Studs

Andre Vasilevsky

I know I know, this is supposed to be the DNVR Avalanche Studs and Duds, but my goodness Vasilevsky was absolutely fantastic tonight. 

The early going tilted in Tampa Bay’s favor, but I really thought the Avs rebounded nicely and was able to push the play and generate some legitimate offensive opportunities. Vasilevsky had the answer every time. 

He was aggressive, he moved quick, and he looked dialed in from the first puck drop. 

There were several times in the first half of the game where I thought he kept the Avs from getting into it as they were generating high quality chances, including several on the power play. 

This game had the intensity of a playoff game. It FELT like a Stanley Cup Final rematch to me, and I thought Vasilevsky rose to that occasion better than anyone else on the ice in his shutout performance. 

Bowen Byram

Talk about the epitome of an “up and down” night.

I thought Byram was the best Av on the ice at times. He looked engaged, he looked fast, his puck pursuit and defensive gap control were great, and I really liked his decision making with the puck.

He had multiple scoring chances that he generated by creating his own time and space, and took good advantage in the offensive zone. 

For those reasons, I was really encouraged by how quickly he has been able to jump back into game action. In a 5-0 game it’s hard to be a net-positive performer, but Byram found a way to be a positive corsi player at 5-on-5. 

Again, given that he just missed three months, I think he looked really good. 

Duds

Bowen Byram

Yes. You are reading that directly. I said it just a minute ago.. he was an up and down night for him. The ‘ups’ were high peaks, and the ‘downs’ were costly valleys.

The two biggest mistakes that really felt like they changed the game were Byram’s two penalties.

Just past the halfway mark of the first period, Byram took what I thought was a pretty egregious hooking penalty after losing a puck battle. It was one of those calls that I feel like gets called every time given the circumstance of the play.

It took almost the full two minutes, but Corey Perry eventually made a great move in the crease and tucked one in behind Georgiev. 

So there was the ice breaker. One-goal deficit, no big deal. 

Well half way through the second, after giving up a second goal against, Byram stopped moving his feet again coming out of the corner and got caught reaching. 

Another stick right in the waist of Brayden Point and you could just tell that the ensuing power play was the game. 

Sure enough, the Lightning were able to capitalize pretty quickly and that was the game.

 I thought Byram was maybe the Avs’ best defenseman at times, but he also had what would probably be considered to be the two biggest mistakes of the night that cost in the worst ways. 

The penalties seemed like it was maybe him getting a little too aggressive, and maybe leaning a little too much into his adrenaline and how hard he was skating, and it cost him and his team. 

I ultimately think he was a net positive tonight amongst an otherwise abysmal defense, but you can’t just ignore those penalties. 

Coach’s Challenge

This is a tough one, because I’ll be honest… I liked Jared Bednar’s decision to use the challenge after his team allowed the third goal of the game. 

The goal makes it 3-0, and it was *close* enough to potentially being a hand pass, so why not throw the Hail Mary. You’ve got nothing else to lose, especially the way that Vasilevsky was playing

I thought it was a pretty low-percentage challenge, but I fully understood why Bednar used it. That said, it did feel a little bit like waiving the white flag, which is why I have it as a ‘dud’.

The Avs I thought looked totally flat after that, they knew the score (literally and figuratively), and just couldn’t get any momentum going even after killing the penalty. It would have been nice to see the Avalanche push back right after that goal, instead of having to kill a penalty, but again… I don’t know how much it really mattered. 

Denis Malgin

This is going to be a pretty short breakdown. Malgin was the only Av to play fewer than 10 minutes, but had the chance to make a huge impact on the game early, and just flat out missed the net. 

On a 2-on-1, he had the puck land right on his stick on the backdoor, staring down a wide open net, and he didn’t even make Vasilevsky make a save. 

Malgin has struggled to finish since he got here, and tonight was the worst one. I’m not looking for him to contribute on every night, that’d be ridiculous. That’s not why you brought him in here. 

But you did bring him in to be a more offensively-inclined version of Dryden Hunt in your bottom-six. He hasn’t been, and he had a chance to really have an impact on this game tonight and help his team in a big way. Instead, the puck floated harmlessly to the corner during a Grade-A scoring chance. 

Honorable Mention

Alexandar Georgiev

I felt for Georgiev tonight. I thought he was great early on. You could tell he was really engaged and looked like he was up to the task of going head-to-head with the best goalie in the world. 

That said, it is really hard to say that a goalie who gave up five goals was a stud. As the wheels came off for the Avs, Georgiev wasn’t able to prop the team up in the way that they needed. Not saying it was his fault, but Colorado really could have used some big saves from him in a couple key moments.