Avs Game 41 Studs & Duds: Dominant performance

Colorado’s 7-0 obliteration of the Ottawa Senators reminded both Avalanche players and fans alike that hockey can, in fact, still be fun. It was a party at Ball Arena, the exact kind of shindig everyone needed after the incredibly disappointing and disheartening loss to the Chicago Blackhawks two nights ago.

Because we’re on the other extreme side of a pendulum swing in this one, it’ll be all Studs as nitpicking any Duds in a 7-0 rout where the Avs controlled the game from the onset seems unnecessary.

Studs

Pavel Francouz

When you stop every shot you face, you’re a stud of the game, no questions asked. It wasn’t like the Avs didn’t need Francouz, either, as he made several huge stops while the offense was still building up to turning the game into a blowout.

Where Francouz really stood out was on the penalty kill. The Avs still had some breakdowns in their three PKs but Francouz stood tall and wiped them out. That’s how things are supposed to work.

Not a ton to say when a goaltender literally couldn’t do his job any better (from a results perspective, of course). Great night from Frankie.

Mikko Rantanen

I was very critical of Rantanen, in particular, after he emotionally melted down in Chicago, losing his cool on the ice and then being the culprit of the goaltender interference that erased the game-tying goal from Alex Newhook.

Rantanen acknowledged that he simply couldn’t continue to act like that in games. We saw him tested early when he scored the game’s first goal and took a penalty call that he didn’t seem to agree with (it sure looked like an obvious call to me). Rantanen just shrugged it off, got back to work, and scored again.

His 29 goals through 41 games is the highest number of goals through the halfway mark of a season in Avalanche history. He has 41 games remaining to score 21 goals to become Colorado’s first 50-goal scorer since Milan Hejduk in 2002-03.

Here’s a quick video of a great night from the big moose.

A small detail, but I loved on Rantanen’s first goal the way Sens goaltender Anton Forsberg was leaning to his right to see the puck through traffic and Rantanen used those screens to shoot it to Forsberg’s left. He caught him leaning and made him pay for the 1-0 lead.

His second goal is an excellent display of high-level skill between Rantanen and Alex Newhook. Each guy makes a great individual effort and the Avs catch a nice break when the puck slides away from Newhook and right to Rantanen, who whips it five-hole for his second of the night.

Alex Newhook

A three-point night for Newhook, who seems to really love playing against the Sens, and it helps ease the sting of his disallowed game-tying goal two nights ago.

Production from Newhook has been something the Avs have badly needed and with him playing both alongside Rantanen and J.T. Compher on Colorado’s second line and occasionally in between Andrew Cogliano and Logan O’Connor gave him extra looks to find that production. He did.

What you love when watching Newhook’s game back isn’t that both goals are highly-skilled reactions where he picks up a loose puck and deposits them in a spot where Forsberg had no chance to stop either shot. No, it’s how hard Newhook works to help create opportunities throughout the ice. Take a look.

It starts with him coming off the bench and forechecking hard, then upon reload, you see Newhook’s IQ on display. He reads a shot from out high by Compher and positions himself for a screen. When Compher changes course and moves the puck to Devon Toews along the wall, Newhook repositions himself not for a screen but for a passing outlet option down low.

Toews took that option. Ultimately, nothing came of it but you have to appreciate his work around the guys with the puck to try to connect the offense.

His first goal is obviously pure skill.

His second goal is the same, but with the added benefit of him kicking the puck to his stick and then immediately shooting it over Forsberg’s blocker.

Not to be forgotten is his work in Rantanen’s second goal, too, where he was hard through the neutral zone and avoided the Sens defense once inside the offensive zone. A great night for Newhook, and the exact type of night that makes dreaming on his upside so damn easy.

Sam Girard

This was the kind of game we’ve seen Girard play a lot of in recent years but has been sorely lacking on a consistent basis this season. Let’s just get into his highlights.

You see the array of skills on display from Girard. His active stick defensively stripped multiple players of pucks in the defensive zone, his skating allowed him to get back and hold his own when players attacked his ice, and we saw him moving pucks from defense to offense as efficiently as he has all season.

On Colorado’s first goal, you see where Girard starts his all-out sprint for the back post on the other side of the ice. Him driving that ice as hard as he did forced Ottawa’s defense to sag back and respect a possible pass across the ice. When the defense finally committed to trying to stop Rantanen’s shot, the space provided by Girard driving the net had already been a difference-maker in Ottawa’s ability to block the offering.

We saw this again later when he drove the center of the ice for a scoring chance of his own, only to find Rantanen for a scoring chance up high in the zone after Girard had reloaded for another attack.

This was the creative and dangerous version of Girard the Avs want to see every night.

These two absolutely bonkers plays by Nathan MacKinnon

MacKinnon was very good tonight, but he had two plays in particular that stood out to me. One was his assist on Artturi Lehkonen’s power-play goal, the other on a play that didn’t result in a goal at all. Take a look.

Both of these highlights show MacKinnon with a hyperawareness of where his teammates are going to be without him appearing to ever look at either of them. The first play, in particular, is the stuff you just don’t see many players capable of pulling off in the NHL. MacKinnon does it twice.

Lehkonen could not believe how badly the coverage was blown by rampant puck-watching on that PPG. Holy smokes.

Duds

No. Just not tonight.

It was an imperfect night with a few guys who didn’t have great showings, but it was a 7-0 hockey game. Let’s just move on.

Unsung Hero

Logan O’Connor

Two assists and a premature ending of his night as he got feisty at the end of a decided game. In LOC’s defense, he gets pretty feisty no matter what so I guess the response to his usual nonsense was the real culprit here.

In reality, LOC earned two points just through his force of will. His forecheck pressure led to problems (see: Newhook’s second goal is really all about LOC) and he created a short-handed chance by running it down and outskating Thomas Chabot on the other side.