Avs cap off deadline day with a win in OT thriller against the Edmonton Oilers

Whew, what a day.

After months of speculation and armchair-GMing, the NHL’s trade deadline came and went at 1 pm MT Monday afternoon, and it was one of the more active deadline days in recent memory.

The Colorado Avalanche added two more players before the league-mandated cut-off, Artturi Lehkonen and Andrew Cogliano, and managed to not send out any more players off of its current NHL roster. 

It was an interesting vibe around the rink today.

At morning skate, you could feel an uneasy tension in the building as players anxiously tried to go about their morning routine as they prepared for the Edmonton Oilers. There had been rumors in the days leading up to the deadline that the Avs were potentially trying to pull off a blockbuster deal that one national writer described as “possibly out of left field,” meaning, we had an idea of what would happen today, but there was a chance that they pulled something off that nobody saw coming.

You could tell players just wanted it to be over, they wanted to know who was going to be here, and they wanted this cloud of potentially losing friends and teammates to dissipate. 

I’ve always found there to be odd energy throughout the NHL after the All-Star break and before the trade deadline, I guess you could call it the “dog days” of winter. Top teams know that their team will be changing as they gear up for a playoff run and they just want to get there so they know who they are going into war with, and bottom feeders are full of guys on expiring deals trying to play their way onto playoff teams.

It leads to odd results and inconsistent play.

When the Avs and Oilers showed up at game time, however, you could tell that unsettled feeling had officially left the building. The Avalanche had made their moves to shore up their depth, and the Oilers had made small tweaks they think can help them sneak into the postseason.

In other words, the rosters are set. This is it. We are officially in the home stretch, no more speculation and rumors, no more wondering how different your team will look, all that matters now is the results you earn.

These two teams hadn’t played in nearly 900 days, due to the unorthodox seasons we’ve experienced each of the last two years, and players said this morning they were fired up to play a team they hadn’t seen in a while. Plus, you have the storyline of McDavid vs. MacKinnon, two of the fastest and most dynamic Centers in the world going head to head, both wanting to send a message to the other, and it was MacKinnon who would get the last laugh tonight as he buried the winner to help the Avs knock off the Oilers 3-2 in overtime.

All of what I just described, from the pressure finally being released after trade deadline to having the chance to see a “new” team, to the star power, all came through as soon as the puck dropped.

Speed, skill, and heavy play were all on display all night. This game didn’t quite have the same intensity that we’ve seen recently when the Avs clash with some of the other top teams in the league, but you could tell immediately that both of these teams were trying to get on the right side of the win column coming out of the deadline.

The game started with great pace, according to Jared Bednar and Nathan MacKinnon a little too much pace, as it lead to somewhat of a track meet with the high-flying Oilers. Both teams traded chances and got creative in the offensive zone, eventually leading to Edmonton’s Jesse Puljujarvi hooking Andre Burakovsky sending the Avs to the game’s first man advantage.

While it’s been a little bit of a struggle for Colorado this season, that newfound energy we talked about earlier came through on the power play and, after some CRISP passing, Mikko Rantanen slammed home his own rebound, and the Avalanche were off and running.

The Avs carried that 1-0 lead into the locker room, and even though they maybe would’ve liked to clean a couple of things up, you’re always happy taking a lead into the intermission.

Having the lead helps ease your mind if you feel like you haven’t played your best, the real area of concern after the first 20 for the Avs was the fact that defenseman Ryan Murray blocked a shot on his first shift, and did not return the rest of the game.

“We’ll know more tomorrow,” Bednar said of Murray after the game. “He took that shot as everyone saw, it hit him in the upper body. Hand, arm, whatever. He’s getting looked at, but the fact that he couldn’t come back means he’s gonna miss some time, I don’t know how long, we’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

You feel for Murray as he’s really seemed to settle into his game recently and this is just such a tough break for him.

Both teams picked up right where they left off at the start of the second, north-south hockey at a high pace. It was fun hockey to watch, but again, both Bednar and MacKinnon referred to it as “too fun”, and not something you want to do against a team that is as good off the rush as Edmonton, and the Oilers showed why.

The teams traded goals all period long, starting with Kailer Yamamoto finishing a beautiful pass from Leon Draisaitl to tie the game, followed by Mikko Rantanen picking up his second power-play goal of the night, and finishing with Evander Kane finding himself all alone in front of the net off of a broken play as the Avs were trying to exit the zone, to deadlock things at 2-2 heading into the final 20.

What’s been so fascinating about this Avalanche team this year is their ability to find another level, or adapt the way they’re playing seemingly at the drop of a hat, when they need to.

The third period, you could tell, Jared Bednar made it clear that it was time to shift gears and tighten up defensively. 

They gave Edmonton almost nothing in the third. The fast and loose style that we had seen all night… didn’t necessarily stop, but it was much more in control. The chances seemed less dangerous, and there was a sense from both teams that they weren’t going to give.

Give the Avs credit in this one, they played hard. Edmonton has a lot of issues as a franchise, but they have a talented roster, starring the best player in the world. They Can burn you at any moment, and Colorado did a good job neutralizing that.

With just a couple of minutes to play, you could tell that the teams were gearing up for overtime. After all, these points are important to Edmonton, they need all they can get.

The third horn would sound and it was time for free hockey in Denver.

Bednar would roll Nazem Kadri out with Val Nichushkin and Devon Toews to start against Connor McDavid and Duncan Keith. My first thought was “well, if you survive this first shift, it gives you a chance for maybe a small mismatch once you eventually roll Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar on the next shift”, and that’s exactly what happened.

Less than a minute into OT, and after a line change, Makar and MacKinnon found themselves on the receiving end of a broken play this time, and it sprung them on a 2-on-1, with McDavid being the lone Oiler back. Look, McDavid is an unbelievable player, but he’s not a defenseman. 

Makar looked off the shot, pulled McDavid out of position, and set a perfect pass on MacKinnon’s stick, who had enough time to collect the puck, throw a head fake of his own, before burying it right under the bar and ending the game in spectacular fashion. 

That goal would tie MacKinnon with Milan Hejduk as the franchise’s all-time leader in overtime goals scored. When he was made aware of that fact after the game by the media, his response? “Nice, nice.”

This man could not possibly care less about individual accolades. He is all-in to win a Stanley Cup, and that is all that matters.

I said it at the beginning of this piece, this is go time. This is the team you are going into battle with every single night from here on out to try and win a Stanley Cup. This is where the real work starts. Tonight really looked like this Avalanche team understands that better than they ever have before.

They played a highly-skilled, desperate team, and were able to change their game when it mattered most pull out a win at the end of an emotionally draining day.

The three-game homestead continues Wednesday as the Avs welcome another desperate team in the Vancouver Canucks for yet another 7:30 pm local start time.