In the first game at Pepsi Center in this 2009-10 season, the Colorado Avalanche took advantage of a morbidly discombobulated Dallas Stars defense with a pair of brilliant offensive plays en route to a convincing 3-1 victory.

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Although many aspects of this meaningless pre-season game was impressive from Colorado’s point of view, this game was a lot more about Dallas straight up sleep walking through the first two periods. Their defensive pairings failed to make more than a few plays coming out of their own zone all night long, which resulted in plenty of screams from new head coach Marc Crawford.

So take tonight’s notes with a grain of Texas-sized salt, because the Stars had a very weak effort tonight. Dallas did play last night, but in the pre-season travel or being tired is no excuse because you almost carry two full squads to begin with.

+ Craig Anderson played 60 minutes for the Avalanche tonight, but compared to what he faced last season, this was easily half of a hockey game. He faced two shots in the first period. The first one was a quick and sharp glove save and the second one was re-directed past him by Brenden Morrow after Brian Fahey failed to clear the puck while shorthanded. The rest of the night, he was solid when he had to be and finished with 18 saves.

+ I was impressed with Anderson’s quick feet with plays where the puck was right around his crease. For those that haven’t seen him live yet, you’ll love his intimidating size and more importantly, his awesome ability to make the “desperate” save. But he still takes away plenty of time and space thanks to his excellent body positioning.

+ Anderson is not only extremely big in the butterfly, he’s extremely agile and limber. But the impressive aspect of his game to me tonight was his ability to get a toe or a skate blade on some pucks that otherwise would have slipped through a slightly smaller or slower goalie.

+ His glove hand was sharper than I remember it being before and his first save of the game was a sign of strong focus.

-  The only goal that got past him was a redirection in front of the net. It was a bad play by the Avs’ defense as they turned the puck over to Stephane Robidas, who fired a shot on goal. But Morrow was able to redirect it right at the hash marks. It may have hit something else on the way in, as I was on the wrong side of the puck.

+ I have to close by saying it was a very good decision by Sacco to keep Anderson in the game for the full 60 minutes. I am not sure if this was planned or adjusted on the fly, but it was absolutely the right decision. Goaltending for Anderson is so much about rhythm and every goalie in his situation wants to see as many pucks as possible. Give credit to the coaching staff for giving Anderson the playing time.

+ The defensive pairings as a whole looked a little more poised in their own zone than last season and they had more patience with the puck. They didn’t opt to just clear it off the boards in a desperate manner and they actually made a few nice “D-to-D” passes to push the play up the ice. I could sense not nearly as much “panic” as usual, but again, Dallas made it very easy on the Avalanche defensemen all night long.

+ A lot of the above came from the defensive pairing of Adam Foote and Cameron Gaunce, which was very steady and strong tonight. Foote had a very calming influence early in the game, as he spent half of his first few shifts either circling the puck back into his zone or just slowly pushing it up ice. 

+ Gaunce was by far the most impressive defensive player on the ice. His size combined with his agility is noticeable and impressive for just a 19-year-old. He has poise, confidence and patience and it showed tonight more than it did in camp. Keep in mind that Dallas hardly had a forecheck in this game, so I don’t feel like he was challenged much at all. I think he played very close to 20 minutes in this game and I was astonished with his overall composure.

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+ The Avs were noticeably had more of a purpose with their physical play along the boards. Way too many shifts last year lacked energy and grit. It’s impossible to win games if you can’t win the small battles, so I was excited to see Colorado win almost all of them tonight. Again, Dallas was weak, slow and totally out of synch tonight, so I don’t read into it too much. After all, it was just the first game of the season.

+ I would say Colorado did a great job of overall positioning and showing solid containment and situational awareness. They didn’t collapse too deep on Anderson and they were more physical than usual. Some forwards that don’t always embrace the physical aspect of playing defense actually got into it a little bit.

