Colorado will have just three whacks at Minnesota in the regular season, and the first of three kicked off tonight. A familiar divisional foe, Minnesota has been a (mild) thorn in Colorado’s side; the Avs went 2-1-1 against them last year.

Minnesota was wounded coming out of the gate. Poor goaltending performances weakened them and their forward group has missed the services of left wing Jordan Greenway. Ryan Hartman has struggled to fill the role of 1C and as a result, this Minnesota group was in a vulnerable position. 

The uncertainty surrounding the health of forwards Darren Helm and Gabriel Landeskog has paved way for a lineup that has been described as fluid in the bottom six. Colorado rolled with the same lineup tonight as they have in both of their games with Alexandar Georgiev as the starter in net.

First Period

Colorado’s goals in the first period came about in weird ways. At 3:30, Erik Johnson directed a shot from the right point. Ben Meyers was parked in the shooting lane and tipped the shot back into a Minnesota defender and then into the net. 

Less than a minute later, a delayed call gave Minnesota the extra skater. Calen Addison swooped in after a skillful handoff and pickup at the blueline. He drove to the slot and slipped it to a skating Kirill Kaprizov flying in at the right circle. He sent a one-timer from the knee over Alexandar Georgiev’s glove.

As the period winded down, MacKinnon stayed strong on top of the puck and carried it around the boards. His initial pass to Sam Girard was picked off, but Girard was able to recover the puck and backhanded it in on a shot that was a little light in force but managed to trickle past Filip Gustavsson.

There were no penalties in the first period. Minnesota applied even pressure and controlled possession with a slight, but close, edge. 

Second Period

Mikko Rantanen took a slashing penalty at 5:04. On the subsequent powerplay, Addison sent a shot from the point. Joel Eriksson-Ek was wide open in the slot and expertly lowered his blade to direct the shot in.

Past the midway point, Colorado pulled off a great 200-foot play. Cale Makar jump-started the sequence with a pass to MacKinnon in his end. MacKinnon carried the puck up ice and dumped the puck with a bounce on net. Mikko Rantanen skated in and deposited the rebound after the initial dump ate up Wild netminder Filip Gustavsson.

Colorado’s penalty kill successfully withstood two of their three penalties and their powerplay could not capitalize on one chance.

Third Period

To kick off the scoring, Andrew Cogliano dropped a pass to J.T. Compher along the boards in the offensive zone. Compher dropped it to Manson who stickhandled the puck to the crease and backhanded it in.

Near the end of a penalty kill sparked by a Kurtis MacDermid cross-check, Addison very familiarly found Kaprizov at the right circle. Kaprizov’s shot took a tough bounce off of Devon Toews’ skate and into the net in a way Georgiev couldn’t anticipate.

Georgiev made important saves in the third period in particular.

Eriksson-Ek was baited into a high sticking call at 14:12 and Colorado immediately allowed a shorthanded chance.

There a cross-crease play danced across the blue paint with Georgiev caught taking a stroll up front. Colorado got lucky and it breezed by without crossing the goal line. Without getting caught up in the mistake, the Avs recovered. In Minnesota’s end, Nichuskin applied pressure at the half wall to work the puck out to Makar at the point. Makar ripped a shot on net and MacKinnon whacked it in from the slot to score the power play goal.

It was a game with such unusual puck touches, the choice was to play under siege or on the attack.

A late Artturi Lehkonen tripping call placed the Avs down a man. The Wild pulled their goaltender for the extra skater, and a smart stick play at Compher at the defending blueline forced the puck to Nichushkin. He quickly lifted the puck ice into the empty net, and Colorado won 6-3.

Observations:

The penalty kill remains a problem for Colorado. I’m not panicking because it’s the beginning of the season and this is the time to tinker with it, but the shortcomings through three games appear to be breakdowns due to lapses in judgment. In this Wild game specifically, you’ll notice the heat generated between the hashmarks.

You can see the spacing on the kill allowed a player like Eriksson-Ek to scoot into the slot where he would redirect that Addison shot from up high relatively uncontested. A desire to challenge skaters on the perimeter allowed a little too much space in the home plate. Some of the trouble is that the penalty kill is not made up of new personnel. PK specialists like Logan O’Connor and Andrew Cogliano as well as strong defensive players like Nichushkin and elite defenders like Makar and Toews make up parts of the unit.

I attribute the breakdowns to the growing pains of tinkering with the PK in a new season and shaking off some of the rust. The only way out is through, I say. Colorado has the worst-ranked kill in the league through just three games. What was once a strength of theirs in the playoffs is a special project for the new season. I have confidence in what they can do through the course of a season to fine tune the little details. I hope they continue to revisit the errors of these games and truthfully, the mistakes seem to be lapses due to overthinking – players skating out too far and overcommitting to the wrong threat vs. natural instinct.

Georgiev made 36 of 39 saves in the game and spent 4:55 minutes shorthanded. Especially with his third period performance, I am happy with both outings he has had in the regular season so far.