The Revenge of Wojtek Wolski

Just the day after the Avs and Phoenix swapped players Wojtek Wolski and Peter Mueller, the teams faced off in Phoenix.

The game started with Cody McLeod reminding Wojtek Wolski that he now played for the enemy.  McLeod gave Wolski a few rough shoves in front of the net within the first minutes of the game.

Wolski returned the favor in the waning minute of the game by scoring the game winning goal.  Timely goal considering he has only scored one goal (on a goalie) since Dec. 19^th.  Even that one was against the lowly Edmonton Oilers.

Despite that dry spell of epic proportions, Wolski still managed to maintain the #2 spot on the team in points.

Now if that doesn’t tell you anything else it should inform you that the Avs might be a bit low on scoring forwards.

These dry spells by Wolski are nothing new.  A quick look at the 2008-09 season reveals that Wolski went the entire month of March and closed out the season in April with zero goals.  2007-08: one goal for the months of January and February. 

Enter Peter Mueller, and that’s no help at all.  He’s had a stellar start in his first two games with the Avs, collecting one goal in his debut and an assist in the game against his former team, the Coyotes.  Whoopee!  Here comes the scary math!  That one goal accounts for 20% of his goals so far this season.  When it comes to points, he has now scored 10% of his season output with the new team. 

It’s a great start, but what are the chances it’s just a flash in the pan?

I know, the Avs had to do something about Wolski and the money situation they were going to be in at the end of the season.  And I agree that the guy was as streaky and inconsistent as they get.

But when he scored that game winner tonight I couldn’t help but think that the Avs have made a trade that will surely put their post-season at risk.