Studs

Colorado’s top two lines

We have talked endlessly this season about the top of Colorado’s forward lineup and how a second-line center would tie the entire thing together and make the Avs significantly more formidable up top.

That was certainly the case tonight as the Avs bludgeoned the Flames with their top two lines. At 5v5, those two lines combined to outshoot Calgary 28-12 (14-5 on goal), outchance them 10-3, and outscored them 4-0. So, pretty dominant stuff.

It was the top line of Valeri Nichushkin, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen doing the heavy lifting, but Colorado’s reworked second line with Brandon Duhaime, Casey Mittelstadt, and Jonathan Drouin kept the foot on the gas when the MacKinnon line got off the ice.

The scoring could have been even more tilted than it was as the Mittelstadt line had multiple high-danger scoring chances that didn’t result in goals, too. This was a top-down demolition by the Avs against an outmanned Flames team and it was encouraging to see the best work from the forwards come from the top two groups.

Valeri Nichushkin

Nichushkin was especially awesome tonight as we saw the power and speed on display in open ice but he created the first goal by taking a rebound off Dan Vladar’s doorstep and finding Rantanen alone on the backdoor for an easy goal.

It was a rosy return to the lineup for Nichushkin when he got the overtime game-winning goal against Minnesota last week, but this was a complete performance that reminds you why he’s such a vital part of this lineup. His two-way play is exceptional and the Flames had no answer for him.

It was nice to see him get a goal with a shot that beat a goalie cleanly from some distance. I’m not saying that all of the goals he scores on the doorstep are bad, but a little variance is nice and great for his confidence.

He was the second-best player on the ice.

Mikko Rantanen

Nichushkin was second-best because this guy was incredible. Rantanen’s first goal was easy stuff; he went to the net and the other guys around him fed him an easy tap-in goal. He finished it. Cool. His assists were the product of him being a puck-moving menace tonight.

Rantanen in transition was unstoppable in this game. He was bulldozing any Flames player who tried to muscle him off the puck, finding Nichushkin and MacKinnon in the seams of their porous transition defense, and using his playmaking to generate excellent scoring chances.

This is the version of Rantanen that is incredibly easy to fall in love with. He bullies the opposition with his size and strength, dazzles with his skill, and his second goal was just an incredibly placed shot that chased Dan Vladar at the end of the second period. Poor guy got run because MacKinnon and Rantanen picked corners on him from tight angles. Being a goalie is hard!

Anyway, MacKinnon’s two points pushed him to a new career high of 113 as he continues chasing a Hart Trophy and a new Avalanche record of points in a season. Meanwhile, Rantanen quietly hums along as the fifth-highest scorer in the league right now and is on pace to join MacKinnon as the only Avalanche players to ever record 100 points in back-to-back seasons. Good lord these guys are good.

Duds

The fourth line

The trio of Andrew Cogliano-Fredrik Olofsson-Joel Kiviranta was a disaster in this game and was a direct culprit in both of Calgary’s goals.

Olofsson was just recalled and replaced Chris Wagner on the roster and this was not the kind of performance that will inspire the coaching staff to rock with him much more this season. He was uncompetitive in a board battle behind the net that led to the puck coming out high and ultimately getting tipped by Cogliano and behind Justus Annunen to tie the game shortly after the Avs had taken a 1-0 lead.

That’s bad luck for Cogliano, but bad work by Olofsson. He has to play a heavy game to be effective and that didn’t happen tonight. He was too soft and the coaching staff pulled back on the reins immediately. Olofsson didn’t get a shift in the second period until the Avs had built a 4-2 lead and then had seven shifts in the third period after only combining for six in the first two periods. That’s a bad sign.

Cogliano is certainly more disappointing because Olofsson should only be in the lineup during the postseason because something has gone wrong. Cogliano may or may not be the fourth-line center? We don’t really know his role when the entire lineup is healthy and Nikolai Kovalenko is added to the group, but we’ll see. Anyway, Cogliano had a bad sequence in the neutral zone and lost his footing and Calgary scored their second goal.

This line got beaten up all night as a trio and Kiviranta was the only one whose game didn’t jump out to me as a real problem. Cogliano’s problems are worrying because his play has been on a steady decline over the last month or so and that’s the opposite direction of what you’d like to see his play doing as the playoffs approach. Hopefully he’s still got something left in the tank for the postseason (I am betting he does).

Unsung Hero

Justus Annunen

The kid we’re lovingly calling “Juice” was sharp again tonight. He allowed two goals on the first three shots but the first goal was a hard-luck one and the second, well, you’d probably like a stop there.

After that, Annunen stopped the final 24 shots that came his way and the Avalanche rolled to victory despite the early hiccups. While the team in front of him kept their foot on the gas and completely dominated the Flames in scoring six goals in two periods, Annunen made a number of important stops to keep the Avs from getting down by multiple goals or allowing the Flames to stem the Avalanche momentum in any way.

The most notable of those saves was Annunen stonewalling Jonathan Huberdeau when he broke out of the penalty box and got a clean breakaway opportunity that would have helped Calgary get back into the game. The big Finnish netminder stood tall and that was mostly it for dangerous chances.

Colorado played a strong defensive game in front of Annunen but he made the saves in the big situations that could have swung the game had he not. That’s not something the Avs have gotten enough of this year but Annunen has given them in four straight starts. He’s building momentum.