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HEAD COACH
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Bob Hartley
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ROSTER
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C - Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Stephane Yelle, Chris Drury,
Dale Hunter. LW - Valeri Kamensky, Milan Hejduk, Shean Donovan,
Warren Rychel. RW - Theoren Fleury, Claude Lemieux, Adam Deadmarsh,
Shjon Podein, Jeff Odgers. D - Sandis Ozolinsh, Sylvain Lefebvre,
Adam Foote, Alexei Gusarov, Jon Klemm, Aaron Miller, Greg deVries,
Cam Russell, Eric Messier. G - Patrick Roy, Craig Billington.
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INJURIES
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Valeri Kamensky, lw (broken hand, out for season); Cam
Russell, d (shoulder, out for season); Alexei Gusarov, d (knee,
day-to-day).
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TRANSACTIONS
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None.
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GAME RESULTS
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First Round vs San Jose: Avalanche won 4-2
4/24 at San Jose W 3-1
4/26 at San Jose W 2-1 OT
4/28 San Jose L 4-2
4/30 San Jose L 7-3
5/01 San Jose W 6-2
5/03 at San Jose W 3-2 OT
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STANDINGS
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Northwest Division GP W L T PTS GF GA
y-Colorado 82 44 28 10 98 239 205
x-Edmonton 82 33 37 12 78 230 226
Calgary 82 30 40 12 72 211 234
Vancouver 82 23 47 12 58 192 258
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TEAM NEWS
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by Greg D'Avis, Colorado Correspondent
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It just can't be easy, can it? Returning to Colorado with a solid
2-0 series lead, the Avalanche had a chance to put the Sharks away
quickly and get prepped for Detroit. Instead, the Avs let the ol'
home bug get `em and stunk out the joint.
Why are the Sharks, who have - let's face it - a vast talent gap to
make up, still solidly in the series? Easy: intensity. Every Shark
has played hard, every minute. The Avalanche? Well, Joe Sakic's been
great. Milan Hejduk and Peter Forsberg have been solid. Stephane
Yelle and Shjon Podein are playing their hearts out. But the rest.
What are hopefully the "real" Avs showed up in Game Five. Theo
Fleury and Claude Lemieux, both nearly invisible in the first four
games, played fantastic. And, as he always does, Patrick Roy
responded strongly from a lousy performance.
But the two previous games were worrisome. Aaron Miller's been the
best of the Avalanche defensemen, but that isn't an honor as the
Avalanche defense has been lousy and lethargic. No offense to our
good old pal Mike Ricci, but any time ol' Toothless gets FOUR
points in a game, there's problems.
The third game was simply marked by the Avalanche not playing hard
enough. The fourth game, though, was an abomination, and it seemed
the Avalanche simply gave up halfway through. Roy was awful, but he
didn't have any help. Stupid penalties, stupid defense, all added
up.
So hopefully Game Five was an indicator, the sign the Avalanche has
awakened. Sakic, Forsberg and Hejduk continued to be strong, and
Fleury and Lemieux were at their agitating best. Adam Foote,
Sylvain Lefebvre and others stepped it up on defense. And, of
course, Roy was superlative in goal.
But it's a scary thought: if the Avalanche is having this much
trouble with San Jose, what's going to happen against the real big
guns?
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