the Avalanche defeated the defending Stanley Cup champions 5-1 on Tuesday at Pepsi Center.

Avalanche cruise to win against Blackhawks

**lol crawford. decent goalie, but without a team like the blackhawks in front of him.... I really wouldnt count on him

**CC had bad night after last game's spanking the Sharks.He' ll rebound so will the Hawks.... plus coach JQ will have their undivided attention for what could gave been a another ho hum road trip..That guy knows how to motivate his troops ..stay tuned..lol

**What a bad night for Minnesota, Chicago, Columbus, Tampa Bay, and Ottawa. Lets all cry together .

**Good job Ave's ! ... Sidenote: So I've noticed whenever Sharks lose, the next game the team that beat us will usually lose. Examples: Bruins, LAK, Vancouver, Buffalo, Hawks. The only 2 teams that won 2 games in a row after beating Sharks was Phoenix and Winnipeg. This is useless information but thought some people might think it's interesting.

**On a positive note, I listened to the game on Altitude radio instead of WGN. The Colorado play by play announcer was really good. Not a homey.

**Agree. Moser is a huge homer. He says something like this about 15 times a game "Outlet pass to Duchene skates across center. He's knocked, no call!?!?!?" According to him, anytime an Avs player falls to the ice there should be a penalty. Norm Jones (the radio announcer before Moser) was pretty solid.

**How much does Marian Hossa mean to the Hawks? I know they beat a very good SJ team 5-1 but he is very hard to replace when he is out of the lineup. Hope Hoss can return real soon.

**Avs and Hawks games are always so much fun to watch. This one was a great win for the Avs, but not nearly as thrilling as the games we've seen between the two clubs the last couple years. Hopefully being put in the same division only makes the competition better!

**I'm glad the Avs snapped out of their slide last night against the Hawks. Chicago is scary in the offensive zone and we've got several more games against them to go, so this is a good win.

**I'm not trying to light a fuse here, but I have a question Hawks: Do you truly believe Crawford's the #1 for you guys? Or is he just in a slump? If not, is Crawford the only one available to you guys capable of playing NHL-caliber goaltending? I mean sure the guy's got a Cup, but then again there's a lot of guys who have a Cup ring and didn't deserve it...like Kaberle.......

**He's had to play almost all of the games.. like 18/21 or something like that. Every goalie is bound to have a off night. Can you really blame him for the first goal? bad bounce off the board to the front of the net, has barely any time to get back into position. 2nd goal was deflected in front. third goal was a nice play by the Avs. I feel like he got pulled not based off of play but for Q to try and get the boys going in front of him. We are one of the highest point teams in the league and you don't do that without a good goalie. I believe in Crawford.

**Also Raanta will be a stellar goalie down the line, glad he is gonna be getting some games. Also Corey will need the rest!

**The Hawks played horrible in front of Crawford, my guess is it didn't matter who started, the game would have been a blowout. The team looked bad, point blank shots, 2-1's 2-0's 1-0's. The Hawks looked slow and confused on the ice last night defensively. I feel bad that anyone would even think to look at that game being Crawford's fault.

**I've been saying this for two years crow is not the kind of talent a team with dynasty aspirations should be rolling with. He's become very mentally tough, but as far as his goaltending talent, he's not nor will he ever be a top flight NHL goaltender. So fans can believe all they want. Facts are facts. This teams d makes crow look better than he is.

**Anybody have any doubts that Stastny should be on team USA now? Hmmm? Parise-Stastny-Kane makes the most sense, Stastny is used to playing on a line with all leftys and they've played together before.

**Plus Stastny always seems to play well internationally. This is actually the first year since his rookie season I've seen him play as well for the Avs as he does at the World Championships- and he killed the WC's this year.

**actually you could blame it on any number of things. Contract year is the least of them. Many things have changed in Colorado, including Succo.

**Yet, it was Avs fans who doubted most of all. I love Paulie, I think he's great. Yet, for the last few years he's been a passer. He's now becoming more aggressive in his game.. Look at the results!! Though, from what you can pick up from the convos the teams has about their previous coach. Playing with him was a tense and volatile situation.

**I think that's a bit of a rough statement. We've had the same sort of bounce go against us in our own rink and we never were able to stop it.. (Preds game? I think, can't recall, just that it was amazing goal, just against us) Corey's a great goalie. I think everyone would've loved to have had him on side last season. So he dropped a game. Big deal. Roy and Brodeur are meant to be the best goalies of all time. I can remember both of them dropping some major games, but I wouldn't go as far as saying it was poor nor inconsistent netminding.

**I respect the points you make but all I ask you do is look at his stats in comparison to all other goalies and in relation to the Hawk team stats ( shots against / for... ) and you will see his stats are paltry if not just plain terrible. Not a goalie that can be counted on unless his skaters score a minimum of 4 or 5 goals a game. Has he 'won' one game for us this year yet? No.

**Hejda & Johnson are really our only threats every game. Barrie has potential. Everyone else is easily replaceable. Going through a whole season with Benoit, Sarich, Guenin, Holden & Hunwick does not sounds very promising. Yeah, theyre doing just fine now, but in the long run their good play will probably diminish.

**Raanta just came up. Has played a handful of games on the smaller ice surface where the game actually is faster than European game. That was his first NHL appearance. Crawford has more ice time than any other goalie due to Khabi being bad. Don't know if he will continue to be bad or not. He may just be off to a slow start, there is no way to really know. I wasn't trying to be antagonistic, you made the blanket statement and I responded in kind. If you had also said Raanta needs to start more games than your statement would be more appreciated.

**The first three goals for the Avs were created by HAWKS turnovers, not Crawford turnovers. The Hawks as a team put themselves in that hole rather than jus Crawford. Open your eyes!

**I assume full responsibility for the loss. I was at the game, sitting third row from the glass, penalty box side, at the Blackhawks offensive zone in 1st and 3rd periods. We repeatedly held up our "Beat Varlamov" sign which he couldn't help but see, especially during face-offs. We were hoping to rattle him into having the type of night Crawford had. Karma's a funny thing.

**Man! always hate playing you guys lol great game. Score doesn't show but I thought the hawks played pretty well, Varly was up to the challenge. The start of the game was all hawks, that first powerplay 4 quality chances then BOOM Avs woke up and took it to us the rest of the game. Thought the Avs played a very physical game after that first penalty kill and never looked back. BTW Kane was a monster last night, was all over the ice and upped his point streak to 8 games. Look for him to continue this. Here's to many more exciting game between these two clubs this year!

**Did you watch the same game I did? First of all, congrats to Varly. Let's give credit where it is deserved. The good chances the Hawks did have, he was up to the task on all but one. Beyond that though, the Hawks looked TERRIBLE. They couldn't make a five foot pass, they couldn't catch a five foot pass, there was no sync or rhythm to a depleted group of forwards. Worse yet, the missed net a LOT. When things aren't going well, and down by 3 or 4, you can't try and snipe far-side corners, miss the net wide and start the breakout. Get pucks on net, get traffic to the front of the net and bang away for tips and rebounds. That's something we have done well all season but was non-existent last night. Sure, missing Bickell hurts there, but someone has to step up. They didn't and we see what happens.