Evolving game story is .
And here:
Avalanche stops four-game slide with 4-1 victory over Dallas: by
— Colorado Avalanche (@avsnews)
Cody McLeod’s line: four shots, five hits, two blocked shots in 8:58. He was tossed from the game 6:22 into the third period after racking up 30 minutes of penalties. He had two fighting majors and absorbed a over-another-guy’s-shoulder sucker punch in a scrum from Jason Demers before both were given 10-minute misconducts. We aren’t sure why McLeod got the additional game misconduct, and the crowd of 18,087 didn’t want to see McLeod go.
So I figured I’d help bring him back to do the Altitude postgame No. 1 star interview — based primarily on his rugged play when he still had his skates on.
Helluva #1 Star pick tonight by , tip of the cap to you sir. Cody Mac brought the pain tonight and set the tone for the
— Austin Enney (@Austin_Enney)
Who would you have picked for the No. 1 star? The guys with one goal: Gabe Landeskog (changed from Nathan MacKinnon), Alex Tanguay, Jarome Iginla, Dennis Everberg? Everberg and Tanguay got their second points of the night in the final minute, long after my selections had to be made. Goalie Semyon Varlamov? He had 15 saves after two periods and 24 for the game, and was at best the No. 3 star. A defensemen or two were in the running — Brad Stuart and Nate Guenin — because both had assists and led the charge in front of Varlamov. But I settled on McLeod because hockey is a rugged sport, nobody plays as rugged as No. 55, and he played his role to perfection in all three periods. And, I’ll admit, I wanted to see the crowd’s response when McLeod came out of the dressing room in sweats. McLeod wears the “A” because he’s a great team guy. The fans love him too; he’s always the one guy who goes to battle every game.
Church Ladies in the media will get all preachy tomorrow about giving Cody 1st star, but he earned it!
— Winsor White (@wsquared3d)
Here’s Avs coach Patrick Roy talking about McLeod:
Cody McLeod tries to explain how a third-period scrum led to his game-misconduct 6:22 into the third period:
Brad Stuart took a hit to make a play. He collided with D-partner Nick Holden as he fired a slapper that was directed in off Jarome Iginla’s leg:
