Alternative Universe Avs (NHL w/ fictional players)

[BirdWatcher]

Having owned a few versions of FHM without ever doing much more than dabbling a little and then ignoring the game for long periods of time, for some reason I was inspired recently to try to tackle the game properly and see if I couldn't figure it out.

So with FHM7 (I'll get to FHM8 soon) I decided to create a fictional league with fictional players (this was a few weeks ago.) And I went through the initial draft, feeling good about the young talent I got while also being keenly aware that I didn't really know what I was doing. And after getting a feel for the team in the pre-season the regular season started with my team (the Detroit Lookouts, but you don't have to remember that bit) having the top ranked prospect list in the game.
I very purposely drafted young players with an eye to the future, my owner having stated rebuilding expectations so I didn't feel pressure to win now.
Now, here's the thing: I don't know much about hockey and even less about managing a team in a league with a salary cap. I was very careful to try to be fiscally responsible as I drafted, making sure I didn't exceed the cap. Well, no problem there. Way under cap. Now if only I had done a bit more research before-hand and also paid some attention to the salary floor. Because boy was I way under that sucker. So far under that not only could I not proceed with the season but after signing a few available free agents I realized that it would take heroic and unrealistic efforts for me to get above the floor. Chalk it up to a learning experience and move on.

Next league: this time I went with an NHL setup but with all fictional players. Not entirely on purpose I started the league with the players already assigned to teams, so no initial draft for me to botch this time. And I took over the fictional (Alternative Universe) Colorado Avalanche.

This is probably a good time for me to back up a bit and explain my personal hockey history. As a hockey fan, I am a great baseball fan. In other words, I really didn't grow up following hockey at all. My sport has always been baseball. But I had at least one good friend as a kid who was a big hockey fan. And hockey was intriguing to me as a mysterious other sports reality that was exciting and unknown. Growing up in south west Michigan, I would at times listen to Chicago Blackhawks games on the radio. So I was at least somewhat familiar with names like Stan Mikita, the Esposito brothers, and less famous players like Ted Bulley or Tom Lysiak, etc. But these brief forays into foreign territory never led me to learn much in depth about the game.

Then, much later, I moved to Denver in the mid-90's, in fact the same year the Avalanche arrived. And with that team being so good and exciting my hockey fandom got reignited in a more serious, adult way. There were countless hours of hanging out in a local pub with my buddies, watching the Avs compete in the playoffs over the course of several years. It was such a joy to watch Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Patrick Roy, Adam Foote and so many others, including later superstar defensemen (defencemen?) like Ray Bourque and Rob Blake. So I became at least an avid fan of the Avs for several years.
But I can't claim I ever became a sophisticated or terribly knowledgeable fan in the process. And then times became more difficult for the Avs and I got older and less prone to want to go out drinking with the guys and gradually grew away from the sport again.

Then I discovered OOTP about 5 years ago and it completely changed my sports gaming life (I was a life-long tabletop sports gamer: Strat-O-Matic, Replay, the various games put out by Denver-based Plaay Games, etc.) but there was so much more depth and challenge and engagement for me, as a diehard and lifelong baseball fan and self-described student of the game, in OOTP. I have been hooked ever since.

So naturally I have always felt that I should give FHM a chance too, and a little variety in my gaming can only be a good thing.

To jump forward again quite a bit (spoiler alert), I am now completing year 2 (2021-2022) of my fictional Avs save, currently in the second round of the playoffs. After I ended the 2020-2021 season I purchased FHM8 and transferred the save over.

I thought it might be interesting to share some stories from my league, my Avs, and mostly my experience as a relative newbie to both FHM and the sport of hockey. And that's why I am starting this thread.

This first post is mostly to set the scene. In the next few days I will post more about the team, about my trials and learning experiences, about some surprising and enjoyable early successes, etc. I hope in particular that this thread will provide some insights into what it is like to learn the game experientially and, I hope, to see how playing FHM can lead to increased understanding and enjoyment of the sport of hockey.

