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At the Rink: NHL Season coming down to the wire
Jesse’s Observations
Mikko Makes history
20 years to the day. April 6th. 2003 Milan Hejduk scored his 50th goal of the season against the St. Louis Blues to become just the second player in Colorado Avalanche history to reach the half-century mark.
Fast forward to April 6th. 2023 and it was Mikko Rantanen scoring his 50th (and then his 51st and 52nd) of the season, making him the first player to accomplish the feat in an Avalanche uniform since Hejduk.
As soon as Rantanen broke into the league as a full-time NHLer, his scoring touch was obvious. His first NHL goal was an absolute snipe short-side, and despite being on one of the worst teams in modern NHL history he found a way to score 20 goals in his rookie season.
All that said, I’m not sure I can say that I “always knew he could do it”, because 50 goals in an NHL season is a feat accomplished by very few. Typically the best of the best scorers in the league are the only ones who can ever get close, and even then, most of those players will only be within reach of the 50-goal mark once or twice in their career (this is part of what makes a guy like Alex Ovechkin so unbelievably special).
It’s been funny over the last couple of weeks to follow this saga for Rantanen. We all could do the math, it’s been pretty clear for a while that Mikko was barreling towards this milestone. As much as we in the media would try to get him to talk about it, or really even acknowledge it, he wouldn’t bite.
His answers usually consisted of different cliches about helping the win however he could, and about how individual awards aren’t really things that he focuses on. At one point, the Finnish forward even said “I’ll keep giving these boring answers”.
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You know what? I believe him. I genuinely believe that it truly doesn’t matter to him. Or, I guess I should say I believe that it DIDN’t matter to him. At least not at first.
Jared Bednar really put it best I thought…
When you’re at 40, 45… yeah who cares about 50. You’re just trying to win, and scoring goals is fun. Once you’re at 48, 49… you want it. How could you not? It’s RIGHT THERE. I’ll stop just shy of saying he was forcing shots, but Mikko was definitely taking shots that he would maybe try to fake and make a pass on normally, let’s just say that.
My favorite part of all of it though, you could tell this meant a lot to his teammates. These are “hockey guys” through and through, and they understood what a milestone like that means, and what it represents. They wanted it for Rantanen. He deserved it.
Rantanen has a very strong case for being the Avs’ MVP of this season, even with as good as Nathan MacKinnon has been. Early in the season when the Avs were rolling out lineups made up of double-digit AHL players, it was Rantanen who kept the offense humming along and ultimately kept the Avs afloat. Alexandar Georgiev had a hand in that too, but we’ll get there in a second.
Rantanen took on a larger leadership role in the dressing room and came through when the team needed him most. We’ve watched Mikko Rantanen take another elite step forward this year, and I hope everybody who has been lucky enough to watch this season up close appreciates the special performance we’ve seen from Rantanen, despite the adversity the team has battled through all year long.
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The first Av to hit 50 goals in 20 years, and the first Finnish-born player to do it in 30 years. What a moment for The Moose.
Alexandar Georgiev
Just couldn’t let this go by without mentioning it. Just two nights before Rantanen hit the 50-goal mark, Nathan MacKinnon scored a dazzling goal in overtime to give him 100 points on the season for the first time in his career, which in turn pushed the Avalanche into first place in the Central Division.
With all of the excitement, it was maybe easy to miss the fact that, with that OT win, Georgiev became the single-season record holder for wins on the road. 19 wins (and now more than that) wins away from the friendly confines of Ball Arena is what it took to push Georgiev to #1 in the record books, and he is another totally under-the-radar MVP candidate for this Avalanche team this season.
It hasn’t been 100% perfect, but there were several stretches this season that the Avalanche were able to survive solely because of Georgiev.
He was my biggest question mark coming into this season. We all knew that HE thought he was a #1 goaltender. We had all seen the flashes in New York, but was he going to be able to kick the downward trend that his career had been on, and prove that he could backstop a Cup contender.
Based on this season, the answer is a resounding “Yes!”
