Cheers and Jeers: Avs put up nine; Rockies take home hardware
Nov 8, 2019, 6:00 AM
CHEERS | Colorado Avalanche
Depending on the outcome of Thursday’s tilt with the Nashville Predators, this could have easily been a “jeer” rather than a “cheer.”
But, the Avs ended a five-game winless skid in spectacular fashion, more than doubling up the Predators at Pepsi to the tune of a 9-4 final score.
Offseason acquisition Joonas Donskoi tallied his first career hat trick in the blow out while 13 total Avalanche players had at least one point.
Makar, you get a goal. Graves, you get a goal. Nieto, MacKinnon, Calvert, and Burakovsky, you all get a goal too.
And all this on the heels of suffering their first shutout of the season last Saturday and only scoring twice in two games against the Stars over the past week.
The rumors of Colorado’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
JEERS | Colorado Rapids
Per the Denver Post, a recent Forbes estimate of the value of MLS franchises not only had the Colorado Rapids last in the league but also less valuable than the current price for an MLS expansion team.
In fact, the Rapids are one of 17 MLS clubs in a league of 24 that lost money in 2019. Colorado had a net loss of $5 million in 2019.
On the bright side, the MLS (yes, including the Rapids), has risen in terms of value compared to the four major pro sports in the U.S. — NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL.
CHEERS | Trevor Story and Nolan Arenado
Congrats to the left side of the Colorado Rockies infield for pulling in some nice hardware this offseason.
On Sunday, Nolan Arenado racked up his seventh consecutive Gold Glove, which, coincidentally, is how many years he’s played in Major League Baseball. Basically, each fall you can pencil in Arenado to bring home the gold-plated glove.
And Trevor Story earned his second consecutive Silver Slugger award, becoming the 10th player in franchise history to earn the honor multiple times.
Story also joins Troy Tulowitzki (2010 and 2011) as the club’s only shortstops to snag a Silver Slugger multiple times.
JEERS | MLB Awards
OK, so maybe Nick Ahmed has a case for pulling in the National League’s Gold Glove at shortstop over Story. We can agree to disagree there.
But to not have Story nor Arenado in the conversation for MVP is a travesty.
Surely Cody Bellinger, Anthony Rendon and Christian Yelich had MVP-caliber years, Story and Arenado are either in the mix or not too far behind.
CHEERS | Alexander Johnson
From signing on with Denver as an undrafted college free agent to battling for playing time on the Broncos defense to make contributions — and significant ones — on Sundays for the orange and blue, it’s been quite the journey for linebacker Alexander Johnson.
Late last week, Pro Football Focus named Johnson the AFC’s player of the month on defense.
Johnson has started the past five games for Denver and played in eight of nine this season, racking up an interception, three passes defensed, one forced fumble, 1.5 sacks and 41 tackles (two for loss).
If it keeps going this way, Johnson might just fill the shoes of another University of Tennessee-turned-Broncos stud inside linebacker: Al Wilson.
