Studs

Casey Mittelstadt

There are so many numbers that I could give you that illustrate how dominant one of the newest members of the Colorado Avalanche was tonight. I think my favorite is what he accomplished head-to-head against Elias Pettersson.

In 6:06 of 5v5 time against Pettersson, the Mittelstadt was on the ice for a 12-0 shot attempt advantage with five of those being shots on goal but also advantages in scoring chances (9-0) and high-danger chances (5-0).

Hell, Mittelstadt against the top pairing of the Canucks, Quinn Hughes (likely Norris Trophy winner) and Filip Hronek, produced a 9-2 advantage in shots on goal and scoring chances. That’s the best Vancouver has to offer and Mittelstadt obliterated them while playing alongside Brandon Duhaime and Yakov Trenin.

No offense to Duhaime and Trenin, who also were excellent, but Mittelstadt accomplishing that against that quality of competition? I wrote about how much I loved his game last night and I think I might have been a day early on that piece because I thought he was Colorado’s best forward tonight from beginning to end. That puck skill is really something.

Mikko Rantanen

Mittelstadt might have been the best and most consistent, but Rantanen was once again physically dominant once he found his game. His goal with under five seconds remaining in the second period flipped the game on its head and took a cozy 3-0 lead into an uncomfortable 3-1 game for the Canucks heading into the third period.

Once Rantanen got the engine fired up, holy smokes could the Canucks not do anything to stop him. Four points last night, three more tonight and the Avs swept the back-to-back portion of this road trip.

When Rantanen is playing up to snuff, he’s outrageous. Good luck stopping him.

Josh Manson

For my money, Manson was lucky not to get a five-minute major with his undisciplined boarding of J.T. Miller. He saw numbers the entire way and indisputably boarded him. It’s the kind of thing that rides the line and inspires suspension conversations. Miller left the game and eventually returned and that is to Manson’s benefit.

After all of that, Manson later fought Nikita Zadorov, whom I assume challenged him on the basis of the Miller hit. That’s how the game is supposed to work.

Tough guy stuff aside, Manson was awesome tonight. He was flying around with the puck, physically imposing without it, and an overall menace the Canucks could not handle.

The numbers are even better than whatever the eye test said because the numbers were ridiculous. In 15:13 of 5v5 time, the Avs had advantages of 29-5 (!!) in shot attempts, 14-3 in shots on goal, 15-2 in scoring chances, and 11-1 in high-danger chances. That isn’t solely due to Manson, of course, but those are the kinds of numbers we see from Cale Makar and Devon Toews every so often and laugh about how special they are.

Tonight, that guy was Josh Manson (Sam Girard was also very good, by the way). This was the Manimal unleashed.

Duds

Alexandar Georgiev

What more is there to say? He allowed three goals on 10 shots and the Avs were in a 3-0 hole after a soft Nikita Zadorov shot from outside beat Georgiev. If that was the first goal of the game, fine, but the third? Come on. The first goal I don’t care about because it’s such a great tip and the second goal is blown coverage by Valeri Nichushkin, but a goaltender’s job is often to paper over the blown coverages. It’s part of the gig!

I guess this is just the fatigue of watching Georgiev give up goals early in games and forcing the Avs to come from behind. They’re the number one comeback team in the NHL this season so he’s still getting wins tacked on to his name, but he can’t push his season save percentage over .900 and keep it there because he can’t string together quality games.

Yeah, he made saves later on to keep the Canucks from adding to their lead or retaking the lead once Colorado tied it up. That’s a good thing! Full marks to him for that, but being in a 3-0 hole when the Avs were locking down the Canucks defensively (on the whole) is incredibly frustrating. The skaters have had to pick up their goaltender far too often. Maybe I’m being unfair here, but spotting the opposing team leads feels like a weakness that’s going to cost them playoff games. It’s not solely on Georgiev, I understand, but he is paid to be the last line of defense and he has been far too unreliable.

The top D pairing

You know who else wasn’t any good in front of Georgiev? Cale Makar and Devon Toews. They were on the ice for all three goals against and played a role in each of them. It wasn’t as if they were innocent bystanders to the car crash playing out in front of them. No, they were contributors to said car crash.

This pairing has sparkling numbers on the year and both are, overall, once again proving to be elite, but you can’t shake the feeling that they aren’t nearly as bulletproof as we’ve seen the last few seasons. There have been a few games such as this where their work defensively has been awful at times.

By the eyes and the numbers, this was Colorado’s worst pairing. The Canucks scored on them, possessed the puck, took shots against Georgiev, the works. Everything they usually aren’t, this pairing was tonight. But, you know, it wasn’t ALL bad…

Unsung Hero

The top D pairing

All the defensive issues that frustrated me and both of these guys were still in on game-changing plays that helped the Avs build their comeback. Toews fired a beautiful pass to Rantanen for Colorado’s first goal with just seconds left in the second period. It was a great heads-up play for Toews to not worry about getting cute and just try to make something happen. Smart hockey is the Toews way.

Makar finished with two assists on the power play. He didn’t really do anything special as he moved pucks to Nathan MacKinnon and watched things happen from there, but I have a hard time saying that Makar had two points and was BAD tonight. Converting on the power play is a huge part of erasing a 3-0 deficit and Makar helped spearhead that effort tonight.

Even on his off nights he’s productive. Freak.