Avalanche losing streak ends in blowout over Rangers

Losing streaks aren’t fun for anybody. Players, coaches, staff, media, fans. Life just sucks for everyone involved.

And then you go strolling into the locker room after a blowout win where a six-game losing streak has come to a thunderous halt.

Erik Johnson and Gabe Landeskog weren’t shy about suggesting the media change up their routine and talk to their designated “man of the night”, Ryan Graves, who scored his first NHL goal in Colorado’s 6-1 beatdown of the New York Rangers.

The media contingent had lots to talk about tonight as five players scored goals and Tyson Barrie broke the franchise record for defenseman scoring. You know you’ve had a good night when nobody immediately springs to talk to a struggling goaltender who was pulled from his last start and responded by stopping 24 of 25 shots tonight.

The lone goal scored against Philipp Grubauer was a breakaway goal when Johnson missed a pass back to the point in a situation where Colorado had all five players in the offensive zone and the Rangers only had three defenders. For once, the egregious error just didn’t really matter.

Ten power plays for the Avalanche was the dominant theme in this one as the Rangers couldn’t stay out of the box, beginning with old friend Cody McLeod taking a five-minute major just 2:29 into the game. The parade of penalties was a steady stream and even when the Rangers tried to up the ante with some physical play, Colorado just kept playing their game.

It was the kind of win the Avalanche badly needed after a frustrating December that saw them lose a firm grip on third place in the Central Division and fall behind the Dallas Stars. It all came together tonight for the struggling Avalanche at the very end of what was a cozy schedule the last few weeks.

They have three days off before their next game on Tuesday night in Winnipeg, the first of a five-game road Canadian road trip that will see them start out West and finish in Ottawa where they will attempt to keep the Senators near the bottom of the league’s standings.

All of that can wait, however, as tonight Colorado can enjoy a well-earned victory. Finally.

Takeaways from the game

• Way to be a blah dude, Cody McLeod. He was a leaf on the wind all the way up until he smashed into Sam Girard and started the game off with a five-minute major penalty. Girard was ultimately okay and the Avs scored twice. Sleeper agent ACTIVATE?
• There’s a lot to get to tonight so I’ll keep the list of stuff I wasn’t a fan of at the top. I like Logan O’Connor’s speed. I like that he’s a righty. I don’t like much of anything else about his game. He’ll get a free pass for a while simply because he’s not Gabe Bourque but I don’t see much of a difference between them except age and experience.
• Matt Nieto has quietly slid back down into some of his previous not great form. Not even getting a shot off on a clean breakaway is about as unimpressive as it gets.
• I liked the way the Avalanche just kept plugging away tonight. The score and shots will show a game they completely dominated but the Rangers did everything they could to make this an easy night for Colorado and it was still a grind. It wasn’t pretty but despite not scoring on many of their PPs, they were at least creating opportunities and shots. For a group that has a tendency to get extremely passive, that was a nice change.
• The penalty kill was the opposite of the PP. Instead of grinding out success, they just stomped a Rangers PP unit that never really threatened. I know at least one of the New York PPs ended with zero shots on goal. That’s a very good sign for a unit that has been bleeding goals and chances.
• Have to love the Ryan Graves story developing right now. He’s come up and played pretty well in limited minutes. He’s also been living the charmed life where every coin flip decision he’s made has gone his way. He made a major mistake tonight that led to a Jimmy Vesey penalty shot but got bailed out by his goalie. Then he scores his first career goal on a gift of a turnover from his former team? Nothing but love for the Graves story here.
• In a story I’ve been vocally keeping track of all season, Tyson Barrie finally did pass John-Michael Liles for the highest scoring defenseman in Avalanche history. Barrie broke the record on an assist in the first period and extended his record tonight. A lot of Avs fans can’t stand the guy because they’re wrong but there’s no arguing he does his job at a high level.
• For all the talk we’ve gone through this season about secondary scoring, J.T. Compher is on an 82-game pace for a 56-point season and Alex Kerfoot on an 82-game pace of 51 points. It’s not always there but these guys are showing they can play. Even Tyson Jost has upped his pace to that of a 30-point season, which is still a disappointment but an improvement over his rookie year.
• In fact, Jost could have had a couple of points tonight. He sprung Kerfoot for a breakaway with a legitimately awesome pass that ended up not mattering when Kerfoot got stopped.
• The Avalanche have been weirdly terrible on breakaways this year. I don’t know of any stat tracking on this but they didn’t convert their chances again tonight.
• In a game where score effects were very much in play, to outshoot another NHL team 47-25 is pretty nuts. There was a 15:23-4:09 advantage in power play time for Colorado so that obviously helped. At 5v5, the shots were 26-20 in favor of Colorado.
• Avalanche goalies certainly needed an easier night and Philipp Grubauer got that, having to face just 10 shots through the first two periods. The third was a little crazier as he gave up a goal on a breakaway but he followed that with a glove save on Jimmy Vesey’s penalty shot. It wasn’t sexy and with the six-goal explosion from the team in front of him he’ll certainly be forgotten about but Grubauer did what he had to tonight. I disagreed with him getting the start but I guess that’s why I’m not an NHL coach.
• I can’t remember the last time the Avalanche had 10 power plays in a game. Even last year in the preseason when officials were going ham on calling penalties for everything, I don’t think there was a 10-PP game. With how whistle-happy the refs were tonight, it’s a credit that a team that struggles with its discipline didn’t get drawn into some of the shenanigans the Rangers were looking to get involved in.
• Gabe Landeskog’s career-high in goals for a season is 26. He got his 25th tonight on his league-leading ninth deflection goal of the season. What a year for the Colorado captain.