Let’s talk about “scheduled losses.” For the Colorado Avalanche, tonight was a scheduled loss against the New Jersey Devils. Why is that? Because the Avs were traveling from Detroit where they beat the Red Wings last night and the Devils were just hanging out at home.
It was also the second game of New Jersey’s current homestand, so it wasn’t like the Devils had been on the road and it was their first game back (which is always murky territory…see next week).
Teams in those situations have significantly lower points percentages and that doesn’t even account for the quality of opponent. Coming into tonight, the Devils were two points behind Washington for the lead in the Eastern Conference. From a fancystats perspective, they have been elite.
This Devils team is no mirage, so I was prepared for a bloodbath tonight. When the Avalanche shut out the Devils, 4-0, it made the current five-game road trip an instant success as they are now 3-1 and sets them up for a potentially season-altering jumping-off point.
Let’s talk about how it happened.
Colorado’s stars led the way for the Avalanche
Between Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar, the only point on the board tonight came from Rantanen on Parker Kelly’s empty-net goal to make it 4-0.
That’s it.
But this a game you can point the Avs big guns leading the way, even if they didn’t do any of the scoring.
MacKinnon’s line with Rantanen and Artturi Lehkonen got a breakaway goal from Lehkonen, but it was on a line change and a nice play from Casey Mittelstadt.
Where that trio dominated was territorial.
In 13:51 of 5v5 time, this trio had the advantage in shot attempts (20-3), shots on goal (8-0), scoring chances (7-1), and high-danger chances (1-0).
MacKinnon head-to-head against Jack Hughes saw the Avs finish with the advantage in shots on goal, 8-3, and against Nico Hischier the final shots on goal were, somehow, 1-0 for the Avs.
Against Hughes and Hischier at 5v5, MacKinnon helped the Avs allow just three scoring chances all game. Utter dominance.
With increasingly tired legs as this game wore on due to this being the second game of a back-to-back (what we call a “SEGABABA”), for Colorado’s top line to make hay helped stymie any comeback attempt by the Devils.
Makar allowed a few more shot attempts against Hughes, but was similarly dominant against Hischier. The combined tally against those guys at 5v5 was 8-2 in favor of the Avs. They just did not allow much. Like last night, Makar and Toews were utterly dominant in 13:36 of 5v5 time together.
Casey Mittelstadt does it against for the Avs
He finally ended his nine-game pointless streak last night with a secondary assist but was much more involved in the two assists he got tonight. Both helpers were at 5v5, too, so there isn’t a lot of point in trying to take away credit from a guy whose sleepy game has finally awoken.
His instant chemistry alongside Ross Colton is intriguing with Jonathan Drouin likely to return to action someday (with this season, I don’t want to be too optimistic). It helps that Val Nichushkin has stepped up his play offensively and is driving a lot of offense, too.
The numbers aren’t as pretty for their line tonight, but the Avs got two goals from Mittelstadt’s passing. The first was a cycle play involving his linemates, the other him finding Lehkonen for a breakaway goal.
We knew there was a very good chance the Avs would have to play some grindy, opportunistic hockey if they were going to secure the two points tonight.
That’s exactly what happened and Mittelstadt being the face of that is a development the Avs certainly need. Last night, Mittelstadt’s line was excellent in bopping the Red Wings, tonight it was MacKinnon’s taking the reins. This is how proper scoring depth works.
Scott Wedgewood rules against the Devils
Wedgewood was drafted, developed, and ultimately traded by the Devils. It would seem he remembers and the curse of the ex-player was out in full force tonight.
Wedgewood was both excellent and a little lucky. Two Devils goals were wiped off the board in the first period, one from a blown whistle and the other from a high stick infraction.
While he had an easy job in the second period as the Avs only allowed two shots on goal by the Devils (none in the final 14 minutes, by the way), when the Devils did get some looks in the third period, Wedgewood was on it.
That continues a career trend for him as since departing the Devils organization, he had posted a 3-0 record in five appearances with a .958 save percentage and one shutout. After tonight, those numbers are now 4-0 with two shutouts and a .970 save percentage.
So, uh, if the Avs meet the Devils in the Stanley Cup Final, Wedgewood has dibs on Game 1.
Avs needed a trip like this
If Colorado can find a way to win in Pittsburgh and go 4-1 on this road trip, it could be a launch point for them for the rest of the season, barring more injuries and historically bad goaltending, of course.
We’ve said repeatedly the Avs have looked like a good-but-not-great team as they fight through these injuries and if they could just decent goaltending, they could start to stack up some wins.
Wedgewood and Alexandar Georgiev allowed one goal across the two games in this weekend’s back-to-back and the Avs won both. It’s obviously not going to continue at this level because nobody just stops allowing goals completely (see: Winnipeg hahahahaha), but this could serve as the galvanizing force for this team to build from.
They have gotten great play from just about everyone on their roster at some point through the first four games of this road trip. The team looks like it has real answers in Ivan Ivan and Sam Malinski. Ross Colton as a winger has been an impact player this season.
The superstars are still the superstars, even if MacKinnon’s scoring has slowed considerably in the last few weeks. There are great building blocks to a dangerous team.
It’s not a perfect squad yet, but seeing them show this kind of resiliency and hammer out a win in a hard situation against a very good team provides a glimmer of reason to start believing.
