Avs fall 7-5 to New Jersey Devils in Lars Eller's debut

It’s hard to imagine a hockey game wedged between the chaos of even more trade news breaking all around. Jakob Chychrun finally found a home in Ottawa and long-time LA Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick moved to the Columbus Blue Jackets (but the rumors of his permanence there have already begun to swirl).

Among the trades, the Colorado Avalanche acquired 33-year-old Lars Eller from the Washington Capitals. Jared Bednar described him as a “solid, big third-line center” and said he was a good pickup.

 “With guys like Darren Helm and Gabriel Landeskog missing from our lineup, guys that we relied on heavily in a lot of draw situations especially on the left-side penalty kill part of it – it’s a great addition for our team.”

Getting the start in net was 22-year-old Justus Annunen who was recalled to the Avalanche last night from the Colorado Eagles.

First Period

About a minute into the first, New Jersey dumped the puck in and Eller went to rim it around the board to Jack Johnson, but he let it trickle away from him on what appeared to be a miscue. Johnson tried to retrieve it but Jesper Bratt pressured him and knocked it out to Ondrej Palat who collected it and wristed one past Justus Annunen.

Seven minutes later, Colorado chased the puck in their own end. Mikko Rantanen tried to engage it in the corner, but Mike McLeod took off with it. He was able to get to the blue paint and dropped it off. Annunen’s pad made the initial save and he tried to cover it, but Nate Bastian continued to whack at it until it went in.

Jared Bednar used his coach’s challenge to have the play reviewed for goaltender interference, but it was unsuccessful. New Jersey only managed to get one shot on net on their subsequent powerplay.

At 11:52 into the period, Colorado had another difficult shift trying to clear the puck from their end. Nathan Mackinnon tried to send it to Val Nichushkin, but it went airborne and was intercepted by Nico Hischier. Dawson Mercer was able to reset to Hischier on the left side who sent it to Tomas Tatar at the bottom of the right circle and snapped it in. New Jersey snagged a three-goal lead.

With 13.7 seconds left in the first period, Artturi Lehkonen battled for the puck in the offensive zone with the help of MacKinnon and Nichushkin. Lehkonen was able to successfully escape with it and bring it out to Bo Byram at the blueline.

Byram drew the skaters away from the half wall and passed it back to Lehkonen. This created more space for Colorado and allowed Lehkonen to find Nichushkin. Nichushkin passed to MacKinnon at the top of the left circle and MacKinnon fired it in through traffic to soften the deficit to 3-1.

Second Period

At 3:13, Devon Toews carried the puck around the boards in his end and pressure from Miles Wood forced him to cough it up to Mike Mcleod. Dougie Hamilton snagged it, pulled in and around Andrew Cogliano and wristed it in.

Then at 3:53, J.T. Compher took a tripping penalty and Colorado went back on the kill. New Jersey hadn’t registered a shot on net, but in the final ten seconds the Devils re-entered the Avs zone for one last chance.

A patient fake from Mercer at the right circle gave him a chance to get Lehkonen to commit to the block so that Erik Haula could grab his shot toward the net and redirect it to Miles Wood coming down the slot and in.

At 7:32, the Avs chased a dump-in and Josh Manson sent the puck to Rantanen down low to redirect it in.

Less than two minutes later, a Lehkonen shot rebound led to a transition the other way, but the Avs were able to grab Wood’s lazy chip in and Byram got the play going back the other way. With the speed advantage, Byram passed to MacKinnon who was able to skate in and around Ryan Graves and wrist it in

Thirty-six seconds later, Compher collected a rebound in the Avs end and took off on the breakaway and wristed it bar down to bring Colorado within one goal in a matter of two minutes and two seconds.

At 10:02, Annunen denied Nico Hischier’s backhand on the breakaway.

At 16:59, some of the excitement wore off. Ryan Graves sent the puck across the crease to Dawson Mercer who reached around Sam Girard and knocked it in to make it 6-4.

The shots were close at 18-22 in favor of the Devils. Importantly, only five of Colorado’s chances came in dangerous areas compared to New Jersey’s 16. Colorado climbed back into the game in this frame with better possession metrics by a significant margin compared to their first.

Still, they had plenty of work left to do.

Third Period 

Colorado came out the gate hot. At: 1:26, Nichushkin entered the zone with Lehkonen in tow and both battled to retain the puck. MacKinnon helped to get the puck out to Girard at the blueline and Girard sent the puck to Lehkonen expertly parked on the side to tap it right to NIchushkin who would snap it in.

