from Travis Yost of TSN,
A big reason why I’ve been so cool on the Avalanche under Patrick Roy: their blueline really doesn’t hold up well in comparison to the rest of the league, or even the rest of the division. It very much makes you wonder what some of these brilliant attacking forwards – Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog to name but a few – would do with a real touch of defensive competency on the backend. It would certainly help their transition game. It would certainly take some of the defensive burden off of them in their own zone. And it would certainly mean spending less time in the defensive zone, and more time forcing the opposition to spend meaningful minutes defending the run of play.
The good news for Avs fans: I don’t see the defensive situation as unsalvageable for two reasons. One, there are a bunch of interesting trade options around the market. These thoughts may percolate as the season progresses (hey, Dustin Byfuglien!) and are probably worth addressing at a later point in time, but if any team should take a gamble on fixing the backend, it’s the Avs. Again, I really don’t think this is a team that’s a ways off, but rather a club that’s simply being crippled by the absence of a couple of core pieces.
The second thought regards Tyson Barrie. To me, he’s one of the league’s more underappreciated players – a star in the making that’s been held back in part by Colorado’s mediocrity, and in part by maybe not being put in the best position to succeed.
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