Studs

Was there one?

So there are moments of this game that were fine, but I’m not sure I would call anyone on the Avs a stud in this game. Sam Girard had a goal and two assists for the rare non-Cale Makar three-point game from a defenseman, but the team defense was so awful that I don’t want to give anyone from the blue line those kinds of props.

Evan Rodrigues got a goal at the end of the game that was meaningless in the scope of the game but could serve as a launchpad for his confidence to get off the floor and him to get back to being the key contributor he was until the All-Star break. If that ends up being the case, it’s far from a meaningless goal and could be the one positive to come from this game.

Also Keith Kincaid’s transition to Colorado gear is underway but not yet complete. A week after being acquired from Boston, Kincaid got a new blank mask while he waits for his Avalanche-themed one to arrive but his bright yellow pads were still on full display. I dunno, I thought those were pretty stud-like on a day with no other options.

The penalty kill

There WAS a stud today and it was Colorado’s PK unit. When things could have gotten out of hand in the first period, this unit stepped up and got the Avs actually going in the other direction, including multiple odd-man rushes on the first penalty of the game.

On a day everything else was an unmitigated disaster, this unit was the sole bright spot. Very strong performance and something to build from, maybe? Hopefully? Most definitely?

Duds

ABC’s coverage

I want to start here because once the game actually started, we didn’t even see it. ABC was covering the final moments of a decided game between the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers and switched over to Colorado-Dallas upon completion. The puck drop in Dallas had been moved back and the TV coverage swapped when the preceding game ended. All seemed normal.

They showed a brief clip of Jamie Benn’s silver stick ceremony honoring 1,000 games played and then cut to a commercial. All still felt normal. Then, mid-commercial, the screen hard cut to the game which was ACTIVELY BEING PLAYED? The clock read 18:45 or so and everyone realized ABC had completely botched that transition. What in the world?

That championship spirit

I lauded the Avalanche for getting “up” for the recent big game in Winnipeg against the Jets as both teams knew what it meant at the time and how huge that was. The Avs completely housed Winnipeg and I gave plenty of credit for that result to Colorado’s maturity and Winnipeg not being able to handle the moment.

Today was the complete opposite. With a Dallas team begging to be caught, the Avs walked into Dallas and laid one of their biggest eggs of the season. They were brutal, front to back. Nathan MacKinnon felt like a giant no-show today and Mikko Rantanen’s most notable contributions came in the form of penalties. Cale Makar’s first game back in the lineup was predictably blah and his turnover that led to the 7th Dallas goal (the empty-net goal) was the kind of thing you don’t see an in-form Makar do. They’ll all be fine, of course, but no doubt Colorado’s star players were a major disappointment today.

Colorado’s defense

If you look at the numbers, it really wasn’t that bad. The volume of breakdowns really isn’t there. It wasn’t as if the Avalanche gave up an enormous amount of good scoring chances, but the ones they did were absolute doozies and the Stars didn’t miss today.

I said it on the podcast, but you just cannot win games against good teams when your defense and goaltender have a bad game at the same time. For the second straight game, that’s exactly what happened. The loss of Josh Manson is significant.

The lack of Val Nichushkin also lowered the defensive contributions from Colorado’s forwards and we saw Denis Malgin struggle when given a bigger role in the lineup. Ugly day.

Alexandar Georgiev

It hasn’t happened very many times this season, but Georgiev just never gave the Avalanche much of a chance in this game. Multiple goals scored from distance led to the Avs getting buried today. Goals 1 and 3 by the Stars are MAJOR defensive miscues and the fourth goal is right down main street so even if you’re being really lenient on your goaltender standards, only two of these really boil down to Georgiev not being on it.

Two goals got scored with Georgiev missing his stick, too, and it seemed like the defense and goaltender were out of sync the entire time. It was just a disaster back there. Nothing good today. I hope he gets the start tomorrow against Seattle to get it back. I would bet he does exactly that.

Unsung Hero

Alex Newhook

I stress I don’t really think any Av was very good today, but Jared Bednar has to find a home for Newhook now with Lars Eller arriving. Is it at center? Wing? Bednar has long preferred Newhook at wing until this recent burn of Newhook at center, during which he seemed to really play the best hockey of his NHL career.

Bednar has had Newhook on the left wing of Colorado’s second line with no Val Nichushkin and playing alongside J.T. Compher and Mikko Rantanen. Newhook had a two-assist game and while some of it might be stat-padding and all, the Avs getting Newhook going against after the break is important. He was absolutely flying at the end of January and then came out with seven scoreless games after the break. He’s up to five points in his last five games, however, and his finding a home in the lineup after Eller’s introduction to the bottom six is a sneaky important storyline to follow for the rest of this regular season.