“A Stanley Cup preview.”

There are a handful of teams that run into each other every year and the game gets billed as a potential preview of the Stanley Cup Finals. We all have a crystal ball and it’s never not hazy for us.

Double negatives aside, this was nothing but positive for the Avalanche. Coming in with two wins on a three-game road trip, this week was already a success. Coming in against the Boston Bruins, a team that had not lost at home in regulation this season, the Avs went and took care of business in a 4-1 win that was arguably their best defensive effort of the season.

This game featured two of the highest-scoring teams in the NHL and had three of the top five individual scorers coming in (Nathan MacKinnon, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand).

By the end of the night, that trio had combined for exactly one assist.

Each team was missing key players, with Boston missing Patrice Bergeron and Colorado missing Nazem Kadri (lower body) and Matt Calvert (personal reasons).

Even the officials treated it like a playoff game as they waited until the third period to begin calling penalties and then the only ones called were ones they didn’t really have a choice.

All the elements combined for a fantastic Saturday night hockey game. It was well-played by both teams with flashes of speed, skill, and toughness.

Hitting ramped up on both sides and it was a clear display of great defense. Everyone loves a barn burner where teams trade goals and momentum swings abound but this was more of a playoff-style battle for the hockey purist.

The Avs tied the game when the suddenly unstoppable Val Nichushkin scored his fourth goal in seven games, an incredible turnaround from all of the well-documented struggles he’s had.

With all the offensive firepower on hand, the first period ended tied 1-1 and the goal scorers were Chris Wagner and Nichushkin.

The unlikely scorers continued into the second when the game-winning goal was scored by Ian Cole, his first of the season, with a primary assist from Mark Barberio, his first point of the season.

Andre Burakovsky made it 3-1 when he took advantage of laziness through the neutral zone by Pastrnak and MacKinnon just barely tapped the puck to Burakovsky, who broke in behind the Boston defense and beat Jaro Halak.

The Avs went into shutdown mode in the third period but made life tougher on themselves than they needed to with three high-sticking penalties.

None of that ended up mattering as the defensive shell the Avs went into ended up being impenetrable and Pavel Francouz made all 12 third-period shots he faced.

Two teams with streaks on the line entered, one remained standing.

Colorado.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• The injury issues are unbelievable. Grubauer goes down in the middle of the game? A nothing hit on Makar takes him out of the game? Jared Bednar had no updates on either guy and said they would know more “in a couple of days”. Sure doesn’t sound good but maybe Monday morning will bring more positive tidings.
• Three high-sticking penalties in the third period erased what had been a totally clean game from them penalty-wise.
• Big story in this game was the matchup of the NHL’s leading goal scorer, David Pastrnak, against Nikita Zadorov. Through 50 minutes, it was advantage Zadorov in every way imaginable. Pastrnak wasn’t part of any kind of meaningful offense until desperation time in the last half of the third period. Zadorov has been downright excellent in shutting down opposing team’s best players since given the Connor McDavid assignment last week. Since then he’s looked like a completely different player and arguably his worst performance was against a starless Montreal Canadiens team.
• Since the big guns returned, the three-headed monster has continued scoring but doing so in different ways. Tonight, MacKinnon with an assist to Burakovsky and Landeskog an empty-net goal from Bellemare. Not the guys you expect them to show up in the box score with.
• That’s emblematic of how this team continues to succeed. The stars find ways to chip in points and they get just enough help to outscore the other team.
• Colorado finished this road trip 3-0 and have four road games remaining this month. Compare that to seven home games the rest of this month and six home games versus three road games in January and this is the time for Colorado to really put their foot on the gas. They had a road-heavy opening portion of their schedule but they have gone 11-5-1.
• If the Avs drop the hammer in Pepsi Center, they will be competing for the number one seed in the western conference into the new year.
• Of course, good goaltending helps an awful lot and Francouz was perfect in relief. He ended up playing the majority of this road trip and was fantastic. We don’t know what’s going on with Grubauer but Francouz is getting the job done. He’s locked in and if the Avs have to ride him for a little bit, you have to feel confident he can keep them competitive.
• The Avs are now just two points back of St. Louis in the Central Division but after the Blues got smoked at home by Toronto, Colorado retains their two games in hand. The two teams are set to meet in St. Louis on December 16 in a game that will have more than enough storylines.