Avalanche finds a way behind great nights from Kuemper, Kadri

A determined victory against a desperate team? Another win where the Avs just scrape by an inferior opponent? One more nail in the coffin of the Travis Green era in Vancouver? Another blown Avalanche lead? A third-period comeback victory?

It seems to me that whatever angle you want to view the Colorado Avalanche’s 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in, you can. It’s one of those weird games where every question I asked above is “Yes.”

The Canucks did eventually play like a desperate team on home ice and show a little pride and backbone, but the Avs found a way. The Avs did blow another lead (albeit 1-0 is a little different than 2-0, so this feels a little like storyline cheating), but also came from a deficit in the third period to win in regulation.

All of it is true. All of Colorado’s goals on Thatcher Demko, by far Vancouver’s best player and the only reason this wasn’t a 3-0 game in the first 10 minutes of the game, were scored on the power play. The fourth goal was scored into an empty net.

Demko was great but was simply outdone by his counterpart, Darcy Kuemper, who had his best and most definitive game as a member of the Avalanche…and he still gave up a goal that could be set to Benny Hill music.

Ultimately, to me, the story is of Kuemper’s .941 save percentage tonight and Nazem Kadri’s three-point night, the perfect statistical fill-in for Nathan MacKinnon so far.

Kuemper can’t win without goals and Kadri can’t win without saves, so I’m giving them both equal burn tonight as the real stars in my mind. Kadri has exploded with a seven-game point streak, which includes three three-point games, and leads the Avalanche with 17 points in 13 games.

What’s probably more remarkable about Kadri’s success is head coach Jared Bednar has not moved Kadri to the top line in MacKinnon’s absence. They got it done on the power play tonight, a unit that has suddenly found life during the team’s three-game winning streak, but it was Kadri’s effort at the end of the game that was just as impressive as the points.

Diving to swat a puck out of his own zone in the final minute of the game, Kadri contributed all over the ice. He was Colorado’s most noticeable skater in front of Kuemper, who stopped 32 of 34 shots and had an unbelievable blocker save in the second period that kept the Avs from going down 2-1 right after the Canucks had just scored the equalizer.

Kuemper locked it down from there, making big stop after big stop (all stops are big to me but you know what I mean) and putting the Avalanche defense on his back as they badly struggled with coverage breakdowns and puck-moving problems in front of him.

Tonight was a night that reminded you of the Kuemper from his Arizona days, the dominant goaltender who put a team on his back and did what was necessary to let his team find their way on the other end.

As the Canucks emotionally unraveled in the third period, the Avs graciously sidestepped the drama and took advantage with power-play goals from Kadri and Cale Makar, who got the game-winning goal on a power play gifted to them by a selfish and stupid Quinn Hughes cross-checking penalty.

There were plenty of process problems tonight as the Avs dominated the game’s first ten minutes and then waited until they were briefly trailing in the third period to wake back up and do something about it.

The Avs have been a mess in third periods this year and while this one wasn’t perfect, you compare what Colorado did to the other team and you’re not finding nearly as many problems. Kuemper wasn’t nearly as under siege and the Avs closed it out without too much extended Canucks pressure.

Mikko Rantanen and Gabe Landeskog got one last dunk on what might end up being the worst of the Hughes brothers as Rantanen stripped him and fed Landeskog for an empty-net goal that was more salt in the wound than anything else, but still fun for Avs fans after all the Makar-Hughes nonsense of two years ago.

The Avs take a three-game winning streak into Seattle, which lost its fifth-straight game tonight. There’s plenty of room for the Avs to play better but without Nathan MacKinnon in the lineup, the team is just trying to avoid falling into a huge hole in the standings. This qualifies.

I’m on player grades tonight so if you’re only here for my takeaways, feel free to go check out grades!