A few caveats: I won't always use the correct lingo. I often won't know what the heck I am talking about. I will be open about my failings, my learning curve, my moments of sudden realizations, my journey along this path of discovery. (For instance, I only just last night finally decided I had better look up what the goalie stat GSAA actually meant. Glad I did.)

And any guidance, feedback, advice, support that any of you wish to give will be much appreciated.

Now, Go Avs! (I almost said AlternaAvs, which was a potential title for this thread, but I decided that was just a bit too gimmicky. )

[BirdWatcher]

The team I inherited was neither particularly strong nor particularly weak, but I did start with the advantage of having at least three young promising players on the roster.

The defencemen (okay, the game uses Canadian spellings so I will attempt to as well) corps was a strong area, led by 24-year old left defenceman Thomas Dingle and 21-year old right defenseman Michal Lezak.
Dingle, out of Stewart Manor, New York, is a primarily a defense first defenseman, though he also has strong passing and puckhandling skills and is a decent 2-way defenceman.


Lezak, on the other hand, (a native of the Czech Republic), is a 2-way defenceman with a bit more offensive skill than Dingle.


Left Defence was probably the strongest area for the team, with 29-year old Robin Larsson a good rushing/mobile/2-way defenceman, also 29-year old (and another Czech player) Tomas Kovar with a similar profile, though less talented and a bit more old-school defenceman oriented, and the 30-year old durable Lee Eigts, another strong 2-way defenceman. I should probably also say that Larsson and Dingle are assistant captains 1 and 2 respectively.

Right Defence was a bit less deep after Lezak, though 33-year old Stephen McIntyre was a decent defensive defenceman, and 27-year old Dan Law was one of the few members of the defenceman corps who was mostly offensively oriented.

The offense was led by veteran Left Winger Brian Hughes, who excels as a speedy forward/perimeter shooter/counter-attacking forward, etc. Hughes is the most consistent goal scorer on the club but also generally provides quite good defense as well. Talent on the left wing thinned out quite a bit after that, but 29-year old Lukas Nordin was a pretty strong set-up man/counter-attacking forward with weaker defensive skills but very good physical skills, with acceleration being a strong point.


Center/Centre (okay, I might just need to mostly default to the American/USA spellings that come more naturally to me ) was not a great strength on the team, although 29-year old Jeremy Kelley was/is a fine and durable 2-way forward. Next on the depth chart at this position was our oldest player, the 36-year old James Joyal. Joyal is more of an offensive forward and a fine passer but he is heading well past his prime. Aiden Keene (27) and Andy Patrick (29) both profile as more offensive minded forwards and are acceptable, if unspectacular, 3rd and 4th line centers.

Right Wing is where one of the team's brightest young stars takes up shop. 25-year old Aleksandr Dugin is an ultra-durable playmaking offensive forward who also serves as the team Captain. Expect Dugin to have a bright future in the league. He is joined at Right Wing by fellow Russian Aleksandr Yermolayev (22), who is a 2-way forward with good checking skills, excellent puckhandling skills, great balance on his skates, and good mental attributes. Yermolayev doesn't look to ever be a superstar in the league but he is the kind of strong role-player/2nd line forward who really helps to take a team to the next level.


And I intended to get a lot farther in this post but I've gone a bit long and have run out of time (need to call my father now) so I'll leave it there and next time will pick up with a look at our Goaltending situation entering the first season and at some of the additions I made to the team and then start looking at how things worked out in our initial season.

Edit: I should have noted that the ages listed above are the ages of the players at the beginning of the 2020-2021 season whereas the ages shown in the images are their current ages.

[BirdWatcher]

Probably the biggest area of concern on the team when I took over was in net.
26-year old David Mencl, ostensibly our starting Goalie, looked like a useful backup at best, while our backup at that point, 29-year old Roman Badel appeared to be an AHL-level Goalkeeper at best (though he did end up playing 24 games for the Boston Bruins in the '21-22' season, and with not disastrous results).
My first thought was to look around the league to see if there were teams in the league with an excess at this position who we might be able to swing a trade with, likely giving up one of our Left Defenceman (trading from a strength). And there were a few teams that fit this description, though not many, and several teams looked to be in possibly even worse shape than us in this area.
I decided to rely on my strong Defencemen to protect the goalie well and not take on the contract of an aging Goalie. Instead I looked at the available free agents and found a young (24) Terry Ross who also profiled as a decent back-up if not really a legit starter. (Spoiler alert- this probably has been my best move yet though Ross does look like he has the potential to be very injury-prone.)


