Return of the Duke

December 17th, 2009 Comments

Milan Hejduk practiced with the team today and, according to the Avs themselves, is expecting to play this Saturday when the Colorado Avalanche host the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Courtesy of http://avalanche.nhl.com

This bodes well for the team that clearly needed help the other nice in a good ‘ol fashioned ass whopping by the Washington Capitals. The Avalanche looked absolutely dreadful, giving the puck away, making terrible passes into traffic, and letting a struggling Craig Anderson down defensively.

Experience, leadership, quick hands, and excellent hockey sense are something that Milan Hejduk provides daily, and it is something that I look forward to seeing again as I was one of the lucky few(right…) to be at the Caps blowout. I don’t know if I’ve ever booed my favorite team before, but if I have, it was probably once. I couldn’t even count the number of times I had to boo the disgusting taste out of my mouth because we looked flat out flat.

*The only positive I saw was a Power Play featuring T.J. Galiardi, Ryan O’Reilly, and Matt Duchene and I LOVED IT! (Plus they got the only goal).

Marek Svatos was also out before practice and he will be a scratch, or not, tomorrow. Svats has been out with a groin injury, and as much as he’ been getting ragged on, the guy has heart and I’m ready to see him back out there. No offense to Ryan Stoa but even he didn’t look like he was fighting for much the other night. At least Mercier was throwing the body around and trying to stay up.

Finally, Dater has some video of Koci discussing his hit on Mike Green the other night and how he is sorry. I for one didn’t think it was as dirty as people claimed it to be. Green turned and Koci stopped moving his feet. It was unfortunate and may lead to a suspension, but I don’t think it’s as bad as other hits I’ve seen. At least Koci was still playing (Kudos to the guy for getting more than a single shift in the game-I counted 4!).