Are You Kidding Me?

I don’t think any of us saw that coming.  In typical ironic fashion, the Avalanche fell to the Coyotes off a shot from Wojtek Wolski, a guy who’s had a problem shooting the puck and before this game had two goals in the last twenty-five.  One of those was a mercy goal empty netter given by Chris Stewart.  It was a little strange to see, honestly.

Photo by Norm Hall - Getty Images

Wearing #86 in his new Phoenix Coyotes sweater, Wojtek Wolski got 4 shots on goal against his former team.  The Avs were moving kind of slow for the first half of the 1st period, but that faded quickly after Lee Stempniak popped a shot past Craig Anderson 6:13 into the period.  After that, it became a quicker, more physical game.

The Avs were outshot by Phoenix 13-9 in the 1st, but turned it around a bit in the 2nd.  There were less shots on goal by the Coyotes due to the Avs picking up their game in the neutral zone.  They continued to shoot the puck on Ilya Bryzgalov and, eventually, at 16:58 of the 2nd, newly acquired Peter Mueller passed the biscuit to John Michael Liles.  Johnny Hot Pocket let it rip from the point and the puck flew past Bryzgalov and into the net.

Now, I’ve said before that we may need to trade Liles due to his lack of contributions.  Sure, 26pts is awesome for a defenseman to have, but as Adrian Dater of the Denver Post pointed out, most of those points are from second assists.  However, since the acquisition of Mueller, Liles has woken up.  The two seem to work very well together on the power play as proven the night before in Anaheim. The game would remain tied at 1 until 23 seconds left in the 3rd.

Photo by Norm Hall - Getty Images

Stephane Yelle made his second debut with the Avalanche as well, bringing his physicality to an otherwise not so physical team.  In recent years, the Avs have been dominated physically by other teams.  As fans, we’ve got to face the fact that we don’t have the hard hitters like we used to.  Sure, our guys get in the occasional scrap with an opponent or they make a hard hit every blue moon, but they lost that physical edge that helped them win two Stanley Cup Championships.  They’ve got to get that back.

The third period was evenly matched even though the Avs were outshot once again.  I’m pretty sure the Avs were expecting to go into overtime and at least get one point for the night until Adam Foote and Scott Hannan had a bit of unspoken miscommunication and allowed Shane Doan to pick up the puck in the corner and pass to a relatively open Wojtek Wolski, who was playing his first game with the ‘Yotes.  Very un-Wolski-like, Wolly let it rip from the circle and put the puck past Anderson.

Photo by Christian Petersen - Getty Images

That seemed to knock the wind out of the Avs.  Joe Sacco pulled Anderson to try and tie the game up at 2 and force overtime in the 23 remaining seconds, but the Wolski goal took it out of his former teammates.  With 1 second remaining in the 3rd period, Radim Vrbata, another former Avalanche, got the puck and skated out of the neutral zone.  He took a shot on the empty net and scored.  The game was over and the Avalanche, now zombified by the loss, left to the locker room.

I’m by no means saying that the Wolski trade was a mistake.  When I heard of the trade, I thought it was a good move, and I wear a #8 Avalanche sweater quite often.  Acquiring Mueller has seemed to put that spark back into Liles and the two are working great together on the power play.  The whole point of the trade was to wake up both Mueller and Wolski.  Both have had slump-ish seasons and their respective management teams wanted something inside to wake up again.  Mueller scored in his first game as an Avalance and Wolski did the same with the Coyotes, so it looks like it worked.

Related posts:

1. Dallas Dealt Dead Man’s Hand
2. Coyotes Bite Avs 6-2
3. Coyotes Have Trouble Catching Roadrunner Duchene
4. Avs Top Ducks With Addition of Mueller
5. Avalanche Sweep Blues