Characters From Avalanche-Blues Match

The Colorado Avalanche hosted the divisional rival St. Louis Blues at Pepsi Center last night. It was a big match that the Avalanche needed to win against the team they not only struggled with all last season, but the one that had signed former Colorado center Paul Stastny in free agency.

Despite getting outshot 42 to 25, the Avalanche squeaked out a point by getting the game to overtime. Unfortunately, the Blues dominated puck possession in the overtime, and got the game winner 1:03 into the extra hockey.

The Avalanche-Blues game can best be summed up according to the characters who made the match.

Pickard is a Monster

It is no longer a question of whether rookie goalie Calvin Pickard has earned the #2 spot in Colorado — that became obvious when head coach Patrick Roy started him over Reto Berra when Semyon Varmlamov went down with a strained groin again. The question now is whether Varlamov is going to remain #1.

Pickard stopped 39 of 42 shots. 42 shots — this rookie stopped 39 shots from the likes of TJ Oshie (4), David Backes (6) and Vladimir Tarasenko (5). Ok, one of Oshie’s shots got in, and it was the overtime winner, but Picks still stopped 39 of the 42 shots he faced.

The question now becomes whether Varlamov is going to remain the true #1, or is he going to have to share the job with Pickard? Because our Picks is a monster in net.

Johnson is a Beast

It’s hard to put into words how big a night Erik Johnson had for the Avalanche. He scored their only two goals. He is a beast.

Seriously, there’s not much more to say. No one had greater ice time than he did. No one had more shots on goal. (Landeskog had the same amount — we’ll get to that.) No one had more goals. Johnson is having a career season and has more than proven himself the cornerstone of the Avalanche’s defense.

Landeskog is Snake Bait

At a certain point that snake has got to stop biting Landeskog on the, ah, shorts, right? Every night he records the most shots on goal, or top shots on goal, and every night he gets denied.

Landeskog has 98 shots on goal. The next closest is Nathan MacKinnon with 89. Yet Landeskog has only seven goals. He’s doing great with points because he has an assist or two in a lot of games. However, he hasn’t scored a goal since November 29.

Anyone got a snake trap?

Stastny is a Ghost

Remember when Paul Stastny was a huge fan favorite? Yeah, no one in Pepsi Center does either.

Stastny played second (or third) fiddle to John Michael Liles, Milan Hejduk, Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon in terms of popularity and even importance to the team. He had offerings — it’s just that other players had more to give.

Stastny as antagonist is no more effective than Stastny as hero. We Avs fans managed a few boos early in the game. However, as he continued to play ineffectively against his former team — one shot, no goals, no assists, no blocks, no takeaways — the Avs Nation forgot to notice him. Kind of like we always did in the past.

Blues Fans are Mental

St. Louis Blues fans fight each other at the beginning of the third period in Pepsi Center.

First of all, you are a major a-hole of the highest order if you attempt to take over another team’s arena. Have a little class. Especially if you’re not even from that market.

That said, St.Louis Blues fans are the most mental of the bunch. They actually spit on and eventually fight each other. EACH OTHER. It would be somewhat understandable if they got into it with fans from rival teams. But St. Louis Blues fans actually got into fisticuffs with each other at the start of the third period. Mental.

By the way, Blues fans with your yowling in Pepsi Center, the Avs Nation can’t hear you because our two Stanley Cup banners are plugging our ears.