Avalanche Film Room: How Gabe Landeskog's physicality set the tone in Game 1

The Colorado Avalanche blew out the Nashville Predators 7-2 in Game 1 of the playoff series last night to give the Avs the early edge.

There’s lots of hockey left, of course, but Colorado’s dominant five-goal first period ended the game before the Predators even really had a chance to sink their teeth into the contest.

One of the areas most frequently talked about with this Colorado club in recent years has been their physicality, or namely the lack thereof at times. We saw a bigger, more mature San Jose team push Colorado around three years ago and a Dallas team with some real snarl outlasted the Avs two years ago before the most damning series of them all – last year versus Vegas.

The Golden Knights’ ferocious forecheck hounded Avalanche defenders and hemmed one of the league’s best breakout teams into its own zone far too often and was a primary factor in the demise of the Avalanche in last year’s postseason tournament.

The Predators are a team that barely snuck into the playoffs in the final week of the season after an ugly April saw them go from comfortably making the postseason to just being happy to get in.

While not many have given Nashville a legitimate chance in the series, it is their physicality that is most frequently mentioned as one of the characteristics of their playstyle that could cause problems for the Avalanche.

Skilled teams such as Colorado frequently have to battle the stigma of being soft come playoff time and this group has been no different.

What I thought was interesting last night was just how Colorado got out to its fast start. The game’s opening goal came on this Avalanche power-play goal just 12 seconds into the first man advantage of the series.

I want to break this down in a classic Avalanche Film Room because I think how this goal was created is very notable, particularly given the conversations surrounding Colorado’s physicality and worthiness as a true Stanley Cup contender.

You see from the video below that Nathan MacKinnon cleanly loses the faceoff to Avalanche slayer Colton Sissons. Sissons gets the jump on MacKinnon and draws the puck cleanly behind him.

From there, you see Mikko Rantanen engage in a footrace to the puck that he barely loses but comes close enough to contest the play with his body. The 6’4″ Rantanen is on the wrong side of Alexandre Carrier but uses his extra 40 pounds or so to knock Carrier off his feet. This puts Carrier into a scramble and he tries a desperate hand pass to Tanner Jeannot just as Gabe Landeskog was arriving on the scene.

Carrier successfully got the puck away from the oncoming freight train that was Landeskog, but the Swedish captain for Colorado still bulls his way into three Predators players to win the puck. While Landeskog was coming in, Nazem Kadri jumped in from the point to help force Jeannot to keep the puck for an extra half-second.

That extra time ended up being all Landeskog needed to win the puck battle despite being in a 1v3 situation in the corner. Kadri trusts Landeskog to win the battle and drops back along the wall to provide an outlet for a pass after Landeskog wins puck possession.

From here, it’s pretty basic hockey while on the power play. Kadri moves the puck up high to Cale Makar, who reverses the ice and drops the puck down low to Rantanen, who one-touches the puck to MacKinnon, who has slid into the bumper spot and one-times a puck past Predators sacrificial lamb David Rittich.

This is the basic abuse of space by Colorado’s top power-play unit. When they move the puck around the ice like that, it forces Nashville to chase and the Predators did a poor job of maintaining their passing lane integrity as they moved side-to-side. When playing a group as talented as Colorado, that little extra half-second is the difference between potentially killing the game’s first penalty and seizing early momentum or, well, exactly what happened.

While Rantanen makes a great play with the body and Kadri buys Landeskog the extra bit of time he needs to simply outwork the Nashville penalty killers, it’s this effort from Landeskog that really stood out to me the most.

He goes crashing into Jeannot, who is now joined by two teammates in an attempt to outmuscle Landeskog in the corner for puck possession. Inexcusably (from Nashville’s perspective, anyway), Landeskog wins a 1v3 board battle and backhands the puck to Kadri, who has all the space needed to help reverse the ice.

My real focus on this moment is best summed up in this one particular screenshot. Gabe Landeskog outworked, outsmarted, outplayed three of the four Nashville skaters on the ice. I mean, just look at this beast:

Now, I want you to turn your attention in this next clip to Nathan MacKinnon, who will be entering the screen on the left side. When he gets into the frame, the Avs are moving the puck back out to the blueline and reversing the ice. Instead of trying to drop into a more familiar role, MacKinnon stays in the middle of the ice, constantly slipping into passing lanes depending on where the puck was relative to himself.

This is just a great player reading the ice and putting himself in a position to fire away. He did that, and then he did that and put Colorado up 1-0.

If you go back and pay close attention, you’ll even see him pointing to Rantanen when Makar gets the puck up high. MacKinnon knew how the play was developing and how moving the puck to Rantanen would open the shooting lane he needed to beat David Rittich.

The iso cam on MacKinnon is akin to watching a conductor lead his orchestra.

All together again.

From the lost faceoff to Rantanen and Landeskog bodying up guys to win puck battles, this was a collectively great effort from Colorado’s best players and top power-play unit.

Their execution as a group put the Avalanche on the road to an impressive Game 1 victory as they did it not only with their trademark high-end skill but good old-fashioned hard work.

The physical side of the game is more well-known to be Colorado’s great downfall, not an asset on their side. Those were different Avalanche teams, however.

He might have missed the last six weeks, but Gabe Landeskog’s return to the lineup was both literally and figuratively a smashing success (he finished with one goal, one assist, five shots on goal, and six hits) as he once again led the way for the Avalanche.