Avs Game 55 Studs & Duds: Oil Kings

The Colorado Avalanche completed the sweep of the weekend as they won their SEGABABA over the Edmonton Oilers 6-5 in a wild overtime victory.

Studs

Nathan MacKinnon

I know some of the shot metrics aren’t great but of the superstars in this game, I thought MacKinnon was far and away the best. His speed gave Edmonton fits and helped create the kind of transition-based game the Avalanche needed to get into in order to climb back from a 3-0 deficit.

MacKinnon finished with three points (1g, 2a) and was the only of the superstars to have a multi-point game. I really don’t want to overlook that point. Edmonton and Colorado are similarly built in that they are heavily invested in their superstars leading them to victory more often than not.

Each team can win games when their stars aren’t the main producers (see: yesterday’s win over the Blues), but it’s not as common. This is especially true for the Oilers, but they have the single best player between the two teams in Connor McDavid. That Edmonton lost a game where they scored five times and only two of those goals were created/scored by their two superstars is an affront to all common decency.

That’s the power of the kind of game MacKinnon had, though, because he outplayed Edmonton’s stars and produced the end results needed to overcome a middling process. Four of the NHL’s top 15 players played in the same game today and, simply put, Colorado’s stars got better as the game wore on and Edmonton’s faded.

On the scoring chance that led to the faceoff that ultimately ended the game, MacKinnon outskated McDavid and beat him to the front of the net. That right there was a microcosm of the day. He wasn’t so much better, but just enough and the Avs needed all of it.

Colorado’s scoring defense

Cale Makar was scratched today with an upper-body injury that Jared Bednar says is not related to the head injury Makar suffered in Pittsburgh. As a result, the Avs replaced Makar with Josh Manson and…Colorado’s defense still produced five assists today.

Sam Girard led the way with two but Manson, Bowen Byram, and Devon Toews all had assists of their own. When we talked earlier in the season about how Colorado was built to score with their defense functioning as a second line (production-wise), this is exactly what we were talking about.

Of course, that version included Makar and today’s did not, which makes them fighting through today’s circumstances to generate enough offense to offset their shoddy defensive work all the more impressive.

The four D who will be in any iteration of a healthy lineup combined for 16 shot attempts, 4 scoring chances, and 2 high-danger chances. When Colorado’s forward corps is struggling to generate a volume of chances, as was the case today, this defense needs to step up and help create some of that offense. Today they did and it was a difference-maker.

J.T. Compher

There were 2,686 NHL points on the ice today between the superstars that took the ice for both teams. McDavid and Draisaitl for Edmonton, MacKinnon and Rantanen for Colorado. Two teams with explosive forward groups led by their elite twosomes. All that firepower, and each of them scored. MacKinnon led with three.

Yet your high scorer in this game was Colorado’s 2C, J.T. Compher. Incredibly, I felt this game was a wonderful example of the risk and reward of having Compher play that role. When Compher botched the finish off a feed from MacKinnon in overtime, it was a good example of why it’s risky for him to be one of the top forward options. Sometimes, he just runs out of talent a little too quickly when paired with great players.

On the other hand, there’s that reward element. You know. The goal and three assists he had. The goal was originally an assist before getting changed later, but the rest of his day was pretty straightforward. He won the faceoffs that mattered and his play was one of the reasons they mattered. It all works together, you know?

Anyway, Compher was awesome. He was worthy of more than just the second star so I guess he’ll have to settle for landing in the ‘Studs’ section for this game.

The heart