Denver Post sports writer Adrian Dater posts his Avs Mailbag each Wednesday during the 2006-07 NHL season on DenverPost.com.
To drop a question into the Avs Mailbag or visit DenverPost.com’s .
Name two or three go-to guys for quotes. The Minnesota Wild beat writers really miss Andrew Brunette’s honest assessments, good or not so good.
— Mary, St. Paul, Minn.
Mary – Couldn’t have picked a better guy than Bruno. Yes, he’s No. 1 on my list of go-to guys on the Avs right now, just ahead of Ian Laperriere and Joe Sakic.
Brunette is great with the media and really sizes up a game well. He’s honest, doesn’t sugarcoat anything and gives you all the time you need.
Brunette is a big sports fan, period. You can talk to him about more than just hockey. He’s a big Toronto Blue Jays fan, and, like me, a fantasy-baseball geek.
I have a bet right now with him: if Roger Clemens goes to the Yankees, I have to buy a vintage Blue Jays jersey for him – and wear it in the locker room in front of everybody first. If he goes to the Red Sox, he has to buy a vintage Sox jersey for me and wear it. He thinks Clemens will be a Yankee again. He better not be right.
It’s the same kind of bet that I beat Sakic with a few years ago. He bet me the Mariners would beat out the Sawx for the wild card. I won, so he had to buy a Nomar Garciaparra jersey and wear it in the room, then gave it to me. I wear it on occasion in the room still, just to
remind Sakic of his big loss.
Hi, Adrian. Is Pierre Lacroix still actively involved with the team or does he have more of an advisory role with the club. Thanks.
— Brian Levesque, St. Catharines, Ontario
Brian – Yes, he’s still involved with the team. He retains the title of president, and he was with the team on its recent road trip through Chicago and Edmonton. You don’t see him around the building nearly as much as you used to, but he’s still a big part of the Avs’ management
team, which is a good thing.
Throughout college, Paul Stastny used a wooden stick. Is he still using wood?
— Curt Ledall, Eaton
Curt – Yes, he is. He’s one of the few that still does.
Hey, Adrian. What do you think is missing from this team? It looks like they’re missing a big grinder (like Steve Konowalchuk). What’s your take on this? Is there anybody on the market who you think the Avs would or should go after?
— Aaron Musick, Westminster
Aaron – Yeah, there’s no question they miss Konowalchuk’s grit and leadership presence. Fortunately, Kono is now part of the Avs’ management team, in their player-development department. He’s usually at Avs home games, up in the management suite with people like Francois Giguere, Michel Goulet and Craig Billington.
A power forward would be a nice addition to this current Avs team. But they’re pretty tough to find, at least those who can still play. John LeClair is available, but hasn’t found any takers since being waived by the Penguins. Apparently, people think he’s washed up.
I think the Avs need an upgrade on defense more than a power forward, however. It would be nice for the Avs to have Jordan Leopold around, but he’s hurt again and probably will be out until at least mid-January, probably longer.
When will the NHL switch back to the hometown team wearing the white jerseys? I thought that the road jerseys at home was just a one-year deal.
— Frank Sandro, WaterColor, Fla.
Frank – No, it’s been going on the third year now. I agree, I’d rather see the home team wear white, the road team wear dark colors. The league switched to the color change mostly because of the number of teams now that wear “third” jerseys at home. Teams had to pack two full sets of uniforms sometimes when the home squad wore their third getups. I’m not aware of any pressing matter on getting the uniforms changed again, but if more fans squawk, the league might do something.
Adrian, I’ve always been fascinated with uniform numbers and read the other day that Aaron Miller wore No. 31 for the Colorado Avalanche for five games before converting to his No. 3. Do you know of any other uniform numbers like that, that the typical Colorado Avalanche nerd wouldn’t know? Thanks!
— Chad Lysohirka, Maple Ridge, British Columbia
Chad – Yeah, lots of guys have worn a couple of different numbers – including just this year when Paul Stastny switched from No. 62 to 26, and John Liles from 26 to 4.
