CrashingTheGoalie

by desert dawg

As opposed to my colleague, Ron Spence, I don’t have a real hate-on for Colorado. Edmonton, sure. Calgary, definitely. Minnesota, the plague.
But Colorado just hasn’t caused us enough grief these last few years. Sure they owned us last year, beat us when we really needed a victory at the end of last season. Pardon my arrogance, but those losses were more us than them.

And of course, they have Burnaby Joe. I liked that kid when he was lighting it up for the Lethbridge Broncos in the WHL….rookie of the year with 60 goals and 73 assists. Loved the kid when he was with the Nordique…and wasn’t he a Canuck killer even back then?

But no Joe tonight. He’s at home with an old man’s back.

So tonight is about what? Big Lou setting another record? Hansen returning? Wellwood scoring another beauty.

Nope, it’s all about the W.

And Luongo isn’ the only goaltender heading into the game with a shutout behind him. Peter Budaj has been playing lights out and he’s protecting a goose egg as well.

So tonight we head over to our friends, Jorge and Esperanza for a barbecue and some hockey. Jorge is the only Mexican-American that I know who watches hockey and his observations are usually quite unique, owing in part to his elemental understanding of the game of futebol (soccer). He moved to Los Angeles as a youngster and Wayne Gretzky captured his imagination as well. He was like a young Pele, he once told me. A true magician who changed the way the game is played.

Linda and Esperanza do not like hockey so we will have two and a half hours of the purest entertainment.
Jorge fills two drinking glasses with El Jimador and the game starts…
The Canuck layoff shows in the first, as the Avs are moving their legs and we are not. An early holding penalty could threaten big Lou’s record. But even though there are lots of shots, most are from the perimeter.

“The Colorado team needs to do more than that if they wish to score on the best goalie in the world,” Jorge says, filling our glasses again
But the first half of the period is all Colorado. “Someone needs to tell your Canucks the game has started,” Jorge says.

Just as we are nearing record territory, Big Lou robs young Stastny. The record looks safe. “Maybe the team, not Luongo, but the team… thinks too much about their Captain’s record,” Jorge says.

And it’s true, once the announcement is made that Lou is breaking new ground the Canucks amp it up. Jorge and I raise our glasses, toasting the best goalie in the world. A great shift by the Sedins forces the Avs to ice the puck twice. A couple of great chances but Budaj is up to the task. Kesler, Burrows and Hansen also cause some trouble but it is still scoreless. As a matter of fact, the period ends that way. Both teams generating very little in the way of offence.

“Maybe next period your Canucks can put the record aside and play hockey,” Jorge says.

I point out that we just had a layoff and it takes a while to get the legs going. Jorge raises his eyebrows, but says nothing but pours more tequila.
The Canucks are a different team in the second period. The Sedins dominate the entire period and Daniel particularly undresses Budaj with an outside-inside move, but inexplicably, his stick tops the puck and the Colorado defense shoot the puck out of harms way.

“Now Sedin, he has good hands, but you watch this Wellwood,” Jorge says. “He is a surgeon. His movements are exceedingly fine and he never panics.”
A few seconds later Wellwood sends a little saucer pass into the centre of the ice and Pyatt skates into it. It looks like Pyatt is hooked and muffs the shot, but the replay reveals that a slash broke Pyatt’s stick and he never actually got the shot.
Penalty shot.

I point out that it didn’t look like a penalty shot call. “It must have something to do with the broken stick,” Jorge nodds. “It prevented Pyatt from even getting a shot.”

But, it’s Pyatt, I think. Not exactly the guy that comes to mind when…Holy crap! Pyatt scores! They say it’s glove side but it looked five hole to me.
I tell Jorge this and he smiles and pours more Tequila. Five hole, glove side, it no longer matters. We are up one to nothing.
In many ways it’s an incredible period. We have another four close-in, glorious scoring chances, with “how did he miss?” type scenarios. One time John Michael Liles shoots the puck that I though Pyatt had shot wide, but the others are either Budaj…or just plain luck. Good luck for them, bad luck for us.

Wellwood continues to raise Jorge’s eyebrows. “This kid, he’s something.”

Hard to disagree. We end the period with three notable comments. One is Kesler continually being tossed from the face-off circle. Why? We cannot tell.
“Maybe he flirted with linesman’s girlfriend before the game,“ Jorge says.

Two, is Raymond’s ill timed- penalty 200 feet from his own goal. Man, the coaches hate those offensive zone hooking penalties. The face off on the penalty comes all the way down to our end and as Lou makes the final save of the period, we both realize at the same time…

We haven’t mentioned Lou’s record once.

A minute and a half into the third period, Stastney breaks the spell with a scrambly goal and the game is tied one-one.

The great shutout streak is over.

From there on in, it is a classic goaltenders’ battle. Both Big Lou and Budaj make some amazing saves. But the real game changer comes after one of those lame delay of game penalties that is called when an Avs player shoots it over the boards by accident.

“Your Don Cherry will comment about this stupidity,” Jorge says.

And the game changer? Well, it’s a three way passing play that Wellwood starts out by sending a quick pass to Daniel near the crease. Daniel then slides a behind the back, no-look pass to Henrik who one-times it past…no wait, Budaj makes an astounding save!

Aw, that’s just Budaj pretending he’s Luongo.

Late in the game we are treated to another delay of game call, this time Burrows sends it over the boards.

And this time Luongo pretends he’s Luongo.

We head to overtime. Both goalies are up for the challenge so nothing changes and we head into the shootout…

Well, you saw it, off the cross bar and in. Svatos wins it for the Avs.

A great goaltenders battle, certainly. But also, maybe the Avs aren’t as bad off as most people think in the goaltending department. Certainly Budaj is an improvement over the horrendous Theodore.

There is no room to move in this North West division. Any one of these five teams could win the division and do damage in the playoffs. And a good team or two might not make it that far. I stand up, a little unsteady, so I hand Linda the keys as we leave Jorge & Esperanzas. Tequila can do that to you. So can the race in the NW Division.

Buckle up folks, it should be quite a ride.