Scattered Avalanche Thoughts

Get those shovels ready for tomorrow morning. Storm’s movin’ in. So, before the white stuff falls here in the Mile High City, I wanted to do a grab bag of Avalanche thoughts:

• I tweeted this already today, but wanted to mention here that I think the Avalanche might – might – have a player for the future in Jean-Luc Foudy. You wouldn’t think so, based on his pure offensive stats so far – six games, zero points – but hockey is more about just points, right?
• He’s also got six penalty minutes and a minus-2. But he’s done some good stuff out there. For one thing, he’s got 12 shots on goal in the six games. He’s nearly scored at least three or four times by my count. Been robbed on a couple of them. I’ve liked his aggression and his checking game, and it seems like he’s got some swagger and pretty good hockey sense.
• His Corsi at even strength is 48.4, which isn’t too bad for a rookie playing mostly on lower lines. A long way to go to prove himself still, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen from the third-round (75th overall) pick from the 2020 draft.
• A little birdie told me today that Evan Rodrigues skated this morning, in a regular jersey. Also, that Kurtis MacDermid skated in a non-contact jersey.
• In fact, we’ve got video of ERod skating

Evan Rodrigues skating today in regular jersey. Sure looks like he’s about ready to return https://t.co/yMPQbH4E79

— Adrian Dater (@adater) December 12, 2022

• It continues to be quiet about Bo Byram’s status. He was seen sitting on the player bench before practice the other day, seemingly in good spirits. But that’s all I know about his status/condition/whatever. The last time I did some digging on Byram’s health, I got a ton of social media crap from the Twitterati and message board shut-in losers, not to mention bad vibes from the team itself. So, I’m not going down that path again. Basically, my outlook on injuries has changed, as a reporter. I’m not going to try and be Sherlock Holmes anymore on injuries. They’ll be back when they’ll be back, is my attitude now.
• The team continues to say it’s a lower-body injury with Byram, and I have no reason to dispute that.
• I love that new black mask of Pavel Francouz.
• Avalanche are 31st in the league in faceoff percentage (44.2).
• I think the Avalanche will pay it back to Philly tomorrow night, not only for the loss last week but maybe something physical against Scott Laughton for his hits on Nathan MacKinnon, who hasn’t played since. Then again, maybe not. They didn’t do anything to Charlie McAvoy when the Bruins came to town, so maybe retaliation just isn’t much of a thing in the game anymore.
• Want $5 off a full, yearly subscription to Colorado Hockey Now? I mean, it is the Christmas season after all. Use the promo code 5off in the checkout box here and the price will drop from $29.99 to $24.99.
• I’m going to do a raffle some time this week, for CHN subscribers based in the U.S. I want to raffle off five signed copies of my Avs-Wings book, “Blood Feud.” Why only customers in the U.S.? Well, sigh, it costs something like $70 to send a book to Canada or overseas, and I’m afraid that’s just too much for me. Blame the Post Office for that.