Avalanche return to action and secure postseason berth with another gutsy win over St. Louis

Remembering back to the first game of the season, a tough 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on home ice, really gives you a sense of how this Colorado Avalanche season has developed.

That night, the Avs opened the season as Cup favorites, a team facing real expectations after they fell just short of making a conference finals appearance for the first time since 2002 (tied for the third-longest streak in the NHL).

They fell flat on their face to a feisty Blues team that attacked all of the insecurities of an antsy Avalanche fanbase unconvinced they were rooting for a legitimate Cup contender. They were physical on the forecheck, causing turnovers galore and squeezing the life out of any even-strength offense. It was worst fears realized for the Avalanche.

Fast forward to today and a lot has happened.

The Avs officially punched their playoff ticket tonight with a 4-2 win over those same Blues. You know, the same group they haven’t lost to since that punch in the mouth on opening night. The win tonight moved the Avs to 5-1 on the season series with the final two games set for Saturday and next Monday.

No matter what happens in those games, Colorado secured the season series against the only non-Vegas team that anybody was concerned about before the season started. While the games have been close, as was also the case tonight in a game that was 3-2 in the final minutes before an empty-net goal secured the victory for the Avs, Colorado has consistently found a way to squeeze out the wins.

Circumstances haven’t mattered at all. The Avs were in their first game back from their second COVID-related pause of the season and somehow the Blues got outshot and a late turnover allowed the Avs to equalize the score after the first period.

From there, the rusty Avs fumbled their way through a game that lacked rhythm and pace throughout but they came up with just enough plays to get through. Where the Blues whiffed on some golden scoring chances, Colorado capitalized just enough to get them across the finish line.

While the Avs were more survivors than thrivers tonight, that hasn’t been the story of this season. Colorado is currently winning every single season series against their division-only schedule and tonight secured another series where they will win no less than five of the eight games against each other.

Despite missing leading goal scorer Mikko Rantanen, top goaltender Philipp Grubauer, and using their third different third goaltender of the season in the discarded and unwanted (at least by Minnesota and San Jose) Devan Dubnyk, Colorado found a way. They climbed the mountain again.

They have one regulation loss in their last 25 games. Were it not for their poor COVID luck, they would have been the first team to clinch a postseason spot. Instead, Vegas did it only one night earlier despite Colorado having an entire week off.

Those Golden Knights maintain first in the division but are just two points ahead of the Avs with Colorado having two games in hand. Over their current eight-game win streak, Vegas has gained just two points of ground on the Avalanche.

It just hasn’t mattered what form adversity has taken this season. Colorado has (so far) found an answer for all of it.

Their reward for another virtuoso Nathan MacKinnon performance (three assists) and a rise to the challenge from Andre Burakovsky (two goals taking Rantanen’s place) means their fourth consecutive playoff appearance, their longest streak since 2006.

The fits and starts and various stages of Avalanche rebuilds all left a fan base frustrated and wanting more.

This is the more. This is the team we’ve been waiting for.

TAKEAWAYS

• The Avs outshot the Blues but the Blues had nearly double the shot attempts overall. One of the very few games where the Avs have gotten caved in on shot attempts. The big difference here was the Avalanche blocked a ton of shots (27-11 advantage for Colorado) and genuinely did limit the quality. While Colorado still lost the xGF battle, it was a small amount and given the shot attempts involved, it’s fair to say Colorado got the better of the spots it chose to pick for shots tonight.
• Winning this game wasn’t a “blow your doors off” kind of performance but it was exactly the kind of tough, gritty win that we weren’t sure Colorado could really win at the start of this year. They could have started to get down and feel sorry for themselves when Dubnyk let in a softie late in the third period to make it 3-2, but they just got back to work. The Blues never made a serious push with an empty net as the Avs scored not long after Jordan Binnington went to the bench and MacKinnon made the play the spring the rush that resulted in another P.E. Bellemare ENG. Just good all-around work from the Avs there.
• There have been some real circumstances to their results lately but despite the winning continuing, the underlying numbers have taken a big step back in the last several games. Between exhaustion (pre-break!) and now rust and Rantanen-less, there are easily explainable reasons for the dip in play and continuing to win despite pockmarks in the underlying game is clean and healthy livin’ but it would be nice to see the Avs get back to their dominant defensive ways.
• The Avs won tonight and I’m struggling to think of a single Av who I thought, all things considered, truly had a good night. MacKinnon, Landeskog and Burakovsky obviously had nice evenings on the scoresheet but really only played an okay overall game. I’m curious to get into Evan’s grades because I think the Avs were effective without necessarily being their typically overwhelming selves.
• Tyson Jost. There’s a guy who I think was good. Five-game point streak suddenly for the kid. He’s earned it. Nothing flukey about his assist tonight. That was just some great hockey.
• Shoutout to Hunter Miska, who made 51 (!!) saves with the Colorado Eagles tonight to help them beat Tuscon. A grip of prospects hit the scoresheet, including Alex Newhook.
• Somehow these three guys were linemates??
• Jared Bednar finally broke the record of longest-tenured Avalanche head coach…ever. A hell of an accomplishment for a guy who lost 60 games in his first year as an NHL head coach and could have justifiably gotten canned that year. Props to Joe Sakic and the management group for believing in their process and expecting better from Bednar, who has won at every level and is quickly ascending the ranks of NHL coaches.This is some of the perspective he dropped on his time coaching the Avalanche.
  

  Wow.