October this year belonged to the Colorado Avalanche, well not just October, but the season so far. As of the time of writing the Avs are 13-2-0 with 26 points and a .867 win %.

Right now based on the first 15 games of the season the Avalanche have nearly the best record in the NHL, only trailing the Ducks by 1 win. We have seen some amazing hockey coming out of Colorado this season especially in the first Avs game that I had the pleasure and torture of seeing in person, the October 21 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, I practically chewed my fingernails off during that game.

What has been going on with the Avalanche though, last season the Avalanche couldn’t win even if their lives depended on it but this year they can’t be stopped. Is it seriously  something as simple as clearing out the old regime and installing one hand selected by Patrick Roy. Because if it is that simple, why didn’t the Avs do that sooner. Because it would have been nice to see the Avs actually have a chance last year.

Personally I like what I am seeing this year and I will not complain about it. What’s nice to see is that the Avs success so far this season has not gone to Roy’s head. He plans to take it one game at a time, like he should, and not let the team rest on their laurels.

Nathan MacKinnon: To all the naysayers out there who did not believe that the Avs choice of Nathan MacKinnon as the first overall draft pick in 2013 draft, well look at his stats so far this season.

He has played in all 14 games so far racking up 2 goals and 7 assists for a total of 9 points on the season so far. Oh and he also has a plus 5 as well.  He looks good on the ice, and he seem to be taking well to the Avalanche. He can go really far with the Avalanche organization, especially if he stays on this learning curve that he is on. Now Seth Jones has been no slouch either in his debut NHL season, and only time will tell us for sure if the Avalanche made the right choice last year, but all the signs currently point to yes.

The Battle for Cole Harbour – Round 1: A couple of weeks ago I finally got to see my first Avs game in person (thanks to one very amazing uncle who managed to get seats for the game). It just happened to be against my second favorite NHL team the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was also the first game between the two Cole Harbour first round draft picks, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby.

What a game it was. The Avs kept taking penalty after penalty and Giguere kept blocking shot after shot that the Pens took against him (he was an impenetrable wall out there and that was amazing to see). The Penguins put forth an amazing effort and by all accounts they should have won. All in all it was one of the few times that I have had to enjoy a hockey game with my family, and the better team won, unless you talk to them. Crosby in particular had a number of shots on goal, but he could not find the back of Giguere’s net. Oh and the first round of the Battle for Cole Harbour goes to Nathan MacKinnon.

Semyon Varlamov: With all the good there has to be some bad. On October 30th, Semyon Varlamov turned himself into the Denver Police after a warrant was issued for his arrest. The warrant was for charges of kidnapping and assault.

According to the accusations against him, he had stomped on her and dragged her by her hair in a drunken rage leading to the young woman becoming unconscious. What I have not seen any evidence of is the kidnapping charge. He was arraigned the next morning and a low bond of $5000.00 was set, and he has been allowed to travel out of the state until trial. To me this seems to suggest that the system is actually working the way it is supposed and that Varlamov is being considered innocent until proven guilty.

What’s odd is that some Russians believe that this is a stunt by nefarious interests to ruin their chances at winning gold at the Sochi Olympics. To the Russian officials who said that, it is not an American government conspiracy, it is the State of Colorado that is charging him, and since the State of Colorado does not actually have any say in the Olympics I call BS on that. Some are saying that this is just a ploy for Varlamov’s girlfriend to take advantage of American laws. Personally, I am following the example of Roy and standing behind Varly until he has his day in court.

Patrick Bordeleau: As everyone knows I have a crush on a certain French-Canadian left wing enforcer who plays for the Avalanche.

And while I was happy to see that he was re-signed over the summer, but after seeing the new rules that are limiting the role of the enforcer, this does not bode well for Patrick Bordeleau.

I think that the team and him will have to work on transitioning him from a primary role of an enforcer to one of a goal producing forward. He has the talent, but he needs time on the ice to be able to develop those skills.  Otherwise the Avalanche have a player taking up more of the salary cap then they are worth. Hopefully Roy sees the value that Bordy can bring to the team if they can transition his primary role.

So after having an amazing Avstober what will November have in store for the boys in Colorado. Go AVS!!!

AHL UPDATE–My Lake Erie Monsters who are a game below .500 with a record of 5-6-0 (Mostly because we keep playing Calvin Pickard, gggggggrrrrrrrrrrr. And a much deserved congrats to the Utica Comets who had their first ever franchise win November 8th.)

I will come out and say it last year the Avs pretty much sucked. They pretty much finished dead last and I will not contest that point, nor will I call last year a rebuilding year, because it most definitely was not. They pretty much tried to make the best of another season that was destroyed by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, depleting the Monsters bench in the middle of a really good season. (The Monsters did really well, considering they had to rebuild the team in the middle of the season, if that hadn’t happened we would have made it to the playoffs.) What we need and what we hopefully have done is rebuilt the Avs.

So it is now a twice annual tradition for me to go on about a rebuilding season. The Avs have dismantled, adjusted, swapped, and replaced a large part of the machine in hopes of making this broken machine work once again. We can rebuild the Avalanche, we have the technology, better, stronger, faster.

