We’re back with another edition of the Avalanche Roundtable. Rudo is on vacation this week so it’ll just be the remaining three of us to talk about big-time player acquisitions. We saw landscape-altering deals last year with the trades of Matthew Tkachuk and free agent signing of Johnny Gaudreau. Who is the best player that gets traded this summer? AJ:…
Beginning this week, we’re going to be using Monday as a vehicle for both a written roundtable and then using it as the jumping-off point for the podcast. Today we’re going to start with a look at Colorado’s free-agent priorities. Let’s see how the gang feels about it. Let’s start in-house. Which Avalanche pending UFA would you prioritize re-signing? AJ:…
Studs Nathan MacKinnon You can’t say this guy didn’t do everything in his power to make it happen. They ended up taking the first goal away and giving it to Rantanen and then followed it up by taking his second goal away entirely due to offside. The guy left it all out on the ice. He was incredible from start…
Studs Colorado’s top line Nathan MacKinnon rather remarkably recorded zero points tonight but was an incredibly important driving factor in multiple goals. Mikko Rantanen scored a goal and recorded an assist. Artturi Lehkonen was the third guy on the line most of the night and scored two goals. Evan Rodrigues was a part-time participant on the top line and snuck…
Studs Alexandar Georgiev I’ll start this by saying I really don’t like the first goal by Will Borgen. It’s yet another shot from distance that beats Georgiev cleanly. I don’t think Georgiev plays it very well and makes himself really small as the shot is getting released. I don’t like it. I’ve also always said that I can dislike the…
Studs Nathan MacKinnon MacKinnon put the “pow” in “star power” tonight with a performance that showcased his game-breaking speed but the power that makes him truly unstoppable at times. The play where he taps the puck into open space for his own breakaway is great recognition on his part. He knows he’s faster than everyone out there and knows if…
Studs Alexandar Georgiev It didn’t start out great for him. I thought both goals that got by him weren’t overly difficult saves, but Georgiev gets an enormous amount of credit for Seattle not getting more than two goals tonight. He spent the first period under siege, not so much by volume but by quality instead. Once the Avs settled down…
Studs Lars Eller Let’s start this section off by saying I wouldn’t say anyone on the Avalanche side of the ice was a “stud” tonight. That said, I’m not going to leave the section blank or anything, and I really did like what Eller brought to the table tonight. It’s obvious Eller doesn’t play at the breakneck pace the Avalanche…
The matchups are all set and the Colorado Avalanche’s reward for winning the Central Division is taking on the Seattle Kraken in the franchise’s first-ever foray into postseason hockey. Before we get into where we’re going, let’s talk about where we’ve been. Colorado finished the regular season 1st in the Central with 109 points and a 51-24-7 record. Seattle finished…
Studs Nathan Freaking MacKinnon Oh my goodness, what a game. What a game. MacKinnon has had some extremely impressive performances this season (that five-point game in Buffalo has been overlooked all year) and I’ve written numerous times in this exact space about what a dominant player he was from the start of January 1 and it just never stopped. To…
Studs Evan Rodrigues The Avs got Artturi Lehkonen back from the broken finger he suffered while dominating Montreal and it meant dropping Rodrigues from the comfortable job alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen to one flanking J.T. Compher and Lehkonen. It wasn’t a dominant night for Rodrigues but on a night where none of the Avs really looked like they…
Studs Alexandar Georgiev What do you say about a guy who made another 38 saves and was beaten only by two excellent shots? You say, wow, that guy certainly put his team into position to win the game. I’d have loved a save on the first Oilers goal, but I’d also love to win the lottery and be rich and…
Studs Nathan MacKinnon It was a tough night for #29 last night in Los Angeles and it appeared he might be headed for another disappointing night after the first two periods. A couple of posts in the first period were the highlight of MacKinnon’s night until the Avs got down 4-2 and the refs just kept gifting the Avs with…
Studs Alexandar Georgiev What do you say about the only Avs player who even bothered to show up for the first period of the game? He was Colorado’s brightest star tonight and the biggest reason the Avs walked out with two points. I’ve no problems with the first two goals on him and even the third, which I think he…
Studs Mikko Rantanen 50 goals is one of those numbers in hockey that can define a career. Rantanen becoming the first player since Milan Hejduk 20 years ago (to the day, in fact) could be another notch in building an all-time great legacy in Colorado. He’s already won a gold medal at the WJCs, a silver medal in the World…
The beauty and curse of an 82-game schedule in the regular season is that there are probably 70 of them that, once they’re finished, you never think about again. Hell, that number might even be a little bit low once you get a few years down the road. Tonight’s game between the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks, Game 77…
Studs Nathan MacKinnon Two goals and an assist got him to the 100-point mark for the first time in his career. Seems fitting to happen in San Jose after he tried so hard a few years ago in the final game of the season when he was stuck on 99 points and was doing everything he could to crack 100.…
We’re going to talk about Sam Girard today. Before we really get going, let’s be honest about something first. If you clicked on this piece and are reading this right now, there’s a pretty good chance you already feel a certain way about Girard. All I ask is that you follow along in being curious about the player and put…
Studs Nathan MacKinnon This was a game the Avs really needed to have and MacKinnon was the big star from either team to show up and be a consistent force throughout. Eight shots on goal, two of which go in, really highlight the statistical contributions of MacKinnon, but it was more about his presence on the ice. Somehow, Dallas abandons…
Look, I love the NHL Draft. I think it’s fun, it’s extremely interesting, and looking back on how the decisions and how the league ends up shaped by the decisions of teams on draft day is one of the more educational things you can do when looking how to build and maintain a winning organization. The Colorado Avalanche did the…
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