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head coach: Marc Crawford

roster: C - Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Stephane Yelle, Jari Kurri, Tom Fitzgerald. LW - Valeri Kamensky, Rene Corbet, Eric Lacroix. RW - Claude Lemieux, Adam Deadmarsh, Keith Jones, Jeff Odgers, Shean Donovan, Brad Larsen, Warren Rychel. D - Sandis Ozolinsh, Sylvain Lefebvre, Uwe Krupp, Adam Foote, Alexei Gusarov, Jon Klemm, Aaron Miller, Eric Messier, Francois Leroux, Wade Belak. G - Patrick Roy, Craig Billington.

injuries: Peter Forsberg, c (groin, day-to-day); Alexei Gusarov, d (knuckle, day-to-day); Adam Deadmarsh, lw (shoulder, day-to-day); Francois Leroux, lw (shoulder, day-to-day); Wade Belak, d (achy all over, day-to-day).

transactions: Traded rights to Mark Parrish, lw, and a 1998 third-round draft pick to Florida for Tom Fitzgerald, c; traded Josef Marha, c, to Anaheim for Warren Rychel, rw, and a conditional 1999 draft pick.

standings:

Western Conference - Pacific Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
x-Colorado   77  37  24  16    90  217  192  
Los Angeles  75  34  30  11    79  210  204 
San Jose     76  31  37   8    70  190  205  
Edmonton     76  30  36  10    70  192  208 
Calgary      75  25  36  14    64  200  222  
Vancouver    76  24  39  13    61  212  258  
Anaheim      76  24  40  12    60  187  241  
x - Clinched playoff spot

game results:

3/26 New Jersey    L 2-0
3/28 Anaheim       W 5-3
3/30 at Boston     L 4-1
4/01 at Detroit    L 2-0
4/02 at Chicago    L 2-1
4/04 at St. Louis  L 4-1

team news:

by Greg D’Avis, Colorado Correspondent

Last time in these pages I advised fans not to worry about the Avalanche's play of late.

Go ahead, worry.

Since the trading deadline, the Avalanche has faced three teams -- New Jersey, Detroit, St. Louis -- that are significant roadblocks in the path to the Stanley Cup. They've been beaten soundly each time. Their defensemen are scoring on the wrong net. Their goalies, subsequently, are going insane. There's dissension in the dressing room and Claude Lemieux is angry. Everyone who fights -- except, of course, Patrick Roy -- injures themselves.

Yes, definitely, with the playoffs three weeks away and the Avalanche looking like the Canucks, worrying is now perfectly acceptable.

The Avalanche waited until the last moments to get involved on trade deadline day, but did well in picking up Tom Fitzgerald from the Florida Panthers. They gave up junior prospect Mark Parrish of the Seattle Thunderbirds, who may become a star, but probably wasn't going to do it in Denver -- he had yet to sign and looked to be re-entering the draft this summer. Fitzgerald, meanwhile, has given the Avalanche grit and a solid face-off man, which they've needed all year.

They also reacquired Warren Rychel from the Ducks in a deal that's a bit more problematic. They gave up center prospect Josef Marha, who's been great in his very limited duty behind Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg this year, and promptly scored three points in his first two games for Anaheim. I've never made a secret of the fact that I'm pretty high on Marha (getting high on Marha's still legal `round these parts) and while Rychel may give the Avs dressing room character, the only thing he adds on the ice is a punching bag for whoever on the opposing team is a little bit mad that day and a legion of dumb penalties. The Avalanche also got a conditional draft pick from the Ducks, but I've never understood conditional draft picks so I'm ignoring it.

Fitzgerald looked sharp in his first game with the Avalanche, the loss to the Devils, winning faceoffs left and right, going to the net, finishing his checks and so forth. It was a pretty wildly entertaining game (except for the result) -- good action, high tempo, lots of spark. Craig Billington played in goal for the Avalanche and looked solid until he came up against the foe no player can beat -- referee Paul Stewart.

The fun began when Jersey's Petr Sykora scored a goal as he was being checked into Billington by defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre. Sykora bowled over Billington, who lost his stick and wound up with Sykora's in the process. Billington stood up and began shouting at Stewart that he'd been interfered with, and in the process realized he had the wrong stick -- which he promptly threw behind the net.