+ David Koci is a great presence on the ice and can keep up with solid skating and ice awareness. He dropped the gloves with Krys Barch but nothing really big was landed. I thought he was a good presence on the ice and can chip in some goals if he’s opportunistic this season. For only 5:44 of ice time, he was quite noticeable on the ice.

+ Brian Fahey didn’t make a poised play on the penalty kill early in the game that led to Morrow’s goal, but he did show some resolve by jumping into a few plays in the second period. He didn’t turtle up and he stayed strong throughout the rest of the game. It’s a moral victory for sure.

+ Paul Stastny looked great all night and was very responsible defensively. You can tell he’s loose and healthy and excited for the season. As soon as Foote was named the team captain, I saw the positives of the decision. Stastny has no pressure and Footer could probably care less, he’s been there before with the Blue Jackets. Great move by the organization for sure.

+ Wojtek Wolski actually had one of the most impressive shifts I’ve ever seen in his career. For Colorado’s third goal, he actually embraced and initiated a physical play along the boards by making a shoulder-to-shoulder hit on a Stars player along the boards. Wolski jarred the puck loose and was able to push it up along the boards to Stastny. But that wasn’t the impressive part…

+ Instead of standing around or sauntering through the slot, Wolski actually released off the boards after pushing the puck to Stastny and went straight to the net to get into a prime scoring position. It ended up with Stastny making a beautiful behind-the-back, give-and-go pass and Wolski one-timing it over Matt Climie’s glove. I have to wonder if this is something they either set up in practice or talked about during the game and worked up. Either way, it was easily the offensive highlight of the night.

- In the offensive zone, Wolski seemed more confident and physical than ever before. He actually went into traffic areas and had a presence. In the defensive zone, he did not impress me. I did notice a few plays where his angles and spacing made him seem like more of a presence, but overall it was not great.

+ The other positive offensive play would be Ryan Stoa’s poised play with the puck coming off the half-boards in the second period to give the Avs a 2-1 lead. He played even bigger than his 6-foot-0 200-pound frame. He created some great space for himself by powering to the middle of the slot and then fired a shot against the grain on Alex Auld. Even more exciting to see was the fact he created his own opportunity by making a monster hit in the offensive zone earlier in the shift. I hope he keeps doing that, because it is definitely an infective style of play.

+ Marek Svatos’goal was a typical Svatos play, as he roofed the puck over Auld’s glove in tight. It was a smooth play and it was great to see, as Svatos looks totally healthy and limber. Similar to Wolski, I was impressed with his more physical, in-your-face play in the offensive zone, but not so much in the defensive zone. They both lost assignments at times and failed to show an effort when they had a chance to either knock a puck loose or force a Stars player into a tough situation.

+ Cody McLeod did a good job of puck possession behind the net in the third period. He was more of a role player that adjusted his game depending on the situation. Personally I think that’s a great role for him as he attempts to learn from what Ian Lapperiere hopefully taught him. This team needs a role player that can pitch in with offense and I’m confident McLeod will play that role perfectly.

+ Matt Duchene’s speed and ice awareness was very noticeable tonight. He was much more comfortable when he played with a man up, but that’s also to be expected. I noticed that he did not seem out of place whatsoever in any situation. He even got a few minutes of penalty killing time and was responsible with his assignments. He has an active stick and very good hands for such an offensive-minded player.

- His tense play is very noticeable when he has to deal with physical pressure or physical play. A few post-game comments by Joe Sacco pointed out that he’s going to have to deal with that transition, but added, “…he’ll be fine…” in a confident manner.

- I take this entire game to be nothing more than meaningless notes since Dallas was so weak in their own zone. But regardless, Anderson, Gaunce, Stoa, Stastny and Wolski were legitimate stars in this game.

- We hope you will enjoy these type of notes for almost all of the home games this season. These are not your typical post-game comments and as you can see, we are now embracing our style that makes us unique. There’s no denying it, we are much more comfortable covering the Avalanche from a player’s (goaltender’s in this case) perspective. We have been playing all our lives…so at this point it just makes sense.

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