponent that the Avalanche, and the rest of the league, don't like to face.

After a 39 save shutout performance against the Ducks, Peter Budaj will be in net again tonight. I still won't say he stole the game but he did put in a great performance and was certainly worthy of the praise he received, which included being the #1 star of the night on nhl.com. I'm pretty stingy lately on game-stealing performances by goaltenders. It must be the winter air.

Joe Sakic will continue his quest for 600 goals tonight. He's had a lot of success against the Flames in the past, scoring 33 times and notching 48 assists in 66 career games against them. And given that he's scoreless in their 2 games this season, I'd say that qualifies him to be a part of the ol mantra: the more things stay the same, the more likely they are to change. I'm calling a two-goal performance from Sakic tonight. If he doesn't get that...I'll edit my post and pretend I never said it.

The rookie duo of Paul Stastny and Wojtek Wolski is getting a lot of treatment lately. They were both recently feature in nhl.com articles as well as in the sports sections of various newspapers. Today, they are both in the Crashing the Net article which ranks them as #6 and #3 respectively. I'm going to get up on my soapbox for a second and say "Are you kidding me?". If one of them should be top 3, it should be Stastny in my book. Not only does he have more points than Wolski, he has shown himself to be a more complete player so far. Yes, Wolski is improving, but he still hasn't caught up to Stastny in my eyes.

Injuries
Patrice Brisebois - back, LTI

Darren McCarty - hip, IR
Richie Regehr - concussion, IR

Hot
Sakic has 7 in 4, Stastny has 6 in 4, Arnason has 4 in 4,Brunette has 3 in 3, Mclean has 4 in 5.

Tanguay and Iginla have 4 in 2, Langkow and Conroy have 3 in 2, Huselius has 12 in 9.

Cold
Svatos has 0 in 4.

Amonte has 0 in 6, Regehr has 0 in 5.

Goaltenders
Peter Budaj - 17-13-3, 2.67 GAA, .909 save pct
Miika Kiprusoff - 28-16-7, 2.27 GAA, .923 save pct

Standings
Colorado - 27-25-4, 5th in NW, 10th in West
Calgary - 30-19-8, 2nd in NW, 7th in West