| 23 April 2010
The previously “nothing to lose” Colorado Avalanche suddenly seemed to feel the playoff pressure and didn’t respond well. Game 5 looked a lot like how I expected this series to look going in, where I expected the Sharks to handle the Avs easily - dominate the Avs physically and score a bunch of goals.
Lets check in on the 5 things (which is 1 for 5, easily their worst performance yet):
5. Win Game 1 or 2 in San Jose. Perma-Check.
4. Get production from Yip and / or Stewart. Not tonight. The Avs were shutout, so obviously no here.
3. Contain San Jose’s top line. Not Tonight. Thornton / Heatley / Marleau. Marleau had a goal and an assist and Heater had two assists. Thornton still somehow managed to stay invisible, even in a 5-0 win for San Jose.
2. Have “Special” Special Teams. Not tonight. 0-3 on the PP and allowed San Jose’s PP to score twice.
1. Andy. Not Tonight. The play of the game was the 2nd goal, where Andy lost an edge and gave San Jose an easy. I’m not blaming Andy for the loss, but there was no question Nabokov had the better game.
- I said this last game, but it’s worth repeating: Since the 5 goal explosion in game 2, the Avs have scored 1 legitimate goal (Stasnty PPG, game 4). We really could use Hedjuk or Mueller back.
- Avs will have to score first in Game 6 in order to win.
- While the officiating was horrible - especially the early call on the Yip and the Duchene / McGinn incident - I thought the Avs Twitterverse really over reacted. Two reasons for this: 1. The refs become an easy punching bag when your team is playing so poorly and 2. At least half of Dater’s tweets were complaints about the refs - whipping up the fan base, legitimizing their frustration.
- Any suggestions that the “fix is in” or that the NHL "wants San Jose to win" are just crazy. Remember, its San Jose has had two goals disallowed in this series, not Colorado.
- Games 1-4 reminded me of the October Avs; they looked a lot like the March Avs this game.
- Never underestimate the power of the Sharks' playoff choking abilities. See you at Game 6.
Next game: Saturday at home against San Jose, 8:00PM MDT.
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