"I know I can be a great player in this league": Jost a ghost no more

It’s always tough when a person who has found success his entire life suddenly finds himself struggling in ways he never has before. So goes it with Tyson Jost, the 10th overall pick from the 2016 NHL Draft who had a stellar freshman season at North Dakota before signing with the Avalanche and turning pro.

Fast forward to this season and a demotion to the AHL was well-earned, as he just hadn’t found his footing yet. An eight-game stint with the Colorado Eagles didn’t magically fix him but the experience was a humbling reminder that playing top minutes for the Eagles is still a long way from the kind of success he believes he’s capable of in the NHL.

“I’m just playing with more confidence overall,” Jost said. “Even if I didn’t get sent to the AHL, I know I belong in the NHL here. I know I can be a great player in this league. Confidence comes with more puck touches and I got my feeling back in the AHL and I hope I don’t ever end up back there in my career. The assistant and head coach down there were really awesome and helped me get my game back to par. I just want to keep that rolling here. I’m not satisfied. I want to keep rolling and contributing here.”

Contributing, in this case, was a three-point night in Colorado’s 7-1 demolition of Winnipeg that saw him score his second goal in as many games while adding two assists. The production came on the heels of some major lineup changes, including putting Jost in the middle of the ice next to Gabe Landeskog and Matt Calvert. The change has worked for everyone involved as Calvert also scored his second goal in as many games tonight and Landeskog re-took the team-lead in goals when he scored his 31st off a feed from Jost.

“It’s nice. I like our line right now,” Jost told BSN Denver. “I feel like they’re really good at getting me pucks when I have speed through the middle. Honestly, I just think that’s a job that I’m doing a little better, too. I’m not pushing the pace too much. I’m sitting behind pucks, getting pucks with speed more. They’re two established players who have been in the NHL a long time and they have an established game. It’s fun playing with those two. They snap it around really well, work really hard, and they’re responsible in the d-zone. I’m loving it so far.”

Maybe the key to unlocking Jost’s potential, especially at center, is putting him next to a high-level two-way forward like Landeskog, whose on-ice communication is also key next to a young player like Jost. They showed their chemistry on Colorado’s fifth goal when they combined for a nice passing play on a two on one.

“Landy made a great play in the d-zone to chip it to me with speed there,” Jost said. “That’s something we always talk about is coming onto pucks with speed and he just got open and made a great finish there on that pass.”

The win pushed Colorado back into a playoff spot as they jumped ahead of both Minnesota and Chicago with the victory. The Avalanche head to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks on Friday night. Just like that, the Avalanche have won three of four, outscoring their opponents 14-5 in the process. The lineup changes have provided a significant spark in the last two games.

“We have four lines rolling right now,” Jost said. “Everyone is just going out there and doing their job. You get some consistency throughout the lineup. I think we wear teams down now.”

If this is the beginning of Jost actually emerging as an impact player for Colorado, it completely changes the dynamic of this roster. The Avalanche front office and coaching staff has been waiting all year for signs to believe in Jost breaking out. The hope is this isn’t another false start and the start of something much bigger.

“It feels awesome to put up points here and play winning hockey,” Jost said. “We’re starting to gain some consistency here. We’ve just to keep this momentum rolling. We’ve got two big games coming up here, back to back, both teams in our division, so we can’t be satisfied. We’ve got to keep pushing. These are big points up for grabs. We’re back in a playoff spot.”

With Colorado suddenly back in the saddle in a playoff race nobody appears overly interested in winning, the good feelings have returned to a locker room that was feeling pretty down on its luck as recently as last weekend.

Takeaways from the game

• This was the beatdown the Jets deserved the last couple times these teams met. The Avalanche have badly outplayed them for three straight games. Goaltending was the difference again as Colorado got it for the second time and snagged the win.
• Avalanche goaltenders (just kidding, it’s just been Semyon Varlamov) have posted a save percentage over .900 in seven of the last eight games. Colorado has a point in six of them. You can try to tell me that’s a coincidence but I’ve long been of the belief the goaltending was betraying a decent team.
• That said, this wasn’t a decent team tonight. The Avalanche just beatdown the Jets here. They outshot them 46-27 despite leading most of the game, even outshooting Winnipeg 16-8 in the third period despite Colorado leading by four goals just 1:10 into the final frame. No score effects here, just a straight ass kicking.
• Jost’s three-point night put him just three behind the rookie total of 22 he had last year. It may not have been a Mikko Rantanen-like leap for Jost, but barring something seriously messed up happening, Jost should at least be able to say he topped his rookie season point totals before all is said and done. If he keeps finding the scoresheet regularly, it could be a meaningful enough jump at the end here where maybe Colorado feels like they don’t have to find that second line center elsewhere. Long way to go before that happens, though.
• A player from every forward line scored tonight. Somehow in a seven-goal outburst, only two points came from defensemen – Tyson Barrie and Ryan Graves picked up the assists.
• Barrie’s assist came on the power play as the Avalanche finally (FINALLY) broke through on the power play and scored. It was their first PPG since the January 23 game against the Minnesota Wild. The Avs also scored two goals immediately after PPs ended but ultimately counted as two even strength goals. Those units were significantly better tonight, no doubt.
• Can’t say enough good things about the play of Varlamov. He carried a shutout into the third period and only lost it on a confusing play where everyone believed the officials had blown the play dead. It seemed a classic case of “intent to blow” coming in to remove another goal but for some reason that wasn’t the case and the Jets were awarded the goal. Given the Avalanche looked like they got away with too many men on the ice on their first goal, the goal for the Jets only seemed fair.
• As Tim Peel games tend to be, the officiating in general was a bit of an adventure. Some stuff made sense but other decisions left the lot of us baffled by what was going on down on the ice. There were a few choices that made me really wonder what they were thinking (the extra two on Zadorov, for example).
• The Matt Nieto produced points 21 and 22 tonight. He now sits just five behind his career best of 27, which he produced in 2014-15 as a member of the San Jose Sharks. His second best came last year when he put up 26 points for the Avs. He is arguably the best waiver claim they’ve made in a long line of them.
• Another guy pushing his career high is Matt Calvert, who is also at 22 points but is chasing 24 as his highest mark so far. 12 of those points have come in 2019 alone, a span of 20 games beginning on January 2nd.
• For the second consecutive game, an Avs player recorded his first ever goal in his NHL career. Against Vegas, it was Andrew Agozzino making the moment special. Tonight, A.J. Greer took a centering feed from J.T. Compher and cashed in on the best scoring chance of his NHL career to date. Greer has, predictably, been a favorite of the coaching staff recently.
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