This is what I was talking about.

Since about a third of the way into the season, I have been saying that this team is going nowhere. For the last two plus seasons, I have been saying the Quenneville hire was a mistake. At the trade deadline, I said that buying instead of selling was a mistake, and that the Forsberg signing was a major blunder.

I was right on all accounts.

This is exactly what I was talking about. Right after the deadline, the Avs were looking really good, and I kept my mouth shut because I was curious to see if Foote and Forsberg really could motivate the Avs to keep up their level of play. Well, as predicted, Forsberg can't keep himself healthy. Groin injuries are a tell-tale sign of a lack of fitness, and that's exactly why Forsberg got his.

Before the trade deadline, the Avs were at least playing with some purpose. I got a lot of shit from people for saying that the Avs played better without Sakic, Stastny and Smyth, but they did. When those three are in the lineup, the rest of the team turns it down a couple notches, because they assume that those three will score the goals and win them the games. Without them, everyone knows they have to step it up, and they do.

Well, now we have the worst of both worlds. We have the team playing without any sort of effort because they "know" the Three S's will pick up the pace. Then, the Three S's don't show any effort themselves. Then, two of the three trade deadline acquisitions are invisible even when they're in the lineup. And to top it off, we don't have our leading goal scorer for the rest of the year.

The fault lies squarely on the shoulders of FG, Idiot and Joe Sakic. Idiot and Sakic are charged with motivating the team, and FG is to blame for not canning Idiot, for re-signing Sakic and for buying instead of selling at the deadline.

It's hard to watch this team with any sort of enthusiasm when you know they're headed nowhere. And we all know that FG is going to sign Idiot to an extension in the offseason.

But, we do now have Salei, and for that I am very thankful.