Colorado Avalanche: Love Me or Love Me Not

Do the Colorado Avalanche love me or love me not? The only way to find out is to pick the petals off a flower.

I’ve fallen in and out of love with the Colorado Avalanche during this season. In honor of Valentine’s Day (and like most men on Valentine’s Day, I waited until the last minute to do this), how about we pick the petals off the flower and determine whether the Avs love me or love me not.

Love Me: Matt Duchene has been awesome since his slow start that got him hypothetically traded to every team in league. He’s by far the Avs’ most exciting and enthusiastic player. He genuinely loves to play the game of hockey, and you can see that on his face when he’s on the ice. His passion resonates with fans, and you can tell he loves playing for the team he grew up rooting for. Duchene is essentially an Avs fans currently living the dream.

Love Me Not: How many times can the Avs win when being outshot and generally outplayed. They’ve won the third most games (20) when being outshot by the opponent and only have eight wins to nine losses when they lead in shots. It’s frustrating watching the team run around in the defensive zone before Semyon Varlamov bails them out and relying almost exclusively on rush offense.

Love Me: The Stadium Series is nearly upon us. I don’t really care about the actual game that matters, but I’m super pumped for the Alumni game the day before. The Red Wings roster looked bleak at first, but they finally convinced the 90’s legends to lace up and challenge the Avs All-Timers.

Love Me Not: Home game are supposed to be fun to watch because the entire crowd is on your side. The only problem with that is the Avs aren’t very good at home. Fans have little to cheer about, leaving me with little to cheer about when I’m watching on my couch. As much as I enjoy the Avs silencing fans on the road, it sure would be nice to see the Pepsi Center come alive from time to time.

More from Mile High Sticking

Love Me: Believe it or not, the Avs are in the playoffs right now. Not only are they in the playoffs, but they have a decent lead on the first team out. It’s amazing to think about that given the team’s slow start and the fact that they seem to get outplayed every game, but it’s true. Somehow, like they’ve done for three seasons under Patrick Roy, the Avs find a way to win games.

Love Me Not: The Avs depth players are almost painful to watch. I know it can be tough to figure out who the depth guys are since Roy shuffles lines around like a deck of cards, but to me they are Andreas Martinsen, Chris Wagner, John Mitchell, and Cody McLeod. You can also throw in Alex Tanguay given the way he’s played this year. Those guys aren’t NHL caliber forwards for a playoff team, and hopefully the Avs can make a big move at the trade deadline to either acquire better depth players or acquire a top-level player that pushes some guys down the depth chart into their more natural role.

Love Me: Semyon Varlamov appears to be back in form. Buffalo game aside, he looks like the guy who was a Hart Trophy Candidate two seasons ago and carried the Avs to the Central Division title. I still don’t have a ton of confidence in him in a big game situation, but he has to keep up this level of play if the Avs have any hope of holding on to a Wild Card spot.

Love Me Not: Why are there not Avalalnche trade rumors? I love a good trade rumor, and with the deadline two weeks away, rumors should be heating up. And they have, sort of, but none of them involve the Avs. I have a hard time believing that a team headed by Roy and Joe Sakic, two guys who are always in “win now” mode, are satisfied with this team and aren’t looking to improve at any cost. They’ve got a few assets to dangle and plenty of needs.

Next: Colorado Avalanche Contracts Update

Love Me: Although the Avs aren’t in the center of too many rumors, the trade deadline is two weeks away and it’s always an exciting time around the league. My sources tell me that things might heat up in Denver in the next two weeks. Stay tuned.