Colorado Avalanche at Edmonton Oilers, Game 57 Breakdown

Colorado Avalanche
@ Edmonton Oilers

Friday, Feb 17, 2012, 7:30 PM MST
Rexall Place

Mile High Hockey

Avalanche at Oilers Preview of Dread - Mile High Hockey
The Avs continue their 3-game Canadian road trip of terror in Edmonton tonight taking on the 2nd to last place Oilers. The Avalanche have been playing fairly well of late, but not getting the results they need to get a skate in the playoff door. Both Erik Johnson and Semyon Varlamov (1-3-0 vs Oilers) are coming off strong performances Tuesday night. Johnson in particular has been a beast the past few games and is taking the sting out of the departure of Chris GD Stewart (the "GD" now stands for "goal decline").

Avs at the deadline - February
The trade deadline is an exciting time for any team and their fans, and I can only imagine agony for players and their families. There are less than 2 weeks until the NHL trade deadline. The Avs are on the playoff bubble, so what do they do?

Colorado Avalanche Roster Moves - Mile High Hockey
The Avalanche and Monsters have just announced that goalie Cedrick Dejardins and forward Mark Olver have been recalled from Lake Erie. Tyson Barrie has been reassigned. Moving Barrie isn't a surprise as the team had 8 healthy forwards defensemen with Ryan Wilson returning from the flu.

Ask the MHH expert. - Mile High Hockey
The first question comes from Quietstorm560. He wants an explanation of the three point games. Until recently all games were only worth two points, a win was worth two points wereas a loss was worth only one point. Now, as soon as a game gets into an overtime situation both teams get a point, then the winner gets another point. This leads to a theoritical three point game. Let's have an example:

Moore wins the first battle against Bertuzzi - Mile High Hockey
You may recall that not too long ago, Todd Bertuzzi, Orca Bay Hockey Ltd. (the company that owns the Vancouver Canucks) and Marc Crawford settled out of court their third-party lawsuits that came as a result of the $38 million civil suit Steve Moore filed against Bertuzzi for the sucker punch that ended Moore's career in 2004.

Magnus Paajarvi – Shawn Horcoff – Ales Hemsky
Taylor Hall – Sam Gagner – Jordan Eberle
Ryan Smyth – Eric Belanger – Ryan Jones
Ben Eager – Anton Lander – Lennart Petrell

Ladislav Smid – Jeff Petry
Ryan Whitney – Cam Barker
Andy Sutton – Tom Gilbert

Nikolai Khabibulin

G57 Avalanche at Oilers - Lowetide
The Nuge has been out for so long I can barely remember the sublime passes, the sixth sense around the net and the anticipation that bordered on Keonesque. I sure hope he returns, my short term memory isn’t what it was, well, awhile back. I think the Oilers probably have three keepers up front in Hall, RNH and Jordan Eberle, plus Sam Gagner has done a lot to impress lately. I’d like to remind you that last season’s 5×5/60 for Gags (1.91) looks fine next to this year’s number (2.33).

Today's Frustrated Edmonton Fan: bpolivchuk

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