Avs Look to Halt Losing Streak Vs. Rangers

After suffering from serious lethargic symptoms brought on by the snoozefest that is Minnesota Wild hockey, the Avs had no time to grieve the loss of their winning streak. They got on a plane and flew to Dallas, to face the Stars the next night. Mike Modano felt no sympathy, and got his revenge against the Avs by scoring twice en route to a 3-2 victory for the Stars, sending the Avs on their way with a lightning-quick two game losing streak.

Meanwhile, Vancouver continues its winning ways, making a remarkable comeback against the Toronto Maple Leafs. After Luongo got pulled after a 3-0 first period, the Canucks came roaring back with four goals in the 3rd to win the game 5-3. Coincidentally, that loss triggered a chain of events that amounted to Maple Leafs’ GM Brian Burke to swing a blockbuster trade with Avs’ division rival, the Calgary Flames.

This trade basically breaks down to Toronto sending a couple forwards and a solid d man in Ian White, and in return, the Flames shipped Dion Phaneuf, a role player, and a prospect. I don’t care what anybody says about  the type of season that Dion’s been having in Calgary this year, make no mistake about it, the Calgary Flames just traded their franchise defenseman away essentially for spare parts. I’m absolutely in love with this trade! The fact that Dion Phaneuf, a Norris Trophy finalist and still only 24 years old is no longer playing in our division, or even our conference is something that every Avs fan should rejoice! I’ll gladly face Ian White and Niklas Hagman if it means I don’t have to see our boys trying to block those rockets from the point on the penalty kill or taking those hits six times a year. Now, if only Vancouver would trade Roberto Luongo to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 5th round draft pick…

Anyways, back to the Avs, who have twice given up a lead in the waning minutes of the game to lose. Now we find ourselves in 6th place in the conference and only five points away from 9th place.  But the good news is, we are playing the New York Rangers tonight, a team that’s got some star power with the likes of Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist, but also a team that lacks offense past Gaborik. They’ve lost five in a row at this point, and it’ll be interesting to see the matchup of Gaborik and Foote again. As I’m sure most of you remember, Foote kept Gaborik in check and held him to a single assist two years ago in the playoffs when the Avs defeated the Wild in six games.

With rookie Ryan Stoa being injured early in the Dallas game, the Avs will likely activate Marek Svatos for the game tonight vs. the New York Rangers.

NOTE: Nevermind about Svatos. The Avs opted to go with rookie Justin Mercier, who’s got seven goals in forty games with the Avs’ AHL affiliate, Lake Erie Monsters. If this isn’t injury related, we really need to just move Svatos already. His value is just going to continue to plummet the longer we wait.