Avs Film Room: "The Jostening returns"

Tyson Jost. The man who evokes many emotions by just putting his name out there on the internet. It’s been a struggle for Jost in his third NHL season as he hasn’t quite broken out as expected and on the deepest Avs team in years has found himself increasingly relegated to fourth-line duty.

There have been plenty of nights where Jost has struggled to make any impact at all and there have been plenty of nights where he’s played well but hasn’t seen the production.

All of that led to a tense trade deadline where the Avalanche ultimately chose not to move him. Amidst rampant forward injuries, the Avs turned to Jost immediately following the deadline and moved him up the lineup.

If there was ever a “now or never” situation, this was it.

Jost responded.

And that’s the focus of this edition of Avalanche Film Room.

The Prelude

Arguably Jost’s best game in months came immediately following last Monday’s deadline as the Avalanche hosted the Buffalo Sabres.

In a tightly-contested game, Jost’s impact was felt all over the ice. Even ignoring he had a goal taken away because he tipped it with a high stick, Jost officially registered an assist but made key plays on two of Colorado’s three goals.

This is the area Jost has needed to improve to be effective in the NHL. His skating hasn’t come around enough that his style in college can translate effectively so he’s had to learn how to muck and grind in the NHL.

It’s not an easy transition for someone who has spent his entire life in the top six worrying about scoring and playing with the top talent on every team. It’s taken time but Jost’s success on both of these goals comes via raw hard work. He simply beats his man in a puck battle and the Avs are rewarded with two goals.

The Jostening

This is all about the breakout. Sam Girard makes a nice play to come back and retrieve the puck, look up the ice and find a play to move the puck. It’s quick and decisive and is one of the reasons the Avs end up on top of the Hurricanes in the neutral zone.

Erik Johnson’s play to chip the puck forward is also solid. A regular pass along the ice likely just ends up in a turnover so Johnson chipping the puck at least turned it into a 50-50 battle between Jost and Jake Gardiner.

From here, Jost gets a stick on the puck and poor Jake Gardiner is put on the wrong end of another highlight. Gardiner looks like a member of the Keystone Cops with the way he slaps at the puck and then loses his balance as Jost recovers the puck and blows by him.

What I really loved here from Jost is the decision to shoot it. This is where the success he had in the Buffalo game comes in handy for him. Before the Buffalo game, I would have guessed Jost passes this puck to the center.

Because he was feeling confident about himself, he just lets it rip and finally gets himself a goal, his first since November 30. This was just Jost flat beating a goaltender with a ripper and the Avs absolutely needed the help.

Just because I liked the shot, here’s another angle of it.

As they say where I’m from, “Nice shootin’, Tex.”

This is just good hard work from Jost here. He gets the puck down low to Compher, who loses the battle. The puck comes right back to Jost and while he also loses the battle along the wall, his pressure keeps his man from making a quality play along the wall.

Sometimes you need to get a little lucky along the way and while there is a lot of good work from the Avs in this play, they’re about to get a nice break as the puck moves up the wall.

Andrei Svenchnikov retrieves the puck with plenty of time to make a good play on the puck. Colorado gets lucky in that he just flubs the clearing attempt. Vladislav Namestnikov comes across to put a body on him and pressure him but in reality the damage was already done by the time of his arrival.

Cale Makar’s keep at the blue line is underrated. It looks easy right here but he’s taking a chance. Notice the Carolina forward who gets in behind Makar. If Makar doesn’t make the play he does on the puck, it sets up a foot race between the Canes player and Ryan Graves, which is the last situation Graves ever wants to be in.

Makar keeps it and spots Jost going right to the net and gets the puck to him. It’s not a world-class finish from Jost but it worked all the same.

This is another angle of the goal and gives us less of a focus on what is happening with the puck but a great look at what Jost is doing. Instead of losing his board battle and doing nothing, he continues tracking the puck and sees an opportunity.

Jost going straight to the net is good hockey IQ on display. In a matter of two seconds in real-time, Jost went from thinking about clearing the zone to going right at the net to create a scoring chance, either on a pass from Makar or to screen for a Makar shot. Either way, the hockey brain hamster wheel was running hard on this sequence and it paid off.

Again, not a killer finish from Jost but he was due some good luck on all the chances he’s had around the net the last few months.