- The St. Louis Blues eked out a 2-1 victory over the similarly-hued Blue Jackets, technically keeping their playoff hopes alive for another day. A lot of people think the Blues are effectively finished, but look at it this way: if your season is contingent upon the Avalanche and Flames choking in clutch situations, I like your odds. Still, way to ruin my “they Blue their chance” pun, jerks.
- Meanwhile, Washington, who apparently does not get as motivated by negative internet comments as I thought, managed a 3-2 OT victory over Boston. The single point moves Boston into 7th place in the East with three games remaining and gives them a good shot at getting immediately smashed by the Devils in the opening round. Neat!
- Finally, Duke scored a victory for college basketball frontrunners tonight with its 61-59 victory over Butler. Hooray Duke! Thank you, oh noble gentlemen, for once again saving us from the scourge of a relatively unheralded and entirely pleasing champion. The insufferable douchebags who root for you must be so proud.
The road to recovery is long and filled with many setbacks, so any opportunity to release one’s repressed feelings is a step in the right direction. With that in mind, I begin the first of many Daily Detox posts with a simple request: Give Craig Anderson a day off before he commits seppuku with his goalie stick.
Some have already touched on the topic, like Adrian Dater of the Denver Post did here, so the premise is hardly new: As many have noticed, Craig Anderson has logged an absurd amount of work in net this year, and he is beginning to show the representative signs of fatigue. He’s already set Avalanche records for most consecutive starts (23), total starts (68), minutes logged (4,047) and shots faced (2,146). On average, Anderson faces a ridiculous 31.5 shots per game. The guy sees more rubber than your mother. (The only difference is that he turns some of it away.)
Oh and also: Anderson isn’t likely to get much rest now that Calgary has caught Colorado in the standings, so more consecutive starts against a reasonably talented slate of remaining opponents. Should the Avalanche qualify for the playoffs, he could conceivably match his career start total (88) this season alone. I’m sure he’s thrilled by this.
So please, Coach Sacco: going forward, let Peter Budaj get a few more starts over the course of the season. Craig Anderson will thank you for the time off and the team will be better off for it. Well, mostly better. You can’t fix David Koci overnight, I guess.
Yep, this looks about how I feel.
I’m Quack. I run this blog as part of my recovery and rehabilitation from a crippling addiction to the Colorado Avalanche.
For years, I’ve been struggling with my addiction to the Avs, so I decided to start this blog to deal with the pain that comes with the rooting interest. Ever since 2001, Colorado’s success and my levels of vehement cynicism directed toward them have worked on an inverse scale – the worse the Avs perform, the more likely I am to throw darts and/or knives at my homemade Pierre Lacroix dartboard. (If you flip it over, there’s one of those baseball-style games where you get points for missing the target altogether in honor of Tyler Arnason. The playing surface is flat and one-dimensional in honor of Marek Svatos.)
What is worse than their string of recent failures is their wildly unpredictable performance night-to-night. Sometimes they come out ahead, and those are truly times to celebrate. Most nights, though, they start fast, lose confidence within the next few hours and go home with nothing to show for their effort. The Avalanche are the living embodiment of my weekends.
So I’ll be running this support group for anyone who needs a place to commiserate with other Avs addicts. My place is not to pass judgment – unless you happen to be a Red Wings fan – but to provide a haven for other, like-minded individuals. Welcome, friends. There’s cookies in the back. Let the healing process begin.
Avalanche Anonymous 