It is not looking good for Joe Sakic and his Colorado Avalanche. They are at least 5 points behind the Calgary Flames regardless what happens in Calgary's game tonight.
The Avalanche however, refuse to go down without a fight. They play every game like its their last, and if they do not make the playoffs, they could potentially set the record for highest points and not make the playoffs.
Considering the players Colorado has lost over the years, they are doing fine. Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg, Rob Blake, Adam Deadmarsh, Adam Foote, Chris Drury, Alex Tanguay, Mats Sundin, Owen Nolan, lets face it, the list goes on and on.
They are also making a push with a south par defensive lineup, two mediocre goaltenders, and a couple of kids. They do however have one distinct advantage over every team in the league, a captain with the heart of a Lion.
If there is anyone in the league that can squeeze a team into the playoffs, its Joe Sakic. He plays to the last second, and is showing no sign of slowing down with 91 points at the age of 37.
Paul Stastny has been putting up more points as of late, and has established him self as one of the elite rookies of the 2008-2007 season.
Realistically, for Colorado to make the playoffs, they need to win the rest of their games and hope Calgary loose the rest of theirs. They do have two games left against the Flames which could really help them make it in.
Key Players
The players that really need to perform are
Joe Sakic - the backbone of this franchise and they will only do as good as he does.
Paul Stastny - needs to keep on the score board for Colorado to win games.
Peter Budaj - their #1 guy since Theodore hasn't been too hot this season, really needs to shine for Colorado to have a chance.
If this were any other team making a push for the post season, I would say they wouldn't make it, but you can never count out Burnaby Joe and his Colorado Avalanche.
I was reading Eric Duhatschek's blog "The Hat On Hockey" and his latest post is very interesting.
He says that the western conference will go right down to the wire, the same as the east. Even though there are only two teams involved in the race, I agree with him.
In the east, we have New York, Long Island, Carolina, Toronto, Montreal, and now Tampa Bay fighting for the last two seeds while separated by five points.
In the west, we have Colorado and Calgary, also separated by 5 points while fighting for the last seed.
In all fairness to the east, which seems way more exciting to most hockey fans, I can't help but love seeing my old team make a run to squeeze into the post season once again. The one time power house is not all what it use to be but it has the heat back from the Forsberg, Deadmarsh, Dury days.
Calgary is a very exciting team to watch and I would like to see them in the post season, but then theres Joe, good ole Joe Sakic taking a group of kids and making another run for the post season. Thats what I call hockey.
The east race will be very exciting, but I cant wait to see if Sakic and company can find there way into another run for the cup.