Feeling that I needed to strengthen the forward lines a bit I also signed Latvian free agent Center Nikolay Ivanov, an offensive forward with strong playmaking skills and great physical attributes. (As it turns out, he is also a big-game player.)

I also added 31-year old Right Winger (also a decent Left Winger) Antoine Poliquin, who has been a bit of a disappointment.

With the team basically in place, it was on to the first regular season for the Avs under my leadership. (This should have been stated way earlier in this thread- but I am serving as GM only. Jared Bednar remains the Head Coach.)

I won't go in to detail here about that first season, partly because I don't remember all of the details.
But the gist of it is that we were okay early, struggled a bit heading towards the 1st of the year, then gradually got stronger as the regular season wound down, ending up with the 3rd highest point total in the conference (104), finishing 2nd in the Central behind the Minnesota Wild (107 pts). The Avs record was 49-27-6.

Our leading goal scorer was Brian Hughes with 32 (league leader was Florida's Left Winger Michael Orr with 45), our leading assist man and total point leader was Aleksandr Dugin (29 goals, 58 assists, for 87 points). The NHL's leading assist man was veteran Minnesota Center Maksim Savastyanov with 74 and the points leader was Tristan Savoie, veteran Left Winger for the Carolina Hurricanes. (Savoie ended up winning both the Art Ross Trophy and the Mark Messier Leadership Award.)

Aleksandr Dugin was our one post-season award winner as he earned the Calder Trophy.
In net both Ross and Mencl performed better than expected, with Ross earning the primary starting role prior to mid-season only to struggle a bit down the stretch when Mencl took back that role and carried it into the playoffs. (In hindsight, this may have been an error by our coaching staff.)

The team, having finished the season strong in spite of being without the services of our best goal scorer Brian Hughes, (I don't remember the exact details, but he went down on the last day of 2020 and never returned to the active roster), fizzled in the first round of the playoffs, losing in 6 games to the Winnipeg Jets (who would then lose to the L.A. Kings in 6 games in the next round).
In the Eastern Conference the New York Islanders knocked off the top-seeded Boston Bruins in the conference finals while over in the Western Conference the surprising Edmonton Oilers (4th in the Pacific Division with 98 points) swept the even more surprising Los Angeles Kings (5th place in the Pacific, 94 points) to move on to the Stanley Cup Finals.

And then those under-dog Oilers capped off a great playoff run by sweeping the Islanders, who had finished the season in 2nd place in the Metropolitan Division with 99 points. Overall, the Oilers finished the post-season with a 16-3 record.

[BirdWatcher]

The Avalanche having had a largely successful season in 2020-2021, and with a core of young players (Dugin, Lezak, Dingle, Yermolayev) to build around and at least one veteran worth keeping around longer (Hughes), plus two young Goalies who showed more promise than expected, there were questions to be answered about which players to let walk as free agents, and how and where to spend available money on free agents on the market.

A small handful of players were allowed to move along, all over the age of 30, ranging from the mildly useful ( LD Lee Eigts, RD Stephen McIntyre, both of whom played a significant number of games elsewhere in the NHL during the 2021-2022 season, with Eigts having a rather fine season with Vancouver and playing in 70 games) to the borderline viable (LW Dale Donnelly, RD Matej Jerabek- both of whom played only in the AHL in 2021-2022.)

With some money to spend and roster space, the first thing the Avalanche did was to target one of the biggest name Right Defencemen on the market- Sherwood Sharp- who was coming off a 63 point, +20 season, and having led his team, the Edmonton Oilers, to the promised land, leading him to being awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy. In Sharp the Avs got a gifted offensive defenceman who also has 2-way skills and very strong physical gifts.


