How quickly things change. Going into the second round, the
Avalanche were also-rans, a bump in the road on the way to the
much-anticipated Red Wings/Stars match. But after the Wings
collapsed faster than the Brazilian economy and the Avalanche
turned into a scoring juggernaut, Colorado went into the conference
final as the prohibitive favorites. Dallas? Dallas who?
Of course, it won't be nearly that easy, as the first two games of
the Avalanche/Stars series showed. It's a battle of philosophies:
the Avalanche's speed and offense versus the Stars' grinding
defense. Whichever is superior will win.
And, more importantly, it's a battle of the Adam Sandler lookalikes:
Colorado coach Bob Hartley versus Dallas defenseman Darryl Sydor.
This is the kind of battle that becomes crucial in the playoffs.
After the first two games, it was a wash. (The skill vs. grind
thing, not the Sandler thing.)
After the sixth game of the Detroit series, it was easy to see why
so many people thought the Stars weren't up to the Avs: Colorado
absolutely demolished the mighty (tee hee) Red Wings in the last
four games, while Dallas had quite a bit of trouble with the
less-talented Blues.
But that's just the way Dallas plays; they're going to have a lot of
2-1 games, not many 6-2 games. It doesn't make them any less
difficult, or dangerous, as the Avalanche found out.
In the first game, Dallas owned the Avalanche for the first period,
outshooting them, outworking them, outhitting them and going in with
a 1-0 lead. But in the second period, the Avalanche got back into it
when Valeri Kamensky scored the infamous GOAL THAT WASN'T.
If the Avalanche had lost, it would still be difficult to talk of
this, but since they won we can just write it off with a laugh (and
a little twitch of nervousness). For those who missed it, Kamensky
tipped in a Claude Lemieux shot into the lower left corner of the
goal, and it immediately popped back out. Everyone in the Western
Hemisphere saw it, except, that is, the referees and the goal judge
(operating under the NHL's new "No Sober Goal Judges" rule).
See, the puck had hit the padding on the inside, which was too far
up: the referees ruled that the puck hadn't crossed the line. Never
mind that ESPN rules clearly showed it crossing - they don't get
cable down on the ice. After minutes of arguing, which included the
odd sight of Lemieux standing behind the goal and screaming at the
goal judge and Kamensky skating in circles, staring at the heavens,
they waved it off.
But it fired the Avalanche up, and soon enough, Kamensky and Peter
Forsberg broke in on a 2 on 1, Kamensky slid it across and Forsberg
popped it in. Tie score.
And, because the hockey gods love just desserts, Kamensky later
scored the winner - making up for the GOAL THAT WASN'T.
Game Two went exactly the opposite. Very even (tied 2-2) for two
periods, the Avalanche folded in the third, managing only one shot
in the final 20 minutes. Add that to bad, bad penalties, an
obviously tired team and bad ice, and you can probably guess the
Stars won.
So, it's back to Denver. On one hand, the Avalanche have removed
home-ice advantage. On the other hand, the Stars' win looked a lot
like the Red Wings' domination of the Avs two seasons ago -
shutting the offense down while getting lots of shots on Patrick
Roy.
The Good
* The Forsberg, Kamensky and Lemieux line has been fantastic. Broken
up for most of the 98-99 season, since Kamensky returned they've been
the Avalanche's scariest force in the playoffs.
* Sandis Ozolinsh has looked good; if the ice was decent he'd be far
better.
* Milan Hejduk continues to play far better than you expect a rookie
to in the playoffs, going into the corners with much bigger players,
getting in front of the net and scoring. His goal in the second game
was a triumph of tenacity and skill.
* Patrick Roy is, well, Patrick Roy.
The Bad
* Crucial mistakes by the Avalanche's top three defensive
defensemen, Adam Foote, Sylvain Lefebvre and Aaron Miller,
particularly Foote. Sloppy at a time when the Avalanche can't
afford sloppiness from their top players.
* Joe Sakic and Theo Fleury's collective slump. They looked great
for two periods of Game Two, but epitomized the problems in the
third period.
* Likewise, after their great performance in the Detroit series, the
Avalanche hasn't got any points from the third line. Adam Deadmarsh,
Shjon Podein and Chris Drury are all playing hard, but they gotta
score.
* Stupid penalties. Peter Forsberg is back on his medication and
hasn't tried to kill anyone lately, but a number of other players -
hello, Greg deVries - have kept up a steady stream to the penalty
box. Sylvain Lefebvre went in to give the Stars a 5-on-3, and
Hejduk's late high-sticking penalty killed off any hopes of an Avs
comeback.
Injury Update
Stephane Yelle and Alexei Gusarov still aren't back, but should be
soon. And that'll be a big help. Gusarov will allow Jon Klemm to
move up to forward, and with Yelle back, that'll give the Avalanche
a fourth line of Yelle-Klemm-Dale Hunter, rather than Hunter-Jeff
Odgers-Warren Rychel; and that, in turn, will allow the Avalanche
to rest the top three lines more.
