| Friday, November 3
By George Johnson
Special to ESPN.com |
|
They've got captain Joe. They've got Peter. They've got Saint Patrick. They've
got Sandis.
They've got Milan Hejduk, Chris Drury, Alex Tanguay, Martin Skoula, too.
And they've got trouble. Big, big trouble.
Oh yes, there's trouble right there in Mile High City. Trouble with a
capital T. Actually, a capital P for production -- or lack thereof.
|  | | Patrick Roy needs four victories to become the NHL's leader in career victories. |
For the Avalanche, the injury-bitten Joe Sakic has accounted for a mere 12 goals and is on pace for 17 --
his lowest snipe total ever, including the abreviated lockout season. He snapped
a seven-game drought against the Oilers on Tuesday night. That's the good news. The
bad is that nobody else could locate the back of the net behind Tommy Salo, so
the Avs lost (another) one-goal game, sliding even further down into the
Western Conference playoff quagmire.
"Everybody's down right now," said Sakic. "We're pretty frustrated."
Peter Forsberg, another injury-plagued star, has no goals in his last six games. The power play is
in a 5-for-55 tailspin. They're 4-10-5 since Jan. 19.
Want more?
The Avs were winless in five (0-4-1) following the Edmonton disappointment and had
dropped four in succession at the Pepsi Center -- or as the
team goes flatter than a two-day-old, open can of Coke, the Big Fizz.
Right now, the Avalanche are just good enough to lose, an M.O. that better fits clubs with less talent.
As yet, there are no signs of outward panic, no one in Denver -- this is, after
all, still a football town, Elway or no Elway -- parading to the service entrance
of the arena armed with tar and feathers, demanding accountability.
"Everybody feels the pressure," admits Forsberg. "We have to get some wins
here. These are big games, and it's time to show we're a good team."
Okay. GET ON WITH IT! Everyone's still waiting. Expecting.
It's hard to imagine -- unthinkable, really -- the Stanley Cup playoffs with the
Colorado Avalanche on the outside peering in. Hockey's crunch time minus all
those superb individual talents? But there they sit, wavering on the cusp of
calamity, a target not too far in the distance for all the riff-raff such as the
Flames, Canucks and Ducks to shoot at.
Typical of Colorado's travails of late was that 3-1 loss at home to the Oilers.
The Avalanche outshot Edmonton 38-16 on the night and were outscored 1-0 by the
Oilers in the second despite a 19-3 shot advantage.
The Avs' scoring problems mirror their captain's. Sakic's assist total is fine,
at 37 in 43 starts, but there is obvious concern that he isn't scoring goals at
his accustomed rate.
"This is something," mutters goaltender Patrick Roy, alluding to the offensive
outage, "that I haven't seen around here before, that's for sure."
Colorado isn't really awful in any area -- fourth on the power play despite the
recent woes; 13th in penalty killing; 13th in team defense.
They just can't score goals.
Those on the scene don't believe the Avs have packed it in on coach Bob
Hartley. Nor
does there seem to be a strong belief that should they fail to qualify for the
post-season that he would necessarily be hung in effigy. The thinking behind
such rationale, of course, is that Hartley was GM Pierre Lacroix's
hand-picked choice, and Lacroix isn't going anywhere after agreeing to a
five-year extention on his contract.
Still, Hartley has only one year remaining on his deal. At around $400,000, he
isn't a top-end coaching earner, which would make it easier to do the dirty
deed.
And, well, as Bogart told Mary Astor in the final frames of the Maltese Falcon,
somebody always has to take the fall.
At the moment, however, nobody's playing 'what if ...?' looking ahead to what
might happen in late spring if this doesn't get turned around. The focus is on
working their way out of this perplexing rut.
"Maybe," said Hartley, hopefully, "we have to play a perfect game."
Perfect, schmerfect. A sloppy, lucky one will do, providing they wind up with a
few goals and at least one more than the other team.
"The attitude seems to be very good from what I've seen," contends the
much-travelled Dave Reid. "A lot of times, with other teams, there's the
attitude when you fall off a cliff, you think you're going into a funeral when
you walk into the room. We don't have that feeling here. The puck isn't going in. Sometimes one's got
to go in off two skates for the game winner to turn something like this
around."
It had better happen. Soon.
Rest of the West
The two major questions in Dallas as the trade deadline approaches are:
1. How strong will Jere Lehtinen rebound from the fractured right ankle that required
the insertion of screws?
2. What about Brett Hull?
The Stars believe Lehtinen, one of the most important yet unheralded components
in their quest for successive Cups, should be back with three or four games left
in the regular season. That, of course, is a best-case scenario. And how close
to full throttle could Lehtinen be with only a brief trial period before
playoffs?
Acquiring Sylvain Cote and Dave Manson from Chicago provided an already
defense-deep team with a glut of blueliners. The obvious move would be to deal a
veteran blueliner to bulk up their forward lines, but the Stars might be more
willing to surrender a younger commodity -- say, a Richard Jackman, chosen fifth
overall his draft year, who can't crack the Dallas defense -- that would fetch
more in return.
Why take the gamble on giving up youth? Well, it hasn't hurt them so far,
relinquishing, among others, Jarome Iginla, Petr Buzek, Todd Harvey and Roman
Turek.
Hull's situation is, naturally, a delicate one. Coach Ken Hitchcock doesn't seem the least bit interested in reuniting the Golden Brett with his favorite centerman, Mike
Modano -- except on the powerplay. Hull and Joe Nieuwendyk (currently sidelined
with a dislocated shoulder) have never really displayed the intrinsic chemistry
Modano-Hull did.
So if Hull isn't on either of the top two units, how much ice time is he going
to receive and how ornery is that going to make him? More and more, it appears
the Stars view him now as a power play home-run hitter, a specialist.
He's held his tongue in uncharacteristic fashion thus far, but he won't remain
silent forever, which could cause an unecessary distraction heading into the playoffs.
Quick hits
Alexander Selivanov's game-winner at Colorado, a 3-1 Edmonton
victory, on Tuesday night was his 20th goal of the season and first since Dec. 1st.
On that night, he also scored the winner in a 3-1 win over, you guessed it, the
Avalanche. Selivanov had been confined to the press box for seven games before
getting the call at the Pepsi Center.
Trade rumour de jour: Selivanov and a
minor-leaguer to the Habs in exchange for Shayne Corson. With Corson set to make
$4 million next year, his reincarnation as an Oiler would be for strictly the
playoffs, naturally.
Calgary's Jarome Iginla is riding a 14-game
point-scoring streak (10 goals, 13 assists), just two shy of the franchise record established
in the '87-88 season by defenseman Gary Suter.
Quote of the week
"Are the Penguins going to miss him? Damn rights. Is the game going to miss him?
You bet. Am I going to miss him? Not tomorrow night, I'm not. I may be a lot of
things, but crazy isn't one of them," -- Flames' coach Brian Sutter, on the
prospect of facing the Jaromir Jagr-less Pittsburgh Penguins.
George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Sun. His Western Conference column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com. |  |