With a star signing out of the way, the team focused on picking up some more veteran, but not yet aged, players with useful skills to fill roles, largely on 2nd to 4th lines.
29-year old Left Winger Tommy Lockhart proved to be one of the better signings. This is jumping ahead a bit but I will note at this point that Lockhart played exclusively in the AHL in 2020-2021 and then gave the Avalanche 76 games in 2021-2022 in which he collected 42 points with a +14 goal difference. He was also very good in the first round of the playoffs.


Left Defenceman Luke Bosum was also a solid signing, profiles as being ultra-durable at age 27, and in addition to strong checking skills on defense he is also a strong rushing defenceman and point shooter. (Again, jumping ahead, after a fine season in Montreal before joining the Avs he had an ever better season with us, with 41 points (31 assists) and +15 in 65 games played.)


And finally, the Avs also added Right Defenceman Timothy Duffy. At age 28, Duffy was another player who was in the AHL the previous season. While Duffy did not provide as much value as any of the other free agency signings, with his solid checking and stickchecking skills, as well as strong puckhandling and passing, he is a useful role player who ended up appearing in 56 games.


Coming up next will be a look at the NHL Entry Draft and the Avs top picks.

Edit: Looking back through this post after posting it I notice that after Sharp our free agency signings were in reverse order in terms of how much we paid them and how much value they provided. Ah, well, on the whole it worked out at least.

[pauwoo]

Great start. I do enjoy a good Bird Dynasty! Good luck and let’s go Habs!

Been thinking about picking up FHM for a while now. Will be following along!

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by pauwoo

Great start. I do enjoy a good Bird Dynasty! Good luck and let’s go Habs!

Been thinking about picking up FHM for a while now. Will be following along!

Hey pauwoo, my friend.
Good to have you following along.

Things did not go well for your guys this season just ended as they finished in last place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 26-50-6 and an NHL worst (tied with San Jose) 58 points. But hey, at least they should have a chance to get at least one impact prospect in the upcoming draft.
The Canadiens do have one of the more talented young Goalies in 25-year old Gabriel Marchand, who was an All-Star in '20-'21.
And similar to my Avs their best players are two young defencemen who still have room for growth in their game (27-year old LD Eric Deveau, who was also an All-Star in '20-'21 but due to injury issues only played in 33 games this season, 25-year old RD Martin Liska, who they actually picked up off waivers from L.A. this past November), and also 26-year old Right Winger Martin Busmans who fell from a 44 point, +11 season in '20-'21 to a 29 point, -17 season in '21-'22. Busmans' average game rating though rose from 59 to 65 so likely the other stats were more about the team around him performing much less well in the just concluded season.

[BirdWatcher]

Going into my first ever Entry Draft I felt both excited and apprehensive.

(Having played OOTP for several years and somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000 hours, the annual amateur draft is one of my favorite things in the game. But I also 1)have played OOTP long enough to have a pretty good sense of how these things work, and 2) understand the logic of an MLB draft far better than I do an NHL draft.)

The very first pick of the draft went to the Chicago Blackhawks, who moved up in the lottery after finishing in 5th place in the Central with a record of 33-36-13 for 79 points. They chose Center Santa Salh from the Guelph Storm in the OHL. The offensively gifted Salh played in 76 games for Chicago, who improved to an NHL-best 61-16-5, 127 points in 2021-2022, only to fall to the St. Louis Blues in a 7-game heartbreaker in the first round of the playoffs. Salh played in 76 games this season for Chicago, collecting 22 goals to add to 23 assists with a +12 goal difference and an average game rating of 65. An impressive enough start for the youngster though not exactly setting the world on fire. Although Salh has the potential to be a great player there are indications that he will be very injury prone, although obviously that didn't show up in his rookie season.


With the 23rd pick of the first round we drafted our very first player ever and it was 18-year old Center (I'm sure he spells it Centre) Clark St. Croix from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the QMJHL. St. Croix profiles as a 2-way forward with good shooting accuracy, excellent stamina, strong faceoff skills as well as an advanced defensive read ability, and he is a strong team player. When drafted he was seen as a 1-star player with 5-star potential.



