head coach: Marc Crawford

roster: C - Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Mike Ricci, Stephane Yelle, Jari Kurri. LW - Valeri Kamensky, Rene Corbet, Eric Lacroix. RW - Claude Lemieux, Adam Deadmarsh, Keith Jones, Jeff Odgers. D - Sandis Ozolinsh, Sylvain Lefebvre, Uwe Krupp, Adam Foote, Alexei Gusarov, Jon Klemm, Aaron Miller, Eric Messier, Francois Leroux, Pascal Trepanier. G - Patrick Roy, Craig Billington.

injuries: Sandis Ozolinsh, d (knee, day-to-day); Jon Klemm, d (thumb, mid-November); Keith Jones, rw (knee, late November); Wade Belak, d (shoulder, early February).

transactions: Assigned Josef Marha, c, and Yves Sarault, lw, to Hershey (AHL). Recalled Christian Matte, rw, from Hershey. Assigned Matte to Hershey.

standings:

Western Conference - Pacific Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
Colorado     21  10   5   6    26   61   52
Los Angeles  21   9   8   4    22   72   60
Anaheim      21   8   8   5    21   54   59
Edmonton     21   5  11   5    15   49   73
San Jose     21   6  14   1    13   53   69
Vancouver    21   5  13   3    13   53   74
Calgary      21   3  13   5    11   53   71

game results:

11/05 NY Rangers      L 4-2
11/08 St. Louis       W 4-1
11/11 at Detroit      W 2-0
11/13 at Philadelphia W 2-1
11/14 at New Jersey   L 4-1
11/16 at NY Rangers   L 4-1

team news:

by Greg D’Avis, Colorado Correspondent

If nothing else, recent games have shown the Avalanche's ability to deal with adversity. Missing their leading scorer and top power-play producer as Peter Forsberg and Sandis Ozolinsh spent time on the ever-growing injured list, and reeling from a couple weeks of uninspired play, the team went on the most difficult road trip possible - Detroit, Philadelphia and New Jersey in three days - and acquitted themselves well.

November began poorly as the team followed up a listless performance against Calgary with possibly its worst game of the year, a home loss to the mediocre Rangers. All those underachieving Blueshirts played like gangbusters, and the Smurf-sized New Yorkers manhandled the Avalanche in what was, all in all, a pretty ugly scene.

The first two periods against the Blues were equally uninspiring - the only things of note were Peter Forsberg going down to a leg injury and Stephane Yelle's first goal of the year. (No worries on ol' Foppa - he's already back.) But come the third period, the grinders of the Avalanche exploded - Alexei Gusarov, Rene Corbet and Eric Lacroix scored minutes apart to end the Avalanche home stand on a high note.

The next game was the one the whole hockey world watched: the opening of this season's Colorado-Detroit tilt. Things started off weird as coach Marc Crawford caused the voices of Coloradans everywhere to raise as one: "Moron!" Rather than Patrick Roy, Crawford started backup Craig Billington, who'd played only twice before. Then, three seconds into the game, Claude Lemieux dropped the gloves and fought toe-to-toe with last season's nemesis, Darren McCarty. Both moves worked: Billington played his finest game in years, shutting out the Wings, and the Avs got goals from Corbet and Eric Messier to win 2-0. After the opening brawl, the game was remarkably bloodless; chippy, but no more fights.

Corbet has been one of the most improved players on the ice this season. He's already halfway to last year's goal total, and has been the one player who has had an impact every single night. In addition to increased scoring, he's been effective in all roles; power play, penalty kill, agitator, fighter. His improvement gives the Avalanche yet another effective two-way forward.

Things were ripe for a letdown; after the emotional Detroit game, they went into Philadelphia, where Roy (back in nets) had a stellar total of one win against the Flyers in his career. But again, the Avs shut down the other team's offense - the defensive pairing of Adam Foote and Messier shut the Legion of Doom down - and got just enough goals to win.

The next night, the third game in four nights against elite competition, the letdown finally came. The Avalanche had nothing left and the Devils breezed to a 4-1 win. The game illustrated one of the biggest problems facing the Avalanche lately - the scorers ain't scoring. Since Forsberg went down, Sakic is the only big gun who's been scoring; Valeri Kamensky, Lemieux and Adam Deadmarsh have all been shut down. Though it's great to get goals from the Yelles, the Corbets, the Jeff Odgers, if the Avalanche want to truly be the threat they're capable of being, then the aforementioned players have gotta get back on track.

Once again, the Avalanche faced the Rangers in November, and once again, they stunk. If there's anything good to say about their second loss of the year, well, at least they're lending synchronicity to the team report by beginning and ending with a Rangers loss. That's really not that good.

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