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Georgiev is a top-five goaltender in the league in several statistical categories, and top-ten in pretty much every other category. He’s fiercely competitive and seems to fit in well with this group. He still has something to prove, and I think is playing with a chip on his shoulder. I truly believe that in his core he wants to be able to look at the New York Rangers and say, “You chose wrong.”
Are the Bolts in trouble?
You guys know me, I simply do not pick against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
I said all playoffs last year, they are the best team until somebody proves otherwise. Well, the Avalanche proved otherwise. Colorado was clearly the better team and was just too much for last year’s Lightning team to handle.
Still, though, that made it nineteen consecutive series wins against Eastern Conference teams. To me, that means that still today, on April 8th, 2023, the Tampa Bay Lightning are still the team to beat out East until somebody does it.
They’re a scary team in the postseason because what could possibly scare them? How do you make a team like that nervous? I remember watching Tampa versus Toronto in Round 1 of the playoffs last season, and even with their backs against the wall in Game 6, the Lightning looked like they knew they would find a way to tie the game, and then find a way to win it.
And they did.
Plus, having a goaltender like Andrei Vasilevsky sure helps. It’s the ultimate trump card. He’s one of the only players on the planet who has the ability to win the game almost entirely on his own.
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Now, while I personally would still want absolutely zero part of the Lightning in the first round of the playoffs, things are not looking good for the reining Kings of the Eastern Conference.
The injuries are piling up, and for the first time in five years, this team looks gassed.
Vasilevsky has been more inconsistent than we’ve seen… maybe ever. The physical toll may have finally set in for this group. Look, I’m not betting money against them in the first round, but the Toronto Maple Leafs have never been more well-positioned to slay the beast than they are right now.
Wild Card Chaos
These Wild Card races are… well, wild. With the top six from each conference locked up, the focus shifted to who would be getting into the final four spots at the bottom of each playoff bracket.
Seattle clinched their first-ever playoff berth late this past week, leaving just one spot open in the west for three teams to fight over. While out East, you’ve got three teams neck and neck looking to punch the final two tickets to the dance.
The league’s first-ever 16-game day helped provide some clarity and movement, but nothing more was set in stone today.
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Just a few games left to sort out a lot of what is still up in the air. This week will be must-see TV every single night around the NHL.
Meghan’s Observations
Alex Newhook Knocking
He had a goal in last night’s 4-3 win over Los Angeles – it was his 14th goal of the season and his first in twenty games since he last scored on February 25th against Calgary. In his second full season in the league, he’s managed to exceed his goal total from last year with his tally tonight.
The conversation surrounding Newhook’s play has been complicated. Some evaluate him through the lens of a second-line center that never was. Others have granted him more allowances in his sophomore season, but the underlying desire for more is reasonable.
It’s a standard you can imagine Newhook holds himself too as well.
“I think it’s been a good year so far, but I’ve been playing up and down the lineup all year,” he said. “I haven’t really found myself in a consistent spot for more than 15 or 20 games at a time. Just trying to navigate the ups and downs and just trying to be as consistent as I can no matter what position.”
He has 14 goals and 15 assists through 78 games. He’s had stretches that tease at his potential. Several games in January alongside Logan O’Connor and Andrew Cogliano were fruitful and revealed not only some of his playmaking upside but also the ways in which he’s improved defensively.
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He’s moved throughout the lineup playing wing, center, top-six, and fourth line. It’s been a difficult ask, but he’s approached every change in earnest.
“I have the same mindset every game,” he said. “I try to be a difference maker in any way I can to help the team out. There’s definitely different situations and circumstances where I’m put in different roles, and where I’m at right now, I just want to step up and make the most of the opportunity. I can play anywhere. I can be a producer as well and create offense and gotta keep going with what I’m doing recently.”
Though he keeps the same mindset game by game, he’s leaned into the defensive responsibilities that come with a depth role.
