The Avalanche is a young and exciting team. They have great ownership and a great history. They are filled with former Washington Capitals that I am very fond of; Joe Sacco as coach; Kono as assistant coach; and Craig Billington as goaltender coach. Amazing. When I first bought the team and George McPhee signed Joe Sacco as a fourth line role player, I received a funny email. It said, “You are so stupid as a new owner. I bet you thought George was signing Joe Sakic but instead you got Joe Sacco.” Joe Sacco was a great teammate and a very tough, grind it out defensively sound player. He is doing a great job now as coach for the Avalanche. I responded, by the way, to the person who emailed me with that funny comment that I found it ironic that the Caps traded their first pick in the draft one year to get Dale Hunter and guess who that first pick turned into? Yep, Joe Sakic. A trade that served both parties quite well indeed.
The Avalanche is positioned to be a terrific team. Young and exciting. They are only four points behind us now in the overall NHL standings.
We played pretty good team hockey last night. We won the game 6-1. Everyone contributed which is important on the road. This is a tough trip: Toronto, Colorado, Vancouver and Edmonton. That is a lot of travel to a lot of hostile arenas and a lot of miles of wear and tear.
We ended up playing short handed as well. We will let the NHL determine whether the hit on Mike Green was kosher or not. It seems like the league wants to protect the players from head shots but some of the players play with such abandon or out of such frustration that head shots seem more and more common. Very unfortunate indeed.
Anyway, we go back to leading all of the NHL in points and we have a big lead in goals scored. We are all happy for Jose Theodore getting a win in Colorado was important for him and I think the team stepped up its play to show it support for him as a teammate.
I went to bed last night after midnight. These West Coast swing games are murder on the shut eye.
Tags: Colorado Avalanche, Hockey, Ted Leonsis, Ted's Take, Washington Capitals
After losing 2 of the last 3, the Caps had me scared. Last night’s game was fun, except for the very sleazy, goonish hit on Mike Green that was clearly, obviously, an intent to injure. I appreciate your calm on that — Boudreau was rightful angry if measured in his comments — but given how badly the Caps have been treated in situations not even remotely as serious, the idiot deserves a multi-game suspension. I thought the NHL was going to crack down on that kind of crap?
I am grateful that Green is okay! I would like to mention that I thought Kyle Wilson did a good job. I’m anxious to see how he does in the future!