Grubauer steals a point in Chicago with continued brilliance

When Colorado went through that mid-season slump, the entire point of it became to turn it around before it got too late in the year. Neither goaltender had stepped up and really played like a starting goaltender after essentially skipping December and January. Then it was as if the switch that had flipped off following Colorado’s win over Florida in the first week of December was suddenly back on again.

Semyon Varlamov played his tail off in February and looked like he was going to earn back the job the Avs had been looking for reason to give to Philipp Grubauer. He’s a free agent this summer and it appeared as if Varlamov had begun to lockdown the job that he’s held so securely (for better or worse) for the majority of this decade.

And then Grubauer shut out the Nashville Predators. Two starts later, he shut out the Buffalo Sabres. Two starts later, he shut out the New Jersey Devils, the first of five straight starts in which he backstopped the Avalanche to four wins and one overtime loss. Nine of ten points immediately following being left for dead after a March 15 loss to the Anaheim Ducks?

That’s how you put your stamp on a season and potentially win a job. In the ultimate sign of respect for just how hot Grubauer has played lately, Jared Bednar decided to stick with him for two starts in the span of 48 hours. Fresh off a 31-save performance against Chicago last night, Grubauer upped his game as the team around him slowly fell apart throughout the course of tonight’s rematch and made 40 stops on 42 shots on goal in the 2-1 loss.

While the Avalanche lost another overtime game, the end result was good enough to move Colorado two points ahead of both Arizona and Minnesota for the final playoff spot and just one point behind Dallas for the first wild card spot. With six games remaining for all of Colorado, Arizona, and Minnesota, the Avalanche have set themselves up so the two teams chasing them have to be at least one win better to force a tiebreaker situation.

Secondary scoring has been a hot topic for Colorado all season and with Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen both missing in action, the defense has stepped into the void and helped procure the offense necessary to find the victory. Tonight, the offense completely dried up and it took another five on three power play to produce the only goal of the night when Tyson Barrie’s shot hit Alex Kerfoot’s leg and went in. Thanks to the brilliance of Grubauer, it was enough to get Colorado a single point.

The game in Denver yesterday afternoon had all the flair and energy of a playoff game. Both teams traded scoring chances and showed flashes of why they are playoff contenders in the first place. Tonight’s affair was more of a reminder of why both teams have spent a significant portion of the season on the outside of the playoff race looking in. After two rocky periods, the Avalanche finally looked like a team that hit the wall. They simply couldn’t match Chicago’s energy.

When the game hit overtime, it should have been time for Nathan MacKinnon to step into the spotlight. Instead, he floundered and ended up on the wrong end of the game-winning goal when he casually defended Duncan Keith’s bullrush to the net that ended the game when he slipped the puck through Grubauer’s five-hole.

MacKinnon has played 94 minutes over the last four games and while the end results for the team have been fine, we saw the result of all those minutes on MacKinnon’s legs in overtime. He just didn’t have anything left.

Three points out of four in this weekend set was enough to push Chicago to the brink of realistic elimination and put Colorado in the driver’s seat for a postseason berth. At the end of the night, what is matters more than what might have been.

Takeaways from the game

• Let’s talk about the lineup and its consequences a bit here. The 11 F, 7 D lineup has served Colorado very well this past week. It’s allowed the Avalanche to mix and match forward lines and that was a definite advantage when they were on the road in Minnesota and Dallas because it didn’t allow opposing coaches to do any kind of hard line-matching. It gave the Avs a little feather in their cap in creating tiny advantages in situations where they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. It also allowed the six regular defensemen to get some rest and be fresher because they were resting an extra shift or two each period. It wasn’t much but it was something.
• Because of the rhythm of the schedule, it was easy enough for guys to get rest and the additional minutes the forwards were taking on with the lineup juggling wasn’t causing an issue. But on the second night of a back to back, it’s  legitimate question as to why Graves played just 4:12 (!!) and Bednar chose not to insert the fresh legs of A.J. Greer, who was called up for tonight’s game in Chicago. Bednar knew his lineup was going to be taxed and instead of building in a couple of safeguards where he could, he simply jammed his foot on the pedal and put it to the floor until his team ran out of gas.
• I give Bednar full marks for going with Grubauer and letting him stay in the exceptional rhythm that has produced such positive results. It would have been easy to play Varlamov given his history against Chicago and especially in the United Center, where Varlamov has enjoyed some of the most consistent success in his career. But I can’t help but wonder if he’ll be second guessing the way he deployed his lineup after seeing the way it slammed into the wall and simply survived the third period. They got a point but the process in getting there absolutely deserves re-thinking.
• That said, not everyone struggled mightily. The shot metrics aren’t going to be good for anybody after a third period where Colorado got shelled but several players stood out to me outside of Grubauer: Sven Andrighetto, Tyson Jost, and Sam Girard. I think those three absolutely came to play and Alex Kerfoot and J.T. Compher were two other notables.
• It’s gone very quietly under the radar a bit here because other stories have taken center stage (mainly Grubauer and the high-profile injuries) but Carl Soderberg has badly fallen off recently. He was such a huge key to their success during some of their struggles that it’s easy to give him a free pass now but it’s tough to see them floundering to create offense up front and he’s rarely part of it at even strength.
• I just don’t think there’s a world where the Avalanche can justify re-signing Derick Brassard. Colin Wilson, however, is certainly making a case to be under consideration for a long look at a much cheaper new deal. If he’s not coming back to Colorado, he’s made a strong enough case to get a deal from another NHL team. His main problem in my eyes is his health and availability is an important skill in and of itself.
• Colorado gets two days of rest before taking on Vegas and Arizona this week at home. If they win both, they shift all of the pressure to the teams chasing them. They are must-win games as the Avalanche badly need to avoid letting Game 82 at San Jose have any real meaning.