Nathan MacKinnon reminds everyone why he’s the engine of the Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche won their 10th consecutive home game with a 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings that Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar referred to as a “slugfest.”

For my money, the score was a little deceiving in Colorado’s favor because some good puck luck came their way and it helped tilt the scoreboard in a game where the Avs weren’t consistently great. We’ve seen this version of the Avs, now 7-1-1 since the trade deadline, drop the hammer (shoutout Cole Trickle) in some of their recent wins. Others have been more of a classic struggle. Both of their losses, for example, saw them score only one goal in each game.

Tonight was more of a combination of those moments. Colorado’s defense wasn’t at the same dominant level we’ve seen recently but the offense was consistent throughout the game and finished the chances they did generate. The box score is littered with Colorado’s top guys again as the top defensive pairing and top six forwards did all of the heavy lifting on offense tonight.

When things are going great, it’s easy to win games. The Avs have had to gut out a few of their recent wins, showing a versatility they lacked earlier this year. They are getting contributions from all over their lineup as one forward line is no longer completely dominating the results. This is a transformed hockey team and one that has the other teams in the western conference on edge and for good reason.

Anyway, let’s talk about how the Avs built their 12th victory over the Red Wings in their last 13 matchups (hahahaha).

Nathan MacKinnon the Avalanche overlord returns

It’s been pretty quiet from MacKinnon lately as he had just three points in his last six games, which qualifies as a veritable ice age for that guy these days. He was spectacular tonight, driving offense all over the ice and pressuring the Detroit defense into coverage breakdowns. This wasn’t the shot-heavy version of MacKinnon we are used to, however, as he managed six shot attempts but only got one on net.

Naturally, that one shot on goal became a shot in the goal as he got a fortuitous bounce from a Jonathan Drouin shot that rebounded to him and he whipped it into the net before Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon could do anything about it.

MacKinnon’s skating is always a problem but Detroit watched him gallop like Secretariat into open space and tear up the neutral zone in a way we haven’t seen from MacKinnon much recently. This is, of course, his superpower, but Detroit couldn’t contain him in the offensive zone, either. Look at the play he makes here on Val Nichushkin’s goal in the first period to put the Avs up 2-1.

The entire Detroit defense is collapsing in front of the net out of fear of what he’s going to do and he still gets the puck through. Most of the credit goes to MacKinnon for being a freak (and arguably the fastest kid alive), but some credit also goes to Detroit for being bad defensively and letting the best player in the world roam free. Great work, fellas.

MacKinnon’s line alongside Nichushkin and Drouin was easily Colorado’s best on the night in just 13:58 of 5v5 time. In that time, they did the following damage:

• Shot attempts: 21-9
• Shots on goal: 9-6
• Scoring chances: 9-6
• High-danger chances: 5-5
• Goals: 2-0

The defensive side wasn’t so great from MacKinnon & Co. but the offense landed so we can live with the shortcomings in their own zone. It felt like a return to form for MacKinnon, who had been far less dominant than usual in the last two weeks where the Avs were still winning despite more pedestrian performances.

It wasn’t just MacKinnon, though, as his linemates did a lot of great work, too. Nichushkin finished with the aforementioned goal and Drouin snagged two assists. This was a great night for Colorado’s top guys and it started with MacKinnon.

The “other guy” on Colorado’s top pairing also rocks

Being in Cale Makar’s shadow can’t be the most fun job in the world (or is it because he witnesses an alien on Earth up close every day?), but Devon Toews has made a career of it now. Makar does plenty of incredible stuff and might be headed for his second Norris Trophy (or not, depending on how determined everyone is to play make-believe that someone else is more deserving), but Toews hangs around as his sidekick who gets plenty of love.

We saw a three-point night from Toews and he deserved the flowers of being the first star. He got an assist on Makar’s first-period goal that was actually a goal by Mo Seider’s butt, but we don’t do own-goals in the NHL so it was credited to Makar and Toews reaped the assist reward on the play.

He also scored what was ultimately the game-winning goal when he made it 3-1 on the power play early in the second period before adding an assist on Logan O’Connor’s game-sealing, empty-net goal with 2:04 remaining in the game.

Defensively, this wasn’t the finest night for the Toews-Makar pairing, but they scored two goals and Toews finished with more contributions to goals than the entire Detroit team, so I’m not going to sit here and nitpick some of the in-zone defense. That’s for Studs & Duds tomorrow.

I’m just here giving flowers to Toews for an excellent night. It was such a terrible start offensively for Toews that he will likely miss out on his fourth consecutive 50-point season, but he has 30 points in his last 47 games so things have been trending way up for him for a while now.

The Avs are going to need this version of Toews on offense if they’re going to make the kind of run they think they can.

Mackenzie Blackwood, a sneaky great night for the Avs

He might get overlooked a bit because of the offense-a-palooza at the top of Colorado’s lineup (the top D pairing scored four points and the top two lines had all of the other points except O’Connor’s ENG), but I thought Blackwood was great.

The defense in front of him was shaky, especially in the important defensive areas. That is to say, Colorado’s rush defense and netfront defense were both lacking at times, leaving Blackwood to figure it out himself. He did so and the 21 saves on 23 shots is underselling what a solid night he had.

The Red Wings didn’t bury the Avs in high-danger chances (only 10 at 5v5), but the ones they created were excellent. Just look at Austin Watson’s goal in the third period. Watson skates to the front of Colorado’s net and picks up a rebound amid a sea of bodies and just taps it in. While I’m sure Happy Gilmore would be proud, it was frustrating to watch the Avalanche defense with such a cavalier attitude towards its defense. Blackwood stopped six of the eight high-danger shots on goal he faced and allowed nothing else to get by him.

The Avs have watched 3-1 and 4-1 leads in the third period dissolve into tougher, grind-it-out wins in overtime over the last nine days. While Detroit never seriously threatened the Avs in this one, it would have been nice to see a boring third period where nothing got interesting. Instead, the Red Wings scored late and then on the very next shift put Blackwood in a tough spot again.

He came up big and then the intrigue ended with O’Connor’s goal to seal the deal. Still, Blackwood needed a solid response following a shaky finish to the Montreal game and I loved what he put out there tonight. Nothing free.