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The Weekly 5-on-5: Avs benefitting from comfortable position in the standings

February 28, 2022

Welcome in to a new weekly piece that you’ll be able to find every Monday, only right here at DNVR. I’ll be taking a look back at the week that was, and giving you 10 things that stood out to me, good or bad. Generally, I’ll have it split up, 5 things that focus on the Colorado Avalanche, and 5 things from around the NHL/just hockey in general, but depending on the time of year and what’s going on around the league, that may skew in one direction or the other.

To start things off, I’ll be highlighting a big week in Nashville, some eyebrow-raising antics in the ECHL, and a haircut that looks to have turned the tides for one of Colorado’s top offensive weapons.

1. Thatcher Demko’s gorgeous throwback setup.

Look, I know there’s a lot of people that don’t care about this type of stuff (jerseys, equipment, etc), but as someone who grew up scrolling hockey gear websites and going to the local hockey shop just to lust over the latest and greatest equipment, I’m a bit of a sucker for things like this.

The Vancouver Canucks have one of the best throwback jerseys in the NHL. It’s funny how we’re seeing so may uniforms from the 90s make a comeback and be WILDLY popular among fans. The ‘flying skate’ jerseys were retired in 1997 and weren’t brought back until 2019 when the Canucks were celebrating their franchise’s 50th anniversary, and folks have been begging the organization to make them a terminate part of the uniform rotation ever since.

Well Vancouver broke them out on Thursday when they absolutely blasted the Flames 7-1, and somehow Demo still managed to steal the show despite his team winning by six goals.

Thatcher Demko is rocking a Kirk McLean-inspired set up tonight and it's incredible! 👏 @Canucks | #Canucks pic.twitter.com/gfrkX3aVMr

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 25, 2022

I mean this has to be one of the best throwback setups we’ve seen in recent years. It’s an almost perfect recreation of Kirk McLean’s kit back when he actually wore the black, red, and yellow threads full time. I love when goalies do stuff like this. In a league that is desperately in need of more fun, it’s an easy way to give fans something neat to talk about.

2. Avs mount two more come-from-behind wins

Once a team that was thought to struggle when trying to overcome a deficit has transformed into the league’s best. The Avalanche now lead the league now with 17 (!!) comeback wins after overcoming a three-goal deficit to knock off the Winnipeg Jets, and then overcoming two separate one-goal holes the very next night against the Vegas Golden Knights.

You don’t want to make it too much of a habit, it’s only going to get harder to comeback late in games as the season goes on, but it really does say something about the character of this team. You can tell they never feel out of it, even when things aren’t going their way.

You can see it in the body language of their opponents too, there is a bit of a mind game going on when the Avs start to push back, teams look afraid to make a mistake that will cost them their lead.

3. A lot going on in Nashville

I’m not a country music fan, so I can’t say that I loved everything about what went down in ‘Smashville’ this past week, but what a fun week to be a Preds fan. At the start of the week, the organization sent its first ever number to the rafters when they retried Pekka Rinne’s 35 after 15 seasons and 369 (nice) wins.

It was a nice moment for Pekka. He never won a Stanley Cup, but he was a top goalie for most of his career, while helping the Predators win their first President’s Trophy, reach the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time, and also added a Vezina Trophy of his own.

Nashville has now been a Division rival of the Avs’ for quite a while, so I can’t stay that I’ve ever been “rooting” for them, but Rinne as an individual is someone that you always wanted to see be successful. It’s a shame he never got his name on the Cup, but what a career nevertheless.

Then they ended the week hosting their first ever outdoor game, it was the second they’ve played in overall. Like I said at the beginning of this, I am not a country music fan, so there were portions of this event that were not for me, but over all I thought it was a cool night, and a great game. Even if those Predator jerseys were among the worst I’ve ever seen.

This is art pic.twitter.com/F7tEcffSvp

— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) February 27, 2022

4. Jared Bednar is listening to his players

Avs Twitter held its collective breath last Wednesday when it was announced that Nathan MacKinnon wouldn’t play against the Detroit Red Wings as he dealt with a nagging lower body injury.

As it turned out, it wasn’t serious at all, and more of just a situation where the Avalanche coaching staff is taking advantage of the great position they’ve put themselves in in the standings.

Jared Bendar told us (the media) after they returned home from Detroit, that keeping MacKinnon out was precautionary, and that the team is grateful they’re in a position where they can give guys the night off if they’re not feeling 100%.

As I write this on Sunday evening, the Avs have a 12-point lead on the next closest team in the Western Conference, and 4-point gap on the next closest team in the entire league. It’s not that Bednar and company want to sit guys out, but they’ve been hit hard with injuries come playoffs too many times, and the Avalanche bench boss told us that he’s going to work closely with players and trainers to make sure everyone is in the best shape they can be in, as the games continue to get more and more important.

The night off seemed to do MacK some good too; he’s scored three times in the two games since.

No. 29, you’re so fine 😍#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/LMoMDNdtKf

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) February 27, 2022

5. Sam Bennett almost put Cole Sillinger to a different dimension

There’s not a ton to say about this one, but this was one of the biggest hits I’ve seen in a long time. Clean, hard, and heavy. Took Sillinger a couple seconds to figure out if he got hit by another player or a train.

