Kevin Dupont

Goal-scoring across the NHL is down this season, by roughly half a goal per game, which means successful teams are going to have to do more with less.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the scoring less/doing more Colorado Avalanche.

The Avs, led in scoring the first two months of 2007-‘08 by sophomore forward Paul Stastny, were parked in a fourth-place tie in the Western Conference as Thanksgiving approached. A club that missed the playoffs last season, when it scored 272 goals, this year’s Denver edition scored only 57 times in its first 19 games — a pace that would have the Avs connect only 246 times over the 82-game regular-season schedule.

But it doesn’t take a University of Denver degree in quantum physics to figure out that fourth place in the conference is a whole lot more palatable than last season’s ninth-place DNQ.  O.K., the Avs aren’t running away and hiding with the puck, the way they did in 1995-‘96, when the won their first Cup after scoring 326 times in the regular season. They aren’t a powerhouse, but they’re far from paltry.

The 22-year-old Stastny is leading the way with a pace that could bring him 95 points this year, putting some rock ‘n’ roll back in the Pepsi Center again this season. Will they win a third Cup?  Not likely.  But with Stastny building off his sensational rookie season — when he was the Calder Trophy runnerup to Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin — and Ryan Smyth providing just the leadership inherent in his pricey (5-year/$31.25 million) free-agent deal,  the Avs look as playoff-fit as they have since the spring of ‘02 when they lost the Conference championship to the Wings.

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Stastny, son of Slovak legend Peter Stastny, is not as dynamic a player as his old man.  Then again, he plays in a different time, as noted above in that half-goal-a-game dropoff.  The junior Stastny likely will not challenge his old man’s Hall-of-Fame numbers (977 games/1,239 points), but he plays a solid, smart, thorough, two-way game that is somewhat reminiscent of ex-Avs center Peter Forsberg, and that alone it pretty good company.

“He has great sense,” said Avs coach Joel Quenneville, “with and without the puck.”

In fact, Stastny, who would only be a University of Denver senior this season had he chosen to remain in college, for his age is uncommonly intelligent in all three zones.  That, folks, is a gift directly from the family gene pool.  Of course, the senior Stastny often had his brothers, Anton and Marian, working on his same line, at least early in his NHL career with the Nordiques. When they were on, which was most of the time, the three Stastny brothers passed the puck around with an eerie beauty and grace.

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The current Stastny wearing No. 26 (his dad’s number) for the ex-Quebec franchise usually tosses the puck around with linemates such as Andrew Brunette and Milan Hejduk, or sometimes Jaroslav Hlinka.  Sureshot Hall of Famer Joe Sakic, now 38, is still considered the club’s franchise center, but these days, that’s more a matter of respect and profile than it is simple truth.  These Avs are quickly becoming the Stastny Avs.

“Both of those guys are great hockey players,” Brunette noted as the season began.  “Paul is getting better every game he plays, and Joe is probably one of the best of all time.”

Stastny opened the season by gaining NHL First Star honors for week No. 1, potting a hat trick opening night against the Stars and finishing with 8 points in his first three games.  Labeling himself historically a “slow starter”, at every level, he has yet to match the consistency this year that saw him put together a 20-game scoring streak (an NHL rookie record) in the second half last season. The great run enabled Stastny to put some heat on Malkin in the Calder race, but ultimately the Pens star ran off with the trophy.

“I was honored just to be mentioned in the voting,” said Stastny.

Like his dad, he is a lefthanded shot. He has the old man’s same soft hands and great vision.  Like his dad, and again like Forsberg, he has that uncanny knack for holding the puck in traffic, then threading passes amid the seeming chaos.  

“Some things you can’t teach ... I got from my dad,” he said.

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Now, as for the rest of the Avs, and their post-season aspirations, all of that could come down to — no surprise here — goaltending.  Why does that giant leap always have to be made over the sport’s Bermuda rectangle, that 24-square-foot cage?

Thus far, the Colorado net has been a place of mixed results.  Of the two ‘tenders, Peter Budaj and Jose Theodore, Budaj has been the better.  He went 7-4-0 in his first 11 decisions, with a fair goals-against mark (2.92) and a subpar save percentage (.893).  The enigmatic Theodore was only a tick better than .500 (4-3-1), but slightly better with his key numbers (2.76 and .901).  All in all, that left the Avs with 57 goals scored and 55 goals allowed.

Stastny, as he gets better, can improve the Avs scoring and help Sakic continue that traditon of strong two-way hockey that Quenneville mandates.  

But as far as that net goes, that might be something for another Avs favorite son will have to figure out.  Hey, anyone checked in with Patrick Roy lately?

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