| 13 April 2010
Games 61-82 was easily the Colorado Avalanche's worst 20 game stretch of the 2009-2010 season. Colorado nearly blew a playoff spot that they held all season long down the stretch. Let’s find out who was good, who wasn’t and look at a whole slew of numbers to try make sense of what happened and why the Avs play slipped so much.
ADB’s 3 Stars:
1. Peter Mueller - When the Avs moved Wojtek Wolski for Peter Mueller, I thought Mueller might be able to fill Wolski's role fairly well, but no one expected that Muells and his super shot would give the Avs PP a swift kick in the pants. #88 was better than a point a game player, with 20 points over 15 games, with 9 of those points being goals.
2. Paul Stastny - Stastny came out of his great Olympic run with Team USA playing his best hockey of the season. Like Mueller, He was also better than a point a game with 25 points over 20 games (including 8 goals). Unfortunately, he did lead the team in minus (-7).
3. Matt Hendricks - Simply put, the Avs are a harder team to play against with Hendricks in the lineup. Despite playing a 4th line role (and getting the 4th line ice time that comes with that) Hendricks netted 8 points / 4 goals in 19 games and racked up 28 penatly minutes.
ABD's 3 Goats:
1. Kyle Cumiskey - A few games before the Olympic break, a frustrated Martin Hanzal ran Cumiskey into the boards during garbage time on a Feb Avs win over the Yotes. Kyle hasn't really been the same since. 0 goals, 6 assists in 17 games and he was a defensive corps worst -6 over these 20 games.
2. Kyle Quincey - Right now, the Ryan Smyth trade isn't looking so good. We traded a 20+ goal scorer for two defensemen - Tom Preissing, who was so bad in 4 games, he hasn't seen NHL ice time since November and Kyle Quincey, who's play over these 20 games was so poor that soon-to-be-former-Avs Ruslan Salei and Brett Clark were more attractive choices for Joe Sacco on some nights. The Avs got almost no offensive production from #27 - 4 points in 18 games. That's simply not acceptable for a player of Quincey's talent level.
3. Brandon Yip - Games 41-61 2nd star is now the 3rd goat. Brandon was hurt in the first game back after the Olympics against Detroit and was out for a month, so it was hard to put him on the list. But in the 7 games he did appear in, the numbers are too scary to leave him off the list. 0 goals, 1 assist, -5. Ouch.
Most surprising thing:
Craig Anderson looked human. There was a lot of talk about Andy getting tired - and it was justified. It wasn't like we saw Andy give up a lot of soft goals, but was saw a lot less of Andy making that big save at a key moment in a game. Andy also seemed to lose his calmness in the net, which is one of his best attributes when he is on his game.
Most expected thing:
Paul Stasnty led the team in assists over this 20 game stretch. He did it over each 20 game stretch all year long. How's that for consistency!
Team Stats:
Record: 8-10-3
Standings: 2nd in division, 8th in the Western Conference
Points: 19 (of 42)
Average points per game: 0.90 (-0.34) - the italicized number is the difference from games 41-61.
*As a baseline – San Jose (last year’s President’s Cup winners) averaged 1.42 points a game and Anaheim (lowest point total who made the playoffs) averaged 1.11 points a game – anything above 1.20 is going to get you into the playoffs.
Home record: 4-6-1
Points: 9 (of 22)
Average points per game: 0.82 (-0.68)
Road record: 4-4-2
Points: 10 (of 20)
Average points per game: 1.00 (+0.11)
Goal differential: -9 (Avs: 66 - Opponents: 75) (-25)
*includes goals awarded for winning a shootout
Special Teams:
Power Play: 18.1%, 15th in the NHL (+5 places)
Penalty Kill: 80.2%, 21st in the NHL (-11 places)
*percentages includes games 1 – 61.
Shootout Record:
2-0 (2-0)
Individual Stats:
Points Leaders:
1. Paul Stastny- 25
2. Chris Stewart - 22
3. Peter Mueller - 20
Goal Leaders:
1. Peter Mueller / Chris Stewart - 9
3. Paul Stastny / Milan Hejduk - 8
Assists Leaders:
1. Paul Stastny - 17
2. Chris Stewart - 13
3. Peter Mueller - 11
Plus / Minus:
Plus leader: Milan Hejduk (+5)
Minus leader: Paul Stastny (- 7)
*Plus / Minus can be a really misleading stat when considered across the NHL as a whole, but I believe plus / minus has value when viewed in the context of the same team.
Goalies:
Anderson – 18 games, 7-11, .905
Budaj – 3 games, 1-2, .912
Final Thought:
The numbers are pretty jarring - the Avs got much worse defensively over this stretch. Look at the PK (where they slipped 11 places since the Olympics) or the overall goal against which ballooned from 43 (games 41-61) to 75 (games 62-82). Wow. They better get much better very quickly in their own zone if they want to keep playing hockey in May.
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