Bizarrely, Stewart -- who was in the corner, 90 degrees from the direction the stick had traveled -- concluded that Billington was tossing the lumber at him. A worthy target, maybe, but not true. Biller got ejected and promptly went apoplectic as he was led off the ice. Coach Marc Crawford went a bit crazy as well, screaming at Stewart for an explanation -- which he didn't receive, because Stewart stood on the other side of the ice, pretending that he didn't see Crawford.

As a footnote, general manager Pierre Lacroix stopped Stewart in the halls after the game and advised him to stick to doing beer commercials (a reference to Stewart's award-winning work for Bud Ice). And, a few days later, Billington received an apology from the league.

The Avs had a brief moment of glory in the game against Anaheim two nights later. Their new guy outshone the old guy -- Fitzgerald had two goals, including one shorthanded, while Marha had one -- and Patrick Roy looked sharp, but suffered a weird incident of his own.

In the third period, with the Avalanche leading 5-2, Roy went off the ice on a delayed penalty. Sandis Ozolinsh turned around and passed the puck back to Roy -- or, rather, where he thought Roy was. The puck went into the net, Ozolinsh felt stupid and Roy saw his save percentage drop a bit. First time you've seen that since the old Rockies' Rob Ramage shot it into his own net, right? Aw, I'm lying here, I don't remember that -- I was about seven. But I've heard it happened.

After that, things went downhill. The Avalanche looked pathetic against Boston, as former Avalanche prospect Anson Carter racked up two goals. Then things got a little crazy again. While killing a penalty, Avs defenseman Uwe Krupp fired a perfect shot into the corner of the net -- his own net. Two games, the Avalanche's top two defensemen scored on their own goalie. Frightening. Significantly shaken, in the third period Roy let a shot in that traveled about from Providence. The rest of the Avalanche looked crappy as well.

Of course, Detroit was next, and that's really what matters. It was almost a year after the famed brawl in Motown last season, and the media in the days leading up was filled with speculation -- would there be a repeat?

Yep.

Things stayed pretty peaceful early on, with only a Jeff Odgers-Darren McCarty skirmish in the first period. But Detroit's Sergei Fedorov scored two goals, the Avalanche could barely manage a shot on Chris Osgood, and Detroit looked significantly superior.

Then, in the third period, things finally went crazy. Colorado's Aaron Miller and Detroit's Martin Lapointe had been exchanging words all game, and it finally came to a head midway through the final period. The other players on the ice -- among them Keith Jones, Tom Fitzgerald, Sylvain Lefebvre and Warren Rychel -- all chose sparring partners and away they went.

Roy, meanwhile, left the crease to "help out" Fitzgerald, who had a Wing lying on him. Roy, remembering his pounding at Mike Vernon's hands last year, tried for a second to pull the Red Wing off the pile, then signaled for Osgood to come out and play. The two fought (described in a feature in this issue), Roy left the ice signaling (a debatable) victory to the hometown crowd, both were ejected (along with everyone else on the ice), and the insanity stopped. (For a few seconds. Then Francois Leroux attempted to goad Darren McCarty into a fight, then Adam Deadmarsh fought Brendan Shanahan.)

But aside from the sideshow, the game was maybe the low point of the Avalanche season. Dallas aside, everyone -- whether they admit it or not -- is still looking for a Colorado-Detroit playoff series. And the closeness of the score wasn't an indication -- the Avalanche got worked over.

The next night, in Chicago, they played without four of their top six scorers -- Forsberg, Sakic and Deadmarsh, who had injured himself against Detroit, and Claude Lemieux. Displeased with Lemieux's play of late, and especially his non-factor performance against the hated Red Wings, Crawford sat Lemieux. The undermanned Avs looked it and got edged by the Blackhawks.

Lemieux, needless to say, wasn't happy -- he said little but communicated his displeasure. Hopefully it'll spark him and he'll go into the playoffs with something to prove; equally hopefully, the always-tempestuous alternate captain won't become a cancer in the locker room.

Joe Sakic returned from injury against St. Louis, and promptly scored a goal. That's about the only good thing to say as Blues coach Joel Quenneville beat his old team for the first time. Oh, the Avalanche didn't score on themselves, that's a good thing.

Injury Roundup

Peter Forsberg was also expected to return against the Blues, but wasn't a hundred percent and decided to rest his aching groin another couple days. Fighting was also proving hazardous -- Adam Deadmarsh injured his shoulder fighting Brendan Shanahan in the Detroit game, then Francois Leroux, two games back from a torn rotator cuff, re-injured his shoulder fighting St. Louis' Kelly Chase.

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