Avs’ Anderson on pace for 70 game season
By Terry Frei
The Denver Post
Posted: 03/24/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 03/24/2010 01:27:42 AM MDT
When the Avalanche faces the Los Angeles Kings tonight at the Pepsi Center, the game almost certainly will match two of this NHL season’s workhorse goaltenders — Colorado’s Craig Anderson and Los Angeles’ Jonathan Quick.
Anderson, signed as an unrestricted free agent in the offseason, would be making his 64th start, far surpassing his previous highest workload as a pro, 58 games six years ago. Quick has 64 games under his belt.
“You don’t really think about it,” Anderson said. “You just get caught up in the moment. Stuff that happened back in October, you don’t really think about. You work hard all summer to get in shape, to work for something, and this is what I worked for all summer — to make sure I was in shape for a long haul.”
With the Avs in seventh place in the Western Conference, slumping and looking over their shoulders at No. 8 Detroit and No. 9 Calgary, Colorado coach Joe Sacco is showing few signs of backing off his reliance on Anderson.
The statistical evidence of whether Anderson is wearing down is mixed: After a terrific October, he seemed to be coming back to earth. But he got right back into it with a stunning January (1.72 goals-against average and .946 save percentage).
As recently as two weeks ago, he followed up a shutout against Florida with a larcenous 48-save game in a 5-3 win at Dallas. Yet he was yanked in the second period at Anaheim on Sunday when he gave up four goals in 19 shots, albeit with the Avs playing a shaky defensive game in front of him; and he again gave up four goals on 23 shots in the 4-3 overtime loss at Los Angeles on Monday. For March, his goals-against average is 3.15 and his save percentage is a so-so .906, but he had similar statistics in November and December.
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