Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

KRIEGER: Avalanche's slip starting to show

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 19, 2008 at 12:45 a.m.

Text size  

More Sports Columns & Blogs

More stories »

The buzz from Avs vs. Red Wings used to float across the city like an electric current. You could feel it 24 hours before the Wings arrived and 24 hours after they left.

That was then. This is now. Monday night's crowd for a national telecast of the final Avs-Wings contest of the regular season had enough red in it to make you think Nebraska was in town.

When the Wings scored, as they often did, the cheers were reminiscent of certain days at Coors Field, when Cubs fans or Red Sox fans set the tone.

"Let's go Red Wings," came the rhythmic chant, and then, fainter, a distant memory in response: "Red Wings puck!"

Well, it rhymes with puck.

The suitability of this off-color chant was once a subject of some debate. Now the faint echo triggers only nostalgia.

By losing their season-high fourth in a row - not to mention the fourth in a row to the Wings, completing a season series sweep - the Avs continued their tumble out of the playoff bracket. Now they embark on a five-game trip that could deliver them to another prolonged offseason if they can't rediscover an offense.

"They had a lot of opportunities but didn't shoot it for one reason or another," Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood said of the Avs after shutting them out.

Tough guy Ian Laperriere did what he could to get the Avs going, delivering a crushing hit on Wings star Nik Lidstrom and knocking him out of the game. But his teammates were unable to take advantage. When I asked Laperriere to diagnose the offense, he was characteristically blunt.

"Not too good, obviously; you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that," he said.

"For us, obviously frustration sets in a little bit when you think you've got to score," added forward Andrew Brunette.

For a long time, it looked as if the Avs would somehow stay in the hunt without their top three offensive players. Now, just as those guys are coming back, the Herculean effort seems to have caught up with them.

Peter Forsberg's agent told the Avs on Monday what he eventually told the world - that Forsberg is not coming back to the NHL this season after all.

One more ray of hope extinguished.

Since Ryan Smyth returned from his broken ankle, the Avs have scored two goals in three games. On the bright side, they hope to get back Paul Stastny sometime this week. And Joe Sakic plans to accompany the team on the trip in hopes of returning to the ice before it's over.

But just as the injured scorers return, the Avs have lost defenseman Brett Clark, making it especially difficult to generate offense off the blue line, particularly with John-Michael Liles in a seasonlong scoring slump.

So fans look to general manager Francois Giguere to pull a rabbit out of his hat by the trade deadline a week from today, just as his predecessor, Pierre Lacroix, did back in the day. Unfortunately, making miracles happen that way is much harder than it used to be.

For one thing, parity has almost everybody believing they still have a shot at the playoffs, leaving far fewer sellers than there used to be. For another, the salary cap makes it much harder to recover from a mistake at the deadline.

Last year, for example, Atlanta gave up three draft choices and a player at the deadline to add veteran Keith Tkachuk for the playoffs. That didn't stop the sixth-seeded Rangers from sweeping them out of the first round.

The Islanders gave up two prospects and a first-round draft pick for Smyth, were eliminated in the first round and watched Smyth walk away as a free agent.

The Predators gave up two prospects and two draft picks for Forsberg. Like the Islanders, they won just one playoff game before being eliminated, and Forsberg walked.

If somebody takes a chance on trading for Atlanta's Marian Hossa, for example, the result could be the same. Hossa will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. These last-minute attempts to juice your playoff roster can cost you the homegrown talent necessary to build a solid foundation in the salary-cap era.

When the Avs signed Smyth and Scott Hannan as free agents last summer, they thought they had a lineup powerful enough to make another run at the Stanley Cup, making use of Sakic's twilight and Stastny's dawn. Injuries doomed that plan before it got out of the gate. Now their only chance is to sneak in as an underdog.

"We've got to play scrappier," said coach Joel Quenneville. "We've got to play more of a puck possession game, more puck control."

Alas, there is no short-term fix. One day, Avs vs. Red Wings may again stir the soul. Monday night, it looked like it will be a while.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com

Comments

  • February 19, 2008

    7:41 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Patriot writes:

    The Av's are undersized, and not very talented anymore. Wolski, Brunette and Hejduk have all disappeared and could be traded along with Liles for some new life that actually might show up to play every night. Shame such a great team has gone done the tubes after some horrible trades and releases. Guess it serves the front office right, maybe they will pull their heads out of their asses and realize they need to get bigger, tougher, and more talented, not something that will happen over night.

  • February 19, 2008

    8:52 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    afvx3 writes:

    It is pathetic how far the avalanache have slipped. Looking in from the outside @ the playoffs for a second year in a row. It is time management owned up to he huge mistakes they have made in letting good talent go and keeping mediocre talent like Hejduk, Wolski and Brunette.

  • February 19, 2008

    9:54 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Firefox writes:

    Stick a fork in these guys they are done, this team is not even a shadow of the their former selves.