Our second round pick was Defenceman (nearly equal skills on either side of the ice) Craig Woodard, a Phoenix, Arizona native who was playing for the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League. Woodard is considered an offensive defenceman with tremendous shooting range and good offensive read abilities as well as good passing skills. On defense his positioning and stickchecking are his greatest strengths.



With our 3rd pick we took a chance on a young Goalie named J.T. Soronzonbold. He profiles as a standard Goalie who is a bit on the short (5'11") and stocky (206 lbs) side. Soronzonbold's stamina is good and he has good reflexes and handles rebound situations well but still needs a lot of development before he will be near NHL-ready. Our scouting staff does see him as being good under pressure, so that's a plus.

With our next 2 picks we got a couple of defensive defencemen in Gerald Murray and Adam Martizes. Murray has good positioning and shot blocking skills and his best physical trait is his acceleration on the ice. His shooting range and puckhandling are also strengths. Martizes is a strong checking defenceman and has excellent stamina but needs a great deal of improvement in most areas and his mental ratings are not great.

Center Matt Christian, our 6th round pick, also plays for the OHL's Oshawa Generals and he collected 49 points in 59 games with them this past season. Christian's strength is his shooting accuracy but he is also a good puckhandler.

And finally, the Avs chose another defenceman in Ash Naurato from the QMJHL. He profiles as a 2-way defenceman who plays well under pressure but at this point the consensus is that his ceiling is that of a fringe player in the NHL.

While how we really did won't be apparent for at least a few years, the initial reviews were not good, as we were considered to be among the three teams who had the worst drafts. And certainly our first two picks, in particular, were chosen by us earlier than they were expected to be taken.

On the other hand, both St. Croix and Woodard (the only two of the players drafted who have been signed to contracts by the Avs thus far) not only played well for the Colorado Eagles in the AHL this season but also ended up on the Avs active roster, where they remain for the playoffs.

St. Croix played 56 games as an Av this year, scoring 11 goals with 6 assists, was +7 with an average game rating of 61. Woodard played in just 14 games but had 4 assists (no goals), was +11, and had an average game rating of 62.
So while it's not like either took the league by storm, they both held their own in the first taste of NHL play at age 18 and are both now considered 1.5 star players with 4.5 star potential.

[BirdWatcher]

Once again, David Mencl started the season as the designated starting Goalie and once again he was outplayed early by Terry Ross who before long took over that role, this time not to relinquish it.

The Avs were streaky early in the 2021-2022 season. In the month of October they lost 4 straight and then followed that up with 5 straight wins, topped off with a 6-1 demolishing of the Detroit Red Wings, who had added superstar Left Defenceman Josh Wihak (who had won the Hart Trophy, the Norris Trophy, and the Ted Lindsay Award the previous season) as a free agent in the off-season and would go on to have the 2nd best record in the Eastern Conference with 102 points.

But much like 2020-2021 the Avs got stronger in the New Year and in March they had a very good month with 11 games ending in wins and only 3 going the wrong way, including being shutout out 3-0 by the lowly Montreal Canadiens. The month also featured a statement game when the Avs went into Chicago to face the NHL's best team and came away with a convincing 5-1 victory.

And although the Avs finished the regular season with a pair of losses- on the road against the New York Rangers and then a home game against St. Louis- they had already sewn up a playoff spot by then.

Here is a look at final standings:





And let's also look at some of the NHL player stats leaders:







Next post we will look at a bit more detail about Avalanche players performances as well as some other team news from the season.

[BirdWatcher]

Let's look at some team stats for the Avs as well as a few individual stats leaders:



As you can see, the team was quite good in most statistical categories, though our penalty killing certainly could have been better. We were clearly a very up-tempo, aggressive offensive team and took the most shots on goal per game of any team in the league. In the previous post there are also some interesting hints about our style of play as 6 of the 9 players with the most giveaways were Avs but also 5 of the top 9 in takeways also being Avs, including Brian Hughes leading the league in giveaways and placing 7th in takeaways. Hughes, it should be noted, had some great defensive games during the season, but also some very poor ones, while he was consistently tremendous offensively, finishing the season with the best offensive average game rating in the NHL.

