Avalanche bully Blues in St. Louis to get back on winning path

Identity is a tricky thing. Most of us spend years trying to search for the things in life that will come to define our time on earth. For some, it comes easier, but there are those that badly struggle with it as they grapple with the feeling of not finding a place to fit in.

It’s a huge deal on a personal level and, similarly, it’s a huge deal in the world of sports. Teams take on identities as they move through the course of a regular season. The teams most comfortable in their own skin are typically the ones standing last at the end.

In previous years, games like the 9-4 win over Nashville or last year’s Colorado team barely scraping by in Vegas against an undermanned Golden Knights really drove home the identity of those clubs. In last year’s case, it wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

This year’s Avalanche team has been, to put it kindly, searching for that identity. With frequent lineup changes due to an early onset of the injury bug and inconsistent efforts during games, Colorado just hasn’t looked like a team comfortable in its own skin. A 2-4 start is one of the results of that reality.

On the opposite side of the spectrum has been the St. Louis Blues, who rolled into tonight’s game a comfortable 5-0 with a +14 goal differential. Their new forward alignment has been explosive and their defense hadn’t cost them any games because they’ve been able to outscore their problems. That’s good, clean living.

Tonight, the Avs walked into St. Louis and dirtied up the joint, bullied the Blues physically, and while the score was close with a 4-3 final, it was that charmed living the Blues have been living that allowed it to be that close.

Colorado put six pucks into the net tonight but the first was called off because of an offside and another was disallowed because the net was pushed off the moorings by a Blues defenseman pushing Logan O’Connor into the net.

Four goals ended up counting and that was enough for the Avs to survive with Darcy Kuemper giving up a laugher to open the game and then two third-period goals that were quality goals for different reasons.

The real point here is that despite more injury issues (Mikko Rantanen was hurt during morning skate and was a last-minute scratch), Colorado bucked up and took advantage of a Blues team that was missing a couple key players of their own but also living the good life.

Looking at how the teams played tonight, it’s easy to see a deceiving final score. The Avs rolled up a 42-18 shot advantage that evoked memories of the playoff series between these teams that saw Colorado sweep the hapless Blues without too much of a push from the St. Louis side.

It certainly didn’t look like the Avs were trying to find themselves and the Blues were living high on the hog.

This isn’t to suggest Colorado fixed their problems in one game, of course. That’s not how life works. It is, however, to suggest that this kind of performance, one in which despite doing everything right from a process standpoint still managed to be a dogfight at the end, is the kind of galvanizing victory that can put a team on the right path.

Of course, similar sentiment could be said after last weekend’s shootout win over Tampa Bay but this had a different feeling. That game the Avs got outplayed but were bailed out by their elite top line. In this game, there was no Rantanen and a Nathan MacKinnon assist was their only contribution on the box score.

J.T. Compher scored two goals. Nazem Kadri got one. Cale Makar got the fourth goal. Colorado’s “other” stars stepped up and the team defense we saw last year dominate the West Division showed up once again despite no Devon Toews or Sam Girard.

Hell, defenseman Jacob MacDonald played forward all game because of the Rantanen scratch and did a pretty decent job, too.

What’s next for the Avs after this is trying to build on their success. Each of their previous wins was met with a regulation loss the next game, but it was hard to escape the feeling that this game was just a little different. It’s on them to keep the good feels train rolling, but this was about as encouraging a night as you could ask for from a struggling hockey club.

It just might be the one that begins their journey to finding their true identity.