The Avs have been hovering a little above .500 most of the season now.
Whoopdeefrickendoo. Only 7 NHL teams are currently below the now mythical
.500 mark. When every tie game in regulation ends up with one winner and
one OTLer, face it folks, there are just more points to be had, so .500, or
even a little above .500, just doesn't cut it any more.

To really know how a team is doing, I say you have to look at standing
points earned versus standing points given away. And this is a little
tricky, because the standings don't show OT and shootout wins. However, I
think the Avs have 4 shootout wins. So although their record in the
standings is 22-20-3 (above .500, yeah, yippee, wow!), their REAL record is
47 points for, 50 points against. Not so good. Not playoff caliber good.
And pretty representative of how they have played. And in these last tough
and meaningful 4 games? 1-2-1 ... not so bad, right? Not if you look at it
this way: 3 points for, 7 points against. Yuck. And without Budaj, we'd be
looking at 0-4-0 in those last 4.