Turning to our Goalies, playing time was still pretty split between Terry Ross, who appeared in 47 games (43 last season), and David Mencl, who was in 40 games (42 last season). Ross went 30-13-4 with a 2.37 GAA (7th best in the NHL), a .920 save percentage (8th), and a GSAA of 14.14 (7th).
Mencl wasn't as good, but wasn't really bad either- he was 17-17-1 (often played well in losses), with a 2.65 GAA, a .918 save percentage, and 9.42 GSAA.
I should also note that in the two seasons in which he has played for the Avs, Terry Ross ranks tied for 1st among all NHL goalies in GAA (2.50) and 2nd in save percentage at .920.

Players who had good seasons:

Brian Hughes, LW- I think we have pretty much covered this.
Aleksandr Dugin, RW- 24 goals, 37 assists, -11(?), GR: 71
Tommy Lockhart, LW- 16 goals, 26 assists, +14, GR: 68
Lukas Nordin, LW- 15 goals, 13 assists, +14, GR: 71- Nordin was quite good when healthy but went down with a Grade 3B concussion in mid-January and has been on the Injury List since then.
Sherwood Sharp, RD- 23 goals, 45 assists, +18, GR: 67
Aleksandr Yermolayev, RW- 16 goals, 47 assists, +31, GR: 67
Nikolay Ivanov, C- 23 goals, 39 assists, +19, GR: 66
Luke Bosum, LD- 10 goals, 31 assists, +15, GR: 65
Michal Lezak, RD- 13 goals, 25 assists, +8, GR:64 (actually a bit of a regression from 2020-2021, but still mostly solid).

Players that were not so good:

Jesse Shafer, RW- Shafer was acquired off the waiver wire in February for a bit of depth. He only played in 15 games, collected no points, was -5 with a GR of 56.
Andy Patrick, C- 7 goals, 9 assists, +6, GR: 58. The veteran Center wasn't horrible but with depth at the position and the team trying to get more playing time for top prospect Clark St. Croix, Patrick was traded to San Jose in February for San Jose's 5th round draft pick in the upcoming entry draft.
Dan Law, RD- 2 goals, 0 assists, +2, GR: 59. Law has spent much of the season in the AHL on the Colorado Eagles, having been pushed out of regular playing time by younger players.
James Joyal, C- The 38-year old Joyal had been a good player and he wasn't horrible this season- 9 goals, 12 assists, +8, GR: 59, but with one year left on his contract he is rapidly being pushed down the depth chart.


The team rewarded veteran star Brian Hughes and young rising star Aleksandr Dugin with contract extensions in mid-February. The 32-year old Hughes was extended through 2026 and the 26-year old team captain Dugin should remain an Av through 2028.


Having completed another successful regular season the Avalanche were rewarded with a first-round playoff matchup with the reigning Stanley Cup champs- the Edmonton Oilers- who come into the playoffs having won 9 straight games.
Next up, we'll see how that went.

[BirdWatcher]

And the answer to the question posed at the end of the previous post is, quite well, thanks!



The Avs, without home ice advantage, pretty easily dispatched the reigning Champs, Edmonton, with Terry Ross shutting things down in net (see Game 2 below), Tommy Lockhart, Brian Hughes, and Aleksandr Dugin leading the way on offense (and playing good d), and Tomas Dingle, who didn't have a great season, playing shutdown defense against the Oilers (80 DGR).

After the Avs got a stunning overtime win in Game 1 in Edmonton (an even strength goal for rookie Clark St. Croix assisted by old man James Joyal), it was probably the game 2 1-0 shutout in Edmonton that completely deflated the Oilers and foreshadowed the Avs eventual series victory.



Although Edmonton would battle back for a game 4 win in Denver when they scored 2 goals in the 3rd period for a 3-1 victory, the Avs wrapped things up with a 3-2 win on the road in game 5.

Next up: the Calgary Flames who went 46-30-6 for 98 points, finishing 3rd in the Pacific Division.

And that is where we are, all caught up.
I'll keep you posted, likely game to game at this point, for the rest of the playoff run for the Avs.

[BirdWatcher]

Well, this isn't a bad way to start the second round, and on the road too:








Our scouting staff says of Nikolay Ivanov: "the bigger the game the better Ivanov plays." And that does seem to be proving true.

Another strong game in net for Terry Ross as well.

[BirdWatcher]

On the negative side, we will be without star Right Defenceman Sherwood Sharp for Game 2.





Edit: Scratch that, he is hurt but by Game 2 he is available even though not 100% and he's going to play.

[BirdWatcher]

Okay, I'm trying not to get too excited- there is still plenty of series ahead, but another really nice road win puts the Avs up 2 games to none as we head to Denver for Game 3.

[BirdWatcher]

And sure enough, the Calgary Flames showed that they wouldn't be rolling over and playing dead in this series, as they outshot us 52 to 31 and scored 4 goals in the 3rd period to win 5-3.

[BirdWatcher]

It took a 3-goal flurry in the 3rd period, with 2 of them coming within a half minute of each other, and even then the Flames fought back late, but the Avs got the narrow 4-3 win at home to take a 3 games to 1 lead in the series.

The scene now shifts back to Calgary with the Avs needing just 1 win to move on to the Western Conference Finals!

[BirdWatcher]

The legend of Terry Ross continues to grow, as he stands on his head in a 1-0 shutout of the Calgary Flames on the road to clinch the series and send the Avs on to the Conference Finals!







Unsurprisingly, it is Nikolay Ivanov who scores the lone goal of the game, and that came in the first 3 minutes of the game.

The Denver defencemen corps was impressive in this one in support of Ross, with Robin Larsson and Sherwood Sharp in particular playing shutdown defense.

The Avs are the first team to move on from the second round and they await the outcome of the St. Louis versus Winnipeg series, which is currently tied at 2 games apiece. (Winnipeg is currently considered a potential rival for the Avs, so it would be interesting if they met in the Conference Finals.)

Over in the Eastern Conference, the Ottawa Senators hold a 3 games to 1 advantage over Philadelphia and the New York Rangers lead by the same margin over Tampa Bay.

[BirdWatcher]

In the end it was the St. Louis Blues, led by their 32-year old superstar Right Winger Stepan Hrdlicka, their 28-year old shutdown defenceman Jeffrey Copple, and their 23-year old Goalie (a Pueblo, Colorado native) Eugene Springer, who get by Winnipeg in 7 games.

It will be an interesting matchup of Goalies in the Conference Finals, as Springer is more highly rated than our guy Terry Ross and did have the 3rd best GSAA in the league at 12.17. His GAA of 2.68 was not as good as Ross' 2.37 and they had the same save percentage (.920). Springer played in quite a few more games (65) than Ross did (47) and had a record of 36-24-6.

Over in the Eastern Conference, we have a pair of underdog (4th seed) teams squaring off in the New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators. Ottawa just barely had a winning record this year, at 36-35-11 for 83 points. New York was certainly a bit better at 43-33-6 which netted them 92 points. (Actually the Western Conference also features two 4th seed teams, but the Avs 99 point regular season is the best of the 4 teams left, and St. Louis 91 certainly tops Ottawa by quite a bit.)

[BirdWatcher]

Stepan Hrdlicka helps lead the Blues to a road win in Denver as the Colorado-born kid Eugene Springer wins round 1 in the battle of the Goalies.

[BirdWatcher]

It is beginning to look like the magical playoff run for the Avs may be coming to an end, as they drop the first two at home to St. Louis.
And to add injury to insult, Left Winger Tommy Lockhart, who has been one of our best performers during the playoffs, is lost for 1-2 weeks with a sore Achilles Tendon.

[BirdWatcher]

The Avs battled back enough to send Game 3 to overtime, but then the great Stephan Hrdlicka 22 seconds into OT with his 11th goal of the playoffs.







I guess now we find out what these Avs are made of as they try to get back into the series only one loss away from elimination.