“A lot of the time (when) you’re maybe not playing as much, you really don’t want to give up a lot. That’s the biggest thing,” he explained. “Sometimes when you’re playing with more grit guys that are more offensive-minded – you obviously don’t want to give up anything on a given night. But when you’re playing a depth role, you’re definitely relied upon to not give up anything.”
Newhook has embraced his versatility.
“I have all those elements in my game: I’m an offensive-minded guy. I like to create chances, but at the same time, I think my defense is a big part of my game too,” he said. “And, being able to shut guys down and be able to be reliable I think has come a long way. Having both of those and being able to play wing and center as well kind of lets me play anywhere in the lineup and do what I can when coach puts me there.”
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The improvement in Newhook’s game from his rookie season to the next aren’t nothing. He has improved defensively. His possession, chances, and expected goals are all up. The missing piece has been consistency on his behalf, but it’s pretty understandable given the toll injuries have played on the Avs’ forwards (and defensemen, but I digress).
Eagles Clinch and Secure Home Ice
Despite a loss in overtime, the Colorado Eagles clinched a playoff berth in their 2-0 OTL to the Tucson Roadrunners thanks in part to Bakersfield’s win over San Jose. Now with their 4-3 OTW over San Jose on Friday, they secured home ice through the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs. The AHL playoff seeding is very different from the NHL. Here’s a glimpse at how the brackets are shaped.
The Eagles are third in the Pacific Division and 6-2-2-0 in their last ten games. After a series of shake-ups including Ben Meyers’ recall to the Avalanche, five new players straight off their college season, and a mix of absences due to injury or illness, their record has been impressive.
Charles Hudon has emerged as the points leader, and one of the most consistently healthy players to dress for nearly every game outside of his brief call-up stints. In 59 games, he has produced 27 goals and 24 assists for 51 points total and a team-leading seven game-winning goals. A mainstay on powerplay one, Hudon leads the league in powerplay goals with 17. He’s also been an important voice in their leadership group as an alternate captain – particularly in the absence of Brad Hunt.
Jean-Luc Foudy continues to impress. He missed 18 games over a recent stretch due to a lower-body injury but has played in the last five straight. He has 35 points in 44 games though he’s been kept off the scoresheet more than usual after his return from the All-Star Game wherein his injury first cropped up.
Also among their top talent is Alex Galchenyuk. Galchenyuk is a point-per-game player with 41 points in 41 games.
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Another important piece has been the return of Mikhail Maltsev. Maltsev missed almost four months after a skate blade severed a tendon and required surgery in November. Since his return on March 11th, he’s picked up right where he left off with a 0.73 point-per-game pace.
Finally, their goaltending tandem has been a quiet strength throughout the chaos of their season. Only two teams have a goaltender tandem in the top 15 within the league, and Jonas Johansson and Justus Annunen are a part of that. Johansson, though with the Avs right now, has a sixth-best goals-against-average at 2.38, and Annunen’s is ranked 13th at 2.59. Johansson and Annunen are fifth and sixth in terms of their save percentages at 0.918 and 0.915, and Annunen has faced the sixth most shots of any goaltender in the league.
Similar to Georgiev, the team in front of Annunen has included a decimated d-corps at points.
Connor McDavid Hits 150
Connor McDavid joined the elite company of just five other players to date.
With three points in Edmonton’s 6-1 win over San Jose on Saturday, Connor McDavid reached 151 points. He ranks among Wayne Gretzky, Phil Esposito, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, and Bernie Nicholls – the only others to do it.
He’s now one goal away from tying the record for the most scored by an active player in a single season. The last to do it was Alex Ovechkin in the 2007-08 season with 65 goals. He’s also on pace to set a new record among active players for assists within a season at 87 assists.
McDavid is a key player in Edmonton’s prolific – first in the league – powerplay. Only one player has more powerplay goals in the league, and it’s teammate Leon Draisaitl (31) – he has 21 goals of his own, but it’s his 48 assists on the powerplay that standout above the rest.
If McDavid can get on the scoresheet in the upcoming game against Colorado on Tuesday, he will become the first player with three 15-game point streaks in a single season.
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