The Front Office
One of the first things that the Avalanche did this offseason was to oust the current regime and brought in former players Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy to lead the boys in burgundy and white. In late June the Avs brought in former d-man Adam Foote as an assistant coach along with several others.

I hope that having Roy at the reins will put the team back on the winning path. I am certainly not expecting miracles this first year with Roy. But I do believe that he can get Avalanche off the last line of the NHL rankings and possibly to a Stanley Cup victory by the end of the 2014-2015 season. Now I don’t expect Roy to do for the Avalanche what Terry Francona did for the Indians, that would be an unrealistic expectation, besides the Avs aren’t as cursed as theTribe is.

The Players
The Avalanche made a number of moves over the summer some of which they have taken some heat for. The first move that caught my eye and most consider to be a minor deal that they spent too much on, was right wing/enforcer Patrick Bordeleau (my favorite player from the Lake Erie Monsters, and major crush). Signing Bordy to a multi-year contract shows what dedication to improving your game can do.

Then there was the first draft pick of Nathan MacKinnon over Seth Jones. Some people, ok most people still disagree with Roy’s decision to draft MacKinnon, but there is also the history of the draft to back that up. He did have a little rough patch during camp with a minor injury, but he is slated to be in the line up for opening night.

There wasn’t much in regards to the Avs on free agent day unlike most other teams. The only other huge player move for the Avs this summer was the trade for former Avs winger Alex Tanguay. There are also a few familiar faces from the Monsters roster that I can’t wait to see play for the big club.

My Predictions
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my expectations are going to be kept realistic. I definitely see the Avalanche not finishing dead last this year. Will we make it to the playoffs? Possibly, but not guaranteed. There were some big changes made in Colorado this year and it might be a bumpy start to the season to get through the growing pains. If anything we will fight to the very last and go down in a blaze of glory.

But who knows, seeing my beloved Tribe make it to the playoffs this year and the Browns having a much better record than the Steelers kinda gives me hope. Maybe I’ll even get to write about Cleveland finally breaking a few curses and see the Avs win the cup.

There has been some recent activity in the Avalanche organization in the past few weeks with the signing of not one but two integral “Pats” of the team.

Patrick Roy

Patrick Roy à une conférence de presse au Cégep Limoilou (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The biggest news to hit about the Avalanche was their signing of former netminder Patrick Roy as head coach and vice president of hockey operations. Yes, Avalanche fans you read that right, St. Patrick Roy is the new head coach of the Avs. To most with any knowledge of the Avalanche, the organization has toyed, unsuccessfully with this idea a few years ago, but this time they sealed the deal.

Roy is known for being the star goaltender of the Montreal Canadiens between 1985 and 1995. He was traded to the Avalanche in what has been coined “Le Trade” and is considered to be one of the most one-sided deals in NHL history thus leaving the Canadiens with the “Curse of St. Patrick”. During his time with the Avalanche he would be instrumental in helping the Avs win two Stanley Cups, won two President’s Trophies and be an integral part of the rivalry between the Avs and the Red Wings (how lucky for me Detroit, also a rival of every Cleveland sports team).

Since his tenure with the Avalanche ended in 2003 Roy spent his time as general manager and head-coach and will remain co-owner of the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League now that he is with the Avalanche once again.

Some people are worried that Roy will be a repeat of the time that Wayne Gretzky spent with the Phoenix Coyotes. But even though it is not on the same caliber as the NHL, he does come with experience in the QMJHL, which in my humble opinion is valuable experience and should not be written off. I think that besides bringing people back into the seats of the Pepsi Center he is just what we need to get the Avs playing at the caliber we need to win the cup once again. (As a side note I am not sure how much of this was Roy’s decision or not but it takes us to the second half of today’s article, the signing of left winger and my favorite player Patrick Bordeleau. Thank You! on behalf of every Avs/Monsters fan in Cleveland)

After the jump, the other Patrick…

Patrick Bordeleau

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The other big news in the Avalanche organization is that the team has signed left winger #58 Patrick Bordeleau to a three-year deal. Personally I have seen what Bordeleau is capable of during his time with the Avalanche AHL affiliate the Lake Erie Monsters (I FEEL LIKE A MONSTER!!!). During his three years he has brought more than his considerable size to the team. He was a fan favorite and was a huge (pun intended) part of the team both on and off the ice. He holds the record for career penalty minutes with the Monsters franchise at 435 minutes. During his last two seasons we saw teams start to think twice about having to fight Bordy. He also produced in the point department as well, last year between the Monsters and Avalanche he had a total of 4 goals and 8 assists for a total of 12 points to go along with 161 penalty minutes in a total of 75 games. Which is quite decent for a guy on the fourth line. To cap all of this off he has been improving with each season and is dedicated to the organization wether it be putting in his time in the
minors or his off-season dedication to self-improvement.

For a long time Bordy fan like myself and almost every Monsters fan out there, I am very happy to know that he won’t be going anywhere for the time being, even though it is near impossible to catch an Avalanche game in Cleveland, you are still our favorite Monster. This is also a good example for the younger generation that hard work and perseverance do pay off.

To close I would like to share some classic Bordy with this video. Enjoy!