The play was reviewed for offside – Lehkonen did look to get his skates in a bit early – but the call on the ice stood and Colorado earned a powerplay for the failed challenge. New Jersey pulled Vitek Vanecek in exchange for 22-year-old Akira Schmid. 

Unfortunately, the Avs were unable to convert with just one shot on net in their powerplay.

With a little over two minutes remaining, Annunen went to the bench to bring on the extra skater. At 1:14, Nico Hischier scored the empty net goal to make it 7-5 and solidify New Jersey’s win.

Observations:

Lars Eller’s Avalanche debut: It’s a complicated first showing. Eller’s role on the first goal is glaring so quickly into this game, but he isn’t solely to blame.

Jared Bednar didn’t fault him for his decision to seek out Jack Johnson there and believed the issue came about because Johnson was unaware that his guy was coming for the touch.

Eller finished the night with 14:28 minutes including a shift on the penalty kill. He played on the third line between Matt Nieto and Evan Rodrigues and took shifts between Logan O’Connor and Andrew Cogliano as well.

When asked where he envisions his fit with the team, Eller answered, “Probably where I was on a line today: third-line center, being able to play in all kinds of situations like the PK.”

There were moments where he struggled to settle the puck in the offensive zone, but another where Vanecek had to flash the glove in the second on a wrist shot between the hash marks.

He finished with one shot on net, and three additional attempts that were blocked or missed.

His line with Nieto and Rodrigues finished with a 54.55% Corsi for percentage at 5-on-5 play.

When you consider that he arrived just 15 minutes before warmups, it’s not hard to imagine why he looked so green. Some of his fumbles did not appear to be inability but rather unfamiliarity. 

Bednar had another moment after warmups to go over the Xs and Os, but it was a very basic and quick tutorial. He went over their systems and gave him a few things to be aware of.

“Don’t think too much,” Bednar told him. “Go play. Trust your instincts.”

The team is off tomorrow, but Bednar will go over even more with Eller on Friday.

“I thought he was fine,” said Bednar. “He got better as the game went on for sure.”

“He’s a good veteran player. We need what he provides,” he added. “It’s almost that simple. I asked him, ‘Hey listen, (are) you feeling good, do you want to play? If you’re not, it’s not going to affect my opinion of you.’ And he felt good and wanted to play. He was excited to be here. He’s excited to be part of the team.”

This was a difficult outing to glean much from because poor puck management in the first period (from star players and otherwise) dug a challenging hole to climb out of. The hope for Eller is a shutdown line not so different from the success brought about from O’Connor, Cogliano, and Darren Helm in last year’s playoffs.

His lack of scoring this year with Washington poses a concern, but it wouldn’t be the first time a player came to Colorado and thrived. This weekend’s back-to-back on the road in Dallas and then at home against Seattle will be a better gauge.

Eller said he had not played with any current Avs players before this but that he had played with Andre Burakovsky and Philipp Grubauer who will be here Sunday.

“It’s always been a tough building to come in and play as an opposition team,” Eller said. “I’m happy to be on this side of the ice with these guys here. It’s a great opportunity. It’s a special opportunity to be in a playoff spot and have the history here (of) last year. I’m privileged to be here.”

Justus Annunen’s night: Like Eller, Annunen also had a complicated game. It’s worth noting that New Jersey’s Vitek Vanecek also had a rough night.

On 28 shots faced, Justus allowed six goals against. For Vanecek, who was ultimately pulled, it was five goals on 19 shots. In that way, it was a weird night for both teams.

You could grant Annunen allowances for the failed clears and failed battles in the first period as well as that first goal in the second period. As someone who is an Annunen supporter, I believe he could have stopped Miles Wood in the slot on that next one because he is a skilled goaltender.

When the game was 5-4, he might have been just a bit delayed reacting to the cross-crease play on the Mercer goal which made it 6-4. Understandably, it’s easy to nitpick in hindsight. I’m sympathetic because the toll of the first period may have greatly knocked his confidence.

It’s important for a young goaltender to face these moments too and learn from them. New Jersey had 18 high-danger chances and Annunen had 13 saves.

“It’s not always going to go smoothly,” said Bednar. “You’re not always going to feel your best or play your best, but I think it’s important that you grind and continue to show up. We hung him out to dry way too many chances in the first period. There’s some saves that I would have liked to see him make, but he did make a handful of big saves when we were pushing the second period. It’s a learning process for sure.”

A rested Alexandar Georgiev will be an option to start both games this weekend.