General Avs

Believe it or not, the Avalanche has a team policy about assistant coaches: they can’t talk to the media about ongoing, current team concerns. And the team will not announce anything about them, transaction-wise. For instance, if an assistant c...

Milan Hejduk is coming back. The Avs captain has agreed to a one-year, $2 million contract. More later… My quick thoughts: Hejduk absolutely didn’t want to go out this way. He wants one more chance to prove to the Avs – and more imp...

Geez, one day after I rip the guy, he couldn’t have been more charming and congenial. John Tortorella’s press conference today, full of insight and professionalism. What a concept. Here it is in entirety: NEW YORK RANGERS COACH TORTORELLA...

Sorry, I can’t take it anymore. I tried to buy into the “Oh, he’s just a lovable curmudgeon, he really is a great guy except for the stuff he does all the time to the media. He’s just Torts” meme. And I’m done with...

I hate giving an “incomplete” copout grade here, but I can’t in good conscience put a label on Matt Duchene’s 2011-12 season. I may have just formed this rule on the spot, but I’d say my informal rule on giving a guy a g...

What’s going on with Milan Hejduk’s situation? Not a whole lot in tangible terms. But this much I know: there is an ongoing dialogue between him and the team still at least. Hejduk, the Avs’ 36-year-old captain who suffered through...

That’s an improvement over the D I gave the Highlander last year. His points improved from eight to 11, and he even in plus-minus. He piled up a goodly number of PIMs, as usual – 164 – and he was physical, with 123 hits in 75 games.

Let’s take a look at some lessons the Avalanche can learn from the teams still in the playoffs: From LA – The Avs can learn that a big, shakeup trade or two can sometimes, you know, work to shake things up in a positive way. The current A...

Seven goals, seven assists in 58 games for Kobasew, with a -10. While I don’t believe that much in plus-minus anymore as a relevant statistic (Matt Hendricks, for instance, officially was a minus-1 in Wednesday’s 2-1 Washington Capitals p...

Semyon Varlamov is doin’ work at the Worlds. After today’s shutout over Germany, which, OK whatever…is 3-0 with a 1.33 goals-against and .948 saves percentage for Russia. Remember when Varly was just a benchwarmer around Christmas t...