Avalanche Film Room: From breakout to bar down

Colorado’s 4-2 win over Columbus was an entertaining hockey game full of highlights. The Avalanche came back from a 2-1 deficit period in the second period to earn their second straight home win.

That deficit is where we begin with this edition of Avalanche Film Room. Trailing 2-1 halfway through the second period, Colorado was pinned in their own end. When they finally broke out, they turned it into something memorable.

Let’s start with gaining control of the puck. Can’t score without it, right?

Ian Cole sparks the breakout

Ian Cole has been a polarizing guy for the Avs from the moment they signed him. While everyone has their opinions on him, none would have him pegged as an ace puck mover. Cole gets the puck in the corner after J.T. Compher’s puck support helped Mark Barberio win the puck battle behind the net.

Cole has his back to the ice and he takes a quick look over his right shoulder. He puts the puck on his backhand and moves it ahead to Compher, who is breaking through the center of the ice.

Compher gathers the puck in, picks his head up, and spots Tyson Jost in the neutral zone. Jost only gets a piece of the puck but Andre Burakovsky skates by picks it up and takes over from there.

Burakovsky takes over

Burakovsky has made some spectacular plays this season resulting in goals and has absolutely earned this impressive points pace he’s currently on (just under a 60-point pace, for those curious).

While he doesn’t end up on the scoresheet in this eventual goal, it’s not hard to see the one-man show he put on in the clip above. He gathers the puck in at center ice and with Seth Jones closing the gap very quickly, his shooting lane disappears and Jost is covered so he drags the puck around Jones and heads around the net.

Once around the net, Jones has recovered and is all over him again. Burakovsky whips around back to his forehand and makes a perfect pass through traffic to Val Nichushkin, who predictably misses the net on the one-timer.

Nichushkin gets dirty

While he missed the net, Nichushkin then shows in this clip why Jared Bednar continues to be totally comfortable with him in the lineup right now. He retrieves the puck and makes a good decision with it by getting it to Cale Makar (almost always a good decision).

Makar puts on a little display of what makes him so ridiculous. He sucks the defender in who positions himself for a blocked shot, opening up the ice for Makar to gobble up. Makar steps around him and when help arrives, he drops the puck back to Nichushkin, whose man had just left him to help reduce the Makar threat.

Nichushkin gets it back and straight goes to work. He ducks behind the net with Zach Werenski on him, then fends off Jones who has come back for another go-round. Nichushkin’s puck control is fantastic here and he even takes a questionable hit from Jones in the process (not the point of this Film Room but it could have easily been a boarding call. Ref probably didn’t call it because Nichushkin sharply stops and turns into the hit as it’s coming but who knows. NHL, amirite?)

After Jones, ahem, dislodges the puck free from Nichushkin, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare makes his first appearance here as he gathers the puck in.

Masters of nuance

Bellemare gets the puck and skates right to the corner, opening up ice for his teammates as the defense is forced to respond to him. With Nichushkin still on the ice and slow to get up after the hit from Jones, Columbus has a small window of a man advantage here.

Theoretically, Bellemare plays right into the teeth of the defense here as he passes the puck to Matt Nieto, who is standing in the middle of three players. What Nieto does is so subtle but so good. Classic Nieto, you know? He gets the puck and one-touches it on his forehand for control. The three defenders react accordingly and Nieto, knowing he has support up top, drops it back to Ryan Graves.

Graves tees up the big slapper and because he does this, the high forward in this sequence moves toward him and not the ocean of space Makar has slipped into while the Blue Jackets were committing hard on the other side of the ice.

Makar gets the puck and slides in, picks his spot, and goes bar down with it to tie the game. As he gathers the puck, he keeps his body square to the net, which doesn’t give away any shooting intentions to the goaltender. Korpisalo is purely guessing and Makar beats him cleanly.

Little details

I like this clip for two reasons: it gives a great look at what Makar was looking at when he got the puck and because we get an up-close look at what Bellemare does to help Makar out.

As Werenski is coming across to block Makar’s shot, watch Bellemare drop his stick on top of Werenski’s to keep him from reaching out and making an attempt to get his stick on the attempt. Because of this, Makar is guaranteed a clean look and the result of the play is simply Makar vs. Korpisalo.

Makar won and we once again get an idea of the small things Bellemare does regularly to help out.

Full speed ahead

Just for your enjoyment, the entire sequence as it happened on the Avalanche broadcast.