After a hectic span of trades, the Colorado Avalanche still had a game to play. The loss of Bowen Byram in particular weighed on their thoughts postgame, but they sent a strong message about the direction of the team with the current talent at hand.
In their dominant 7-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings, the Avs demonstrated how special they can be in the face of big changes and big absences.
New additions Casey Mittelstadt and Sean Walker joined the team on Thursday. Colorado made two more trades for roster players and Brandon Duhaime and Yakov Trenin will also join the team in time for Friday’s game.
With Val Nichushkin expected to slot in against the Wild as well, the Avs feel so close to complete.
“We’re a deeper team today than we were yesterday,” Jared Bednar said.
As Gabriel Landeskog continues to progress in his rehabilitation, it should feel like something scary is brewing in Colorado.
Makar’s Milestone
It seems impossible Cale Makar hadn’t scored three goals in a single game prior to Wednesday night, but he continued to add to his already impressive career at 25-years old.
With two goals from distance (one of which came on the powerplay) and a wonderful backhand maneuver – he netted his first ever career hat trick in Ball Arena.
He became the fourth defenseman in franchise history to score a hat trick.
Colorado’s unified effort made a statement.
Makar’s goals were made possible because everybody was doing what they’re supposed to.
On the first goal, Mikko Rantanen kicked off the play with a strong entry. He spun around Mo Seider and tried to lift the puck on net with his backhand. It ricocheted to the corner and allowed the Avs to reset out high. Devon Toews moved the puck to Makar and Makar dished it to the net.
Makar collected his 80th career goal and became the fastest active defenseman to reach the mark (297 GP).
For his second tally, Jonathan Drouin applied pressure on the forecheck and Artturi Lehkonen forced a turnover with a well-timed pokecheck. Nathan MacKinnon collected the puck and evaded Patrick Kane to set Rantanen up for a one-timer. His shot was stopped, but Makar retrieved it on his backhand and sent it five-hole.
Everybody Eats
MacKinnon extended his home point streak to 31 games – tied for the fourth longest in NHL history.
He also became the first Avs player to post consecutive 40-goal seasons. Only two Nordiques had back-to-back 40-goal campaigns: Michel Goulet and Peter Stastny.
Drouin’s efforts were rewarded with a goal himself: a beautiful far-side wrister off the rush. Ross Colton and Josh Manson helped to ignite the play.
MacKinnon, Makar, and Rantanen all recorded a four-point night. This was last done in 1997 by Peter Forsberg, Valeri Kamensky, and Claude Lemieux.
Rantanen became the second Finnish-born player in NHL history to record three consecutive 50-assist seasons. The only other to achieve the feat was Jari Kurri.
Rantanen’s playmaking was back to the elite level we’ve come to appreciate.
On their third goal, MacKinnon sent the puck to Rantanen behind the goal line. Rantanen shimmied behind the net in search of his lane and a seam through Jake Walman and J.T. Compher to Lehkonen in the slot. Lehkonen was ready for it and banged it in immediately.
MacKinnon was 57% at the faceoff dot and won important draws on both powerplay goals.
Colorado was on the penalty kill with only seconds left in the first period, and Alexandar Georgiev came up with a huge glove save on David Perron in close.
The Avs outshot Detroit 54-19 and put up 24 shots in the second period alone and every single player registered a shot on net – including AHL call-ups Jean-Luc Foudy and Ondrej Pavel.
With such a strong lead in the third period, Bednar deployed Foudy a little bit more and it allowed him to score his very first NHL goal.
Alex Lyon was an unstoppable force at first. We’ve watched the Avs falter in the face of chance after chance not going in, but Colorado battled through it relentlessly.
Eventually they got through, and Lyon’s stellar night became his nightmare – it brought James Reimer into the game.
Chips to the Center
It’s hard not to believe there’s a link between yesterday’s moves and Colorado’s response.
“We feel we’re better today than we were yesterday,” Avs GM Chris MacFarland said. “But we’re going to leave no stone unturned and see what the next 48 hours holds with the deadline on Friday. But we’re breathing easier today than we were yesterday.”
There’s excitement for the direction the group is heading with added reinforcements on the way.
MacKinnon made a point to share that the league is very small and that he’d heard great things about Walker and Mittelstadt.
Bednar had to stop himself from referring to Mittelstadt as elite. “He’s got fantastic hands and feet, and he thinks the game.”
With even more depth additions on Thursday, Colorado has pushed their chips to the middle.
Bednar expressed a deep appreciation for the finesse of the front office.
“Every team has a window in which they see success or a key moment of time for the organization,” Bednar explained. “There’s lots of teams going all in, teams that feel like they got a chance to win. If they add certain things to their lineup, they’re going to go all in.
When your goal is to win the Stanley Cup – we’re not trying to be a mediocre team. Sometimes you can do it. Sometimes you can’t. I’ve learned a lot as a coach that I try and stay in my lane because there’s things that I don’t understand.
I got a better understanding of them now, but you have cap is issues, you have next year’s contracts to worry about, and the cap situation. Adding and moving players in and out isn’t what you read online. Everyone that thinks, ‘Oh, just go add this guy, go add that guy.’ They’re not even scratching the surface of how difficult it is to make your team better.
To be able to add players like this and bolster the strong group that we already have is a rarity.
It’s something that everyone in our room is grateful for, but our room has to put in the work in order to get to that point. We feel like we’re a good team. Our stars are playing great. We have to support it in order to win and that’s what they’ve done here today. Now it’s up to us to go and play the way we can play to get the job done.”
As MacKinnon and Makar continue to reach new milestones, management has surrounded their talent with a wealth of support. High-stakes hockey. It’s up to them to seize the opportunity at hand and make a real run for it.
