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Thursday, November 5, 1998
Early slump confounds Avs
How the mighty seem to have fallen!
Asked if he ever had been through such a brutal slump before, Peter Forsberg replied: "Yeah, at the end of last year. But this is the first time it's happened at the start since I got here. It's tough."
The Leafs hammered the Avs 3-0 at the Gardens last night, handing Colorado its seventh loss of the season. It also was the third time in 11 games the 1996 Stanley Cup champs have been blanked.
Though it was Curtis Joseph's first shutout as a Maple Leaf, it was his third in a row against Colorado, having back-stopped the Edmonton Oilers to 4-0 and 2-0 wins over the Avs in last spring's Western Conference quarter-finals.
"It's special any time you get a shutout. They're very hard to come by," said a gracious Joseph, who improved his record to 4-3-1 as a Leaf. "The passes were clicking, the guys were jumping, I thought we played well tonight."
BLATANT GIVEAWAYS
Avs goalie Patrick Roy was not so kind. Two of Toronto's goals were the results of blatant giveaways in the Colorado end. Rather than address the problem, Roy said, "I just want to focus on myself.
"We have a coaching staff and they're doing their job," he said. "I'm happy with the way I played tonight."
Avalanche coach Bob Hartley praised Roy, who entered the game with the worst goals-against average in the NHL (3.84) among league starters.
"That was by far Patrick's best game of the season, so far," said Hartley. "That leads us to believe he's out of his slump and that is what the good news is tonight."
Though Forsberg has 13 points in 11 games, he has only one goal. He was a minus-2 last night.
"I don't know what was missing (in the game)," Forsberg said. "We played good in net but I don't think we generated as many chances as we should have.
"It seems like the wins are harder to come by this year. I don't know what to say. I thought we were on the right track (after Monday's 3-2 win in Carolina)."
The 3-7-1 Avs visit Edmonton tomorrow, their fourth game on a six-city road trip.
The Leafs are 5-1-1 against the Western Conference and 1-3-0 versus the East heading into tonight's game in Boston against the Bruins.