This Sam Bennett hit is MASSIVE. pic.twitter.com/OMOrYcT86b

— Tim and Friends (@timandfriends) February 25, 2022

6. Get a haircut on game day if you want to score

Avs forward Andre Burakovsky, in my opinion, has a top 5 shot in the league. When you give him time and space, there are few players in the world who can shoot the puck like him. Despite that, he just went 18 games without scoring a goal.

He’s a player whose play seems to go as his confidence does. When he’s feeling it, he’s hard to stop and can turn a game with the flick of his wrists. When he’s going through it a bit, he can often be ineffective, and struggle to make plays in the offensive zone.

Things weren’t going well and he decided that he needed to do something to change his luck. As it turns out, all he needed to do was cut his hair. After scoring the game-winning goal in a thrilling comeback win over the Winnipeg Jets, Burakovsky told us that he was inspired by Nathan MacKinnon and Gabe Landeskog.

“Gabe and Nate, they usually get a haircut on game day, and they always score… it was time for a change, and it’s worked out”

Burkys face says it all. #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/OdpW9H9s2i

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) February 26, 2022

No kidding. He now has goals in back to back games.

7. Maple Leafs and Red Wings combine for 17 goals in a game

This was one of the crazier games I’ve seen in a while. Toronto got out to a 7-2 lead through just two period of play, and it looked like it was all but over.

Then the Maple Leafs really tried to out-Toronto themselves. There’s an obvious running joke that the Leafs find the most heartbreaking ways to blow games and playoff series, and for a minute there on Saturday night, it looked like they were going to give away a five goal lead in the third period alone.

Detroit brought the score all the way back to 8-7 before Toronto pushed back and added two of their own in the final frame to land at a whopping 10-7 final.

All four goaltenders in the game were used, including the Wings making a switch in net twice, and the highest save % of the night was Jack Campbell at .800.

Have yourself a night, @Marner93. 😱 pic.twitter.com/TyBWknDdAx

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 27, 2022

As funny as it would have been for me to see them blow a 7-2 lead to a non-playoff team, I don’t know how many more hilariously demoralizing losses Maple Leaf fans can take.

8. Avs dominating in back-to-backs

It feels like the Avs lead the league in back-to-backs every year. I haven’t actually looked at the numbers this season, but given how many games they had postponed due to COVID, along with the fact that their November schedule was originally designed for them to play two games over seas, they have a packed schedule her in the second half and have to be up there in terms of # of back-to-backs.

Normally, the second game of the consecutive two game set is what is referred to as a ‘scheduled loss’. Meaning, it’s expected that the team playing two nights in a row will lose that game. That has not been the story for the Avs for the last two seasons.

After beating the Golden Knights IN Vegas on Saturday, the Avalanche have improved to 13-0-4 over the last two seasons in the second game of a back-to-backs, and are 6-0-1 this season alone.

Avs sweep back-to-back, both comeback wins. Now tied for 1st in NHL with 17 comeback wins

10-3-1 combined record in back to backs this year, 6-0-1 in 2nd game. Now 13-0-4 in 2nd game over last 2 seasons @Avalanche 12-0-4 in one-goal games, only @NHL team w/o regulation loss

— Brendan McNicholas (@bmcnich) February 27, 2022

Incredibly impressive.

9. Sean Avery is still doing Sean Avery things

On Wednesday, the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears announced they were signing 41 year-old former NHL lunatic Sean Avery.

It caught the entire hockey-world’s attention, as everyone tried to figured out what the eff was actually going on.

Was this a marketing grab for the team? Maybe. They did put Sean Avery jerseys on pre-sale immediately after announcing the signing.

Was it an attempt to get back to the NHL for Avery? That’s what he said it was, but anyone who is familiar with the Avery knew that wasn’t going to happen. It’s been 10 years since he last played professionally, and he wasn’t exactly a hot commodity by the time he retired.

Or was this just a way for Sean Avery to get his foot back in the door in the sport to try and work his way in to broadcasting? This seemed the most likely to me. There’s no way he actually believed this was going to translate into him getting back to the NHL.

Regardless of the reason, it never really went anywhere as he was released after just 48 hours, and Avery has yet to come out and speak on what happened, and what he was trying to accomplish.

I just hope they refunded the dozen people that pre-ordered his jersey.

10. Avs trying to see what they’ve got

After morning skate on Friday Jared Bednar was asked, as he usually is, what his line combinations were going to look like that night, and he gave a surprising answer. He said that he hadn’t decided yet. Hinting that he was maybe looking to shake things up.

It was a bit puzzling to hear seeing as things have been going pretty well for the Avs, and lineup changes didn’t really seem to be needed.

Sure enough, when the lineup cards came out ahead of Colorado’s matchup with Winnipeg, there had been quite a bit of blending.

Early returns in that game looked a little shaky, but then Bednar’s new combinations came to life and scored six unanswered to win the game.

When we asked Bednar what his reasoning was for making the changes, he gave what I thought was a really intriguing answer. It went kind of hand in hand with what we talked about earlier, about them listening to players who are dealing with nagging injuries. Bednar said that they are going to get into matchups near the end of the year and in the playoffs that are going to require a different look, and different combinations in order to stay a step ahead of their competition and remain a tough matchup.