Remember when Chris Drury wore No. 37 his first couple years in the league, then switched to 18 when Adam Deadmarsh was traded? Or, that Alex Tanguay wore No. 40 for a long time before getting No. 18 when Drury was dealt?
Lots of guys switch uniform numbers when the team acquires a veteran star player, whose number they were wearing at the time. It’s a kind of unwritten rule that a star veteran who goes to a new team gets his longtime number, if it is being worn by a younger player.
Joe Sakic wore No. 88 as a rookie with the Quebec Nordiques, but offered it to Eric Lindros when he was drafted, and later just went with No. 19 full time, even when Lindros refused to go to Quebec.
What is the word on Jordan Leopold? Is he possibly hurt worse than they are letting on?
— Smitty, Littleton
Smitty – Anything’s possible when it comes to injuries. You always have to take a team’s word at your peril when being given a diagnosis. But I don’t think he’s hurt too much worse than the team is letting on at the moment. He had a pretty bad groin pull apparently, trying to stay onsides in his fifth game back from a previous hernia injury. The Avs say the two injuries are unrelated, and usually they are pretty straight up about regular-season injuries, so we’ll just have to go with that for now. The team said he won’t be back any sooner than mid-to-late January, and doesn’t have any definite prognosis beyond that yet.
Do you think the eight-games-in-your-division schedule is having a profound impact on standings? It hurts teams in the Northwest because we are playing very tough opponents during those games. Meanwhile, Nashville and Detroit have 27 guaranteed games against opponents with losing records.
— Brandon Neill, Arvada
Brandon – Yes, of course it has an impact. It had a pretty big impact last season, too, with Detroit having lots of cupcake games on their schedule.
But Chicago and Columbus are better teams right now than they were last year, so they don’t have as many bunnies as they did. St. Louis is an awful team, but even the Blues have won three in a row right now for new coach Andy Murray. So, things are tougher there now, too.
You could argue that the Northwest is actually one of the weaker divisions in the league right now. I don’t believe that personally, but the fact is every team is hovering around .500. There doesn’t seem to be one true powerhouse in the division, so Wings fans might say, “The Avs get lots of winnable games against teams in their division now, too.”
Three things:
1. Great work on calling passengers out on getting out of the aisle.
2. Sorry, but I paid good money for that uncomfortable seat. I don’t care if Shaq is behind me, I’m reclining it back as much as I can. Complain to the airlines, not me.
3. You say that the Avs know that they’re not that good. Poppycock. They’ve scored more goals than anyone in the Western Conference except San Jose, Anaheim and Nashville. They’ve beaten Anaheim and S.J. and can play with anybody. They’ve got incredibly deep offensive talent. What kills them is defense – and defense is more about grit, aggressiveness, hustle, desire and positioning than talent. It’s not a lack of talent that is dooming the Avs to mediocrity; it’s their inability to hold a lead. A better defensive mind-set (and goaltending) could catapult this team into a contender.
— Dave, Denver
Dave – First off, if you’re the one leaning back into my lap on a plane, just don’t mind the occasional jab to the spinal cord with my knee that I’ve been known to throw. I figure a little sharp discomfort for a second or two is a good price to pay for the two hours of discomfort I get thanks to people who think airline seats have to be just as comfy
as their living-room Barcaloungers, no matter who they inconvenience to do it.
I agree that defense is the primary weakness of this team. But the players know that, too, I’d be willing to wager. They won’t say that, but like I was saying before, players always know if their team is a contender or not. I wasn’t saying before that players believe they’re
not that good because they can’t score goals. They know it for some of the reasons you just discussed. The fact is, they do have trouble holding leads (look at the Edmonton game last week), and they have a hard time keeping teams to three goals or less. They’ve been a bit
better of late, but here come some tough games again on the schedule, starting with .
Adrian Dater can be heard every Wednesday from 4-5 p.m. for “The Puck Stops Here” on KLZ 560 AM. Adrian has covered the Colorado Avalanche since the team moved to Denver in 1995. To drop a question into his Avs Mailbag or visit DenverPost.com’s .
