Colorado Sports Fan Blog

The calm, happy-go-lucky attitude among Avalanche players Monday made it seem they are enjoying one of their best stretches of the season.

Of course, the opposite is true, as Colorado enters tonight’s game against Columbus having gone three games without a victory or a point.

“There’s no reason for us to panic. We’re a good team, and we’ll be better (tonight),” Avs coach Joe Sacco said. “It just comes down to hard work. There’s no secret to it. It’s just hard work, not squeezing the stick (and) being confident.”

The Avs’ recent problem is scoring, particularly from their top line and power-play units. First-line center Paul Stastny and linemates Wojtek Wolski and Chris Stewart are pointless in the three-game losing streak, and the power play is a combined 0-of-9 during that stretch.

After winning six consecutive games, the Avs have scored just three goals in their season-high losing streak.

“We know we need to score,” Stastny said. “When you get a chance, you have to bear down and get a gritty goal. We know the responsibility, and we know it’s a matter of time. We just have to stay positive and have short-term memory and forget about it, and just look forward.

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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The Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz traded comebacks in the fourth quarter before the least experienced player on either team completed the final rally.

Once Sundiata Gaines let go of his 3-pointer and the buzzer sounded Thursday night, there was no chance for the lead to change again. Utah 97, Cleveland 96.

It was the first career 3-pointer for Gaines, a rookie who was just signed last week to a 10-day contract and was playing only his fifth NBA game.

“He has a little swag in him and believes in himself,” said Carlos Boozer, who fouled out and had to watch Gaines’ winner from the bench. “I tell you what, he made us a believer in him, too.”

LeBron James had led the Cavaliers on a 22-4 run earlier in the fourth quarter and put the Cavs up by six with 32.5 seconds left, but Cleveland couldn’t clinch it from the free-throw line.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

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Keith Ballard knocked a second NHL goalie out of action within a week, only this time he got a face full of knuckles from Avalanche captain Adam Foote for it.

The Avs then missed out on a great chance to rub a victory in the faces of the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night, losing 6-5 in a shootout at BankAtlantic Center.

Avs goalie Craig Anderson, playing against his former team, was hurt and left the game in overtime after Ballard collided with him following a scoring attempt. Unlike Ballard’s inadvertent stick to the head of teammate Tomas Vokoun in Atlanta on Monday, Foote felt there was nothing accidental about the incident and pounded Ballard behind the net.

“From my view, it looked deliberate,” Foote said. “Whether he was trying to jar the puck loose, I don’t know. Whatever reason it was, it was deliberate.”

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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It is simply impossible not to like Peter Budaj. The kid is unfailingly polite to everyone, always credits others for any success he has and never ducks the media after a rough night.

That’s why it has been painful to see what Budaj has gone through this season with the Avalanche. He is the forgotten man, the goalie who never plays.

The Avs played their 28th game Monday night, a 3-0 victory against the Lightning. Budaj has started exactly two of them. His last start came Nov. 18 at Edmonton, a 6-4 loss in which he allowed five goals on 32 shots. In the three games he has played, his goals-against average is 4.29, and his save percentage is .855.

It’s clear that coach Joe Sacco doesn’t have much confidence in Budaj right now, though he prefers to paint the situation as simply a case of riding a hot goalie in Craig Anderson. Thing is, Anderson hadn’t been all that hot lately, entering Monday night’s game against Tampa Bay having allowed four or more goals in four of his previous five starts.

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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Sometimes, this is what it takes.

An embarrassment. A humiliation. Losing to a team so bad it is being compared to the worst squads in NBA history barely a month into the season.


“I would have liked to have come out of this with a win, and I would have said the same exact thing, but I think we did need this,” Chauncey Billups admitted afterward. “I don’t like losing, but I think we needed this.”

It was as if Billups had hopped a time machine and returned to the team he joined a little more than a year ago — a team of individual showmen, a team of one-on-one players, a team that thought it could shoot its way out of any hole, no matter how deep.

And why not? It had been doing it throughout this season’s first month. As if reliving its early run- and-gun days, the Nuggets went into Sunday night’s game second in the NBA in scoring at more than 109 points per game, five more than they averaged a year ago when they became acquainted with the concept of defense.

Click here to read the full article – By Dave Krieger of The Denver Post

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“The Avalanche didn’t practice Sunday before traveling to Florida, where it will face the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight to open a five-game road trip. But the plane ride gave Colorado coach Joe Sacco and his staff additional chance to ponder how to adjust in the wake of the loss of winger David Jones, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee Saturday night against Minnesota and will be out until at least late March.

“If you look around the league, this is happening everywhere,” Sacco said after arriving in Tampa on Sunday night. “Every team is dealing with injuries, whether it’s to role players or star players. The only way we deal with it is try to rally around it and make sure we get other players to step up and raise their level of play.”

Click here to read the full article – By Denver Post

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and other Colorado Avalanche Gifts and Collectibles
Below are links to memorabilia available for popular Colorado Avalanche players.

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Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton missed a third consecutive practice Friday with a sprained left ankle.

Coach Josh McDaniels said Orton’s availability for Sunday’s pivotal contest with San Diego will come down to a game-time decision.

Backup Chris Simms again took first-team practice repetitions, as he has all week in the absence of Orton, who was injured during last week’s 27-17 loss at Washington.

Simms is in line to make his first start since September 2006, when he suffered a life-threatening spleen injury while with Tampa Bay.


Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

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The Denver Nuggets confirmed Wednesday that forward Chris (Birdman) Andersen is day-to-day with moderate patellar tendinitis in his right knee.

Andersen has experienced soreness, so underwent an MRI in Denver.

Dr. Steve Traina said the test revealed no structural damage.

Also, guard Anthony Carter is listed as questionable for the Nuggets’ game Friday night against the Clippers in Los Angeles.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of cbc.ca

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