All Things Avs blog: tree falls in forest. film at eleven

http://blogs.denverpost.com/avs/2011/03/06/postgame-avs-oilers-15-out-of-16/6632/

The Avs-Oilers game, as seen from space.

In this blog entry we are treated to Dater's thoughts about the game featuring the Western Conference's two worst teams, the Oilers and the Avalanche. It would seem that the team with the worst record is not the worst team, as the Oilers had a disturbingly easy time with the Avalanche, winning 5-1.

Dater makes an attempt at an interesting introduction, and fares better than usual... if you can call a combination of Dater's late-night habits, Vince Lombardi, the Colorado Avalanche, and Charlie Sheen "better than usual." Unfortunately for his readers, we can.

Dater follows with some basic thoughts about the team having no confidence, being young, etc. Pretty standard, boring comments without any real insight, but that's S.O.P. for this blog. Dater picks on Erik Johnson a bit... apparently, Dater thinks that a 22-year-old kid in his first couple weeks with his new team should be a "leader type" and help turn the team around immediately, and so he plans to make a note of every time he fails to do so. I think Johnson will be just fine, but since Dater has already stated he is 'against' the trade that brought him here, he's apparently going to go out of his way to point out every time Johnson fails to excel (and, of course, every time Shatty and Stewart have great games). That's just the way Dater is... some people would call it a grotesque lack of objectivity, but around All Things Avs, it's par for the hole.

He also kind of throws Elliot under the bus, when really I can only remember one goal that was remotely his fault. As ignorant as Dater is of the finer points of hockey, he is especially ignorant about goaltending. It's not like the Oilers, even missing their best players, are the Colorado Eagles or something... they wouldn't be in the league, Dater, if they couldn't score. Also absent is any mention of Peter Budaj, who stepped in after the Oilers' fourth goal and played fairly well, giving up only a single goal on a shorthanded odd-man rush. This is notable not because Dater failed to say something positive about Budaj, but because Dater usually finds a way to blame Budaj for goals scored on shorthanded odd-man rushes.

He closes by explaining that "people's job security" will be in doubt if the Avs don't start winning. Well, yeah... Hannan, Stewart, Anderson, & Shattenkirk have already lost their jobs, and there will be more to come, I'm sure. But he quickly moves on to let us know he's talking specifically about Sacco here. As usual, Adrian hedges his bets... he says that "Sacco is definitely coming back" next season, but then he immediately says that if they keep losing, he may be fired. Dater really sticks his neck out with those predictions, doesn't he?

Nothing terribly interesting or informative in this blog entry, but other than Dater's typical lack of objectivity mixed with his lack of extensive hockey knowledge, there's nothing really notable worth complaining about, either.

C+