Back in the day with the Avalanche, no matter how much trouble some players got the team into, it seemed one of the big stars would always get them out of it.
A defenseman turning the puck over in a tight game was no big deal. Patrick Roy would bail him out. A third-line forward in the midst of a prolonged scoring slump was no worry. Peter Forsberg or Joe Sakic would come to the rescue.
The byproduct of such star-studded teams was for the supporting cast to feel minimized at times. While Avs teams always seemed to have good chemistry, sometimes a class division existed in the dressing room: stars on one side, scrubs on the other.
“I think the camaraderie on this team is – I don’t want to say better than others of the past – but different in that we’ve had to have everybody to win. Whereas before, you did tend to rely on a Peter or a Joe to make the big plays,” said winger Dan Hinote, who has been with the Avalanche since 1999. “It’s nice to have production from all four lines and know that each player is a very important part of the team.”
Where the Avalanche has lacked in star power this season, it has compensated with scrappiness and work ethic. This was not a team that could skate by on its talent, as in the past. It was a team that could not take a night off from doing the tough, little things and still win.
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AVALANCHE vs. STARS
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The Avs have two of the league’s top-10 shot-blockers. Karlis Skrastins ranks second with 207, and Rob Blake is eighth with 175. The Avs also have three of the top 10 in steals with Blake leading the league with 89. Colorado defensemen picked up the scoring slack with 52 goals, tied for most in the NHL. The Avs penalty-killing unit was sixth overall. And the team boasted six players with 20 or more goals.
The Avs of the past were like monarch butterflies, elegantly flitting around opponents in circles. The Avs of the present are more like a hive of worker bees, struggling to make just enough honey to survive.
“I think we’re a tough team to play against,” Hinote said. “We’re a good skating team, and we’ll finish our checks. We forecheck hard and do a lot of the little but important things well, like get the puck in deep, etc.”
And yet, it was not like the Avs of this season were a boring, trapping team that won 2-1 every night. Detroit was the only Western Conference team to score more goals (305) than the Avs, and Colorado finished fourth overall in league scoring with 283. The NHL’s new rules aided scoring, but nobody expected the Avs to be one of the teams that would most benefit – especially after the loss of stars Forsberg, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne.
Perhaps because of those departures, former role players such as Ian Laperriere, Antti Laaksonen, Marek Svatos, Brett Clark and Andrew Brunette saw themselves as more important players and had career years.
“In the past, there were always two lines that were doing all the scoring,” left wing Alex Tanguay said. “This year, it’s been a little more spread out throughout the lineup. But we knew at the start of the year, losing a lot of high-priced players and a lot of talent, that it was going to be different. When we play a good team game, we’re as capable as any team in the league right now.”
Laperriere, a likable veteran from Montreal, embodies this team. He’s tough, works hard and has the skill to show off a bit, too.
“But we still had our leaders on this team leading us,” said Laperriere, who scored a career-high 21 goals. He cited Sakic, Tanguay and Blake as examples.
“For sure, we don’t have as much skill as we did before,” Laperriere said. “It’s tough to take a Peter Forsberg away. But as a team, we did a pretty good job of getting everybody to chip in here and there. This team was very close.”
With the playoffs at hand, skeptics will question whether these Avs can win. History says they can, but it’s the star-studded teams that usually win the Stanley Cup over the scrappier, less-talented ones. But who would have predicted Minnesota, a team with the lowest payroll in the NHL in 2002-03, would beat the big-dollar Avs in the first round, as it did? Nobody thought the Florida Panthers could make the Finals in 1996, but they did. Nobody thought Calgary could in 2004, either.
Brunette, whose overtime goal beat the Avs in Game 7 for Minnesota in 2003, said no team without significant talent can win a Stanley Cup. But no amount of talent can overcome a lack of work ethic, either. He said the Avs have a nice mixture of both.
“Since the first of the year, we’ve been in pretty much every hockey game,” Brunette said. “That, I think, shows our commitment as a team. I think we’ve been a team that has come to play every night and has a shot to win every game we play. I don’t see why that would change in the playoffs. We just have to keep doing the things that got us here, only maybe try to raise our level of play that much more.”
Sakic, who has been with the Avs organization since 1988, said this season’s team has been one of the more enjoyable.
“I like how we compete every night,” Sakic said. “Maybe this team didn’t have some of the stars of the past, but we play a good team game and work hard. Not that we didn’t in the past, but we know we have to work hard to win hockey games. It’s been a fun year for everybody.”
Asked how he would sum up the team’s personality, Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville listed competitiveness first.
“It’s a competitive team, with great leadership and some nice pieces in place,” Quenneville said. “I think we got contributions from across the board, which has been nice. It’s been good.”
Doing the dirty work
A list of some statistical categories assocaited with “scrappy” players and/or teams:
BLOCKED SHOTS
1. Jay McKee, Buffalo 241
2. Karlis Skrastins, Colorado 207
3. Colin White, New Jersey 199
4. Andy Sutton, Atlanta 195
5. Niclas Havelid, Atlanta 192
6. Anton Volchenkov, Ottawa 189
7. Jason Smith, Edmonton 176
8. Rob Blake, Colorado 175
9. Toni Lydman, Buffalo 174
10. Mark Eaton, Nashville 170
PENALTY-KILLING PERCENTAGE
1. Minnesota 87.4
2. Buffalo 86.4
3. Detroit 85.7
4. Nashville 84.8
5. Ottawa 84.6
6. Colorado 84.6
7. Calgary 84.2
8. Edmonton 84.1
9. New York Rangers 84
10. Dallas 84
STEALS
1. Rob Blake, Colorado 89
2. John Madden, New Jersey 84
3. Sheldon Souray, Montreal 83
4. Antti Laaksonen, Colorado 80
5. Andrei Markov, Montreal 79
6. Mike Modano, Dallas 79
7. Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa 75
8. Marian Hossa, Atlanta 75
9. Ian Laperriere, Colorado 74
10. Stu Barnes, Dallas 73
Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
