Avalanche break out of scoring slump in four-goal outburst to sweep Kings

I don’t want y’all to think I’m getting lazy over here or anything but the Avs just keep playing games that look like the previous ones but they’ve improved the results four straight games.

From a regulation loss where they dominated to an overtime win where they dominated, then to essentially a 1-0 shutout win where they dominated, today was the culmination of a week’s worth of building up to the ‘dam’ breaking ever so lightly for Colorado in an easy 4-1 win where, you guessed it, they dominated.

Credit to the Los Angeles Kings for actually pushing back and showing some backbone today as they used the third period to mostly continue getting run over but at least saved some statistical face along the way.

At even strength, Colorado struggled quite a bit more to build the level of dominance we’ve seen in previous games but they still got there. What’s different about this game was the finishing as the Avs scored three goals in the first two periods to give them a comfortable 3-0 lead heading into the third.

With Colorado’s first line still fighting the bad-luck bug, the second line continued its hot streak lately as goals from Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky got the Avs going while a Joonas Donskoi goal late in the second period gave the Avs that incredibly important third goal.

The Donskoi goal was especially nice to see because it was just a bounce of good fortune more than a great play by anybody. A puck that’s bouncing around in the crease and takes a hop over the goaltender’s shoulder and lands in the crease behind him where Donskoi slams it home is exactly the kind of goal that was being scored on the Avs and not by the Avs.

Getting that one after two excellent skill-based goals from Kadri and Burakovsky put the Avs into a mode they haven’t been in for a while where they geared down the offensive tempo in the third period and just played safe hockey. While the Kings got the better of the Avs in shots, it was aided by multiple power plays and the high-danger chances still landed in Colorado’s favor at the end of the period.

That’s how good teams lock down games. Where the Avs will need to clean it up a bit is maybe not screening your own goaltender on what should be harmless shots from the point and for the love of all that is holy and just in the world, stop taking penalties.

So, imperfect, but the exact type of business-like victory the Avs needed. They outplayed and, finally, comfortable outscored an opponent where the third period wasn’t a constant threat of one bad bounce undoing an entire game’s worth of hard work.

I mean, just look at where these shots from each team were coming from:

That’s significantly better. The Avs, who some spent all week doomsaying were going to miss the playoffs, move within three of the division-leading Vegas Golden Knights and now are six points ahead of fifth and sixth-place Los Angeles and Arizona, respectively.

With games in hand on LA, Arizona, and now-fourth-place St. Louis, the Avs are comfortably in the chase for the West Division crown and, finally, just maybe, potentially, possibly about to put real distance between themselves and the threat of missing the postseason.

TAKEAWAYS

• I’m on grades tonight, too, so I don’t want to get too deep into Avalanche player-specific takeaways tonight so I’m not simply repeating myself in those spaces.
• I do want to talk some Kings players though. Mikey Anderson on the top pairing next to Drew Doughty really impressed me two nights ago when I was in the arena and again had a good showing today. I’m not sure that he keeps that up full-time or anything but for these two games I thought he was a player of note. He held his own in multiple one-on-one battles against all of Colorado’s top line. He especially looked as comfortable as one can defending Nathan MacKinnon’s herky-jerky playstyle.
• Of all the young guys from LA that really intrigued me, Gabe Vilardi continues to stand out as a really interesting player. His style meshes significantly better with the 2014 Kings than the 2021 Kings that are trending more towards high-end skating and playmaking on the fly but watching him work down low reminded me of what a dominant force he was along the wall during his draft year back in 2017 when the Avs were chasing futility. He’s so strong along the boards and feels almost like a throwback of sorts with his combination of size, strength, and skill. Against Colorado’s defense, he especially presents issues because most of Colorado’s skilled defenders are only average size at best. He had his way with Sam Girard and Devon Toews today and it’s not hard to see why. He’s a big body that is at his best in the cycle game. That said, the quality he was able to create was not anywhere as close to the raw shot attempts generated. The Avs consistently kept Vilardi and Co. to the outside and Jeff Carter’s best scoring chance of the game was a shot that ended up fluttering harmlessly into Philipp Grubauer’s glove after the Avs got a stick on the shot attempt.
• The way the Avs are playing team defense right now is exceptional. The buy-in from all of the forwards to come back and help the replacements back there has been incredibly encouraging. It’s the kind of thing that should strongly shut down whatever thoughts there are that Jared Bednar’s coaching message is “getting stale” or anything to that effect. If players were tuning him out, the Avs wouldn’t be succeeding at an extremely high defensive level while missing the likes of Cale Makar and Bowen Byram. If anything, the success they’re seeing playing the way the coaching staff has been preaching for years should increase their level of buy-in.