Takeaways from Avs' victory over Boston

Well, that’s how you take advantage. Not only of home ice, not only from a couple of fortunate calls, but that’s how you take advantage when the opposing team loses its longtime captain.

When Zdeno Chara went down after the first period, with a lower-body injury, I thought the Avs were a much different team and just really took it to the Boston Bruins in their 6-3 victory tonight. Well, right after Nathan MacKinnon’s horrible giveaway that led to a Jake DeBrusk breakaway goal that made it 3-1 Boston, that is.

Here are my takeaways from the night:

• Talking to guys like Ian Cole in the room after, the Avs definitely discussed Chara’s absence and how best to take advantage. Essentially, the new plan was to put as many shots on net as possible and tire out the five-man Boston defense from having to turn to play the rebound. That sounds easy to say, as first you have to get the puck to put shots on net. But there was a concerted effort by the Avs to get pucks deeper, skate more with it in the Bruins end and put as many shots on net as possible. It worked. Boston looked very tired by the end. “You want to make them expend as much energy as you can,” Cole said. “We were starting to get in deep in their zone. They’d flip pucks out, we’d turn and get them right back in. When you’re playing that three-quarters ice game, it’s tough. You’re gassed.’
• As bad as that turnover by MacKinnon was, he made up for it with a great rest of the game, including that wrister off the rush that made it 4-3 at 9:02 of the third.
• Nikita Zadorov did not play in the third period, but he was healthy. Obviously, Jared Bednar didn’t like what he was seeing. He only played 7:22 in the whole game.
• I thought Sam Girard was excellent tonight. Two assists, 21:18 of ice time, 17 Corsi events for, 11 against. Strong game.
• Mikko Rantanen, obviously, was tremendous with a three-point night. Great pass to MacK on the game-winner, great hard shot on the goal he scored that made it a 3-2 game and got the Avs back in it mentally.
• Did anyone notice the “Yankees Suck” chant by the many Bruins fans on hand toward the end. Guess they wanted something good to feel about.
• Expect to see Philipp Grubauer in net Friday against his old team, Washington.
• Nice to see Matt Calvert get rewarded with a goal tonight, even if it was a bit of a shaky one on the part of Jaroslav Halak. Calvert’s pressure around the net helped cause it, though.
• I thought Bednar did a pretty nice job with his matchups tonight. The Avs’ top line outplayed the big, bad Boston top line, with MacKinnon outplaying Patrice Bergeron by a pretty wide margin.
• Hey, the Avs even won 59 percent of their faceoffs tonight.
• Avs practice at noon Thursday.