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Pardon the rant. But for someone who personally
and professionally (ok so maybe we're not all that professional here at PJ)
placed a lot of faith in the Colorado Avalanche, this little diatribe has
been brewing for a while. Yes I own a bunch of them. Let's
start off with something easy. Firing Bob
Hartley was not the answer in Colorado. The blame for the debacle that is
the Avs' season rests squarely on Patrick
Roy's bulky shoulder pads. Don't get me wrong, he's still a great
goaltender... sometimes. The problem is that his ego continues to make
promises that his aging reflexes can't live up to. And that ego will also
prevent him playing any differently even though he could still be an
excellent backstop for another couple of years if he didn't need to make the
circus-like catch or play the puck when he should freeze it. But the problem
is that isn't Patrick
Roy. So whoever the heir apparent is behind the Avs bench (for the
moment it seems to be Tony Granato) he will need to realize this. He will
need to understand that the reason Colorado has a league-leading 14 overtime
appearances (1 Win, 4 Losses and 9 ties) is NOT because they miss Chris
Drury's game-winning goals (although more offense would probably have
helped). Offensively players like Sakic and Hejduk are on a better pace than
last season. They have Peter
Forsberg fairly healthy. And Derek
Morris (acquired in the Drury trade) is the Avs top-scoring d-man. Rob
Blake and Alex
Tanguay are glaring exceptions on the production front. Their offensive
and defensive production have been poor to say the least. But for a team on
pace for MORE goal production than last season (217 goals instead of 212)
generating offense is not the issue. Tomorrow morning Patrick
Roy needs to take a long look in the mirror before he steps on the ice
for practice with his new coach. He needs to accept a big chunk of the
respoinsibility for the Avs fighting for their playoff lives.
Fantasy-wise this change could provide the short term boost needed to
motivate Blake, Steven
Reinprecht, and Tanguay, but unless a coach is going to have a long talk with Roy or
tailor his defense to make up for Roy's shortcomings, the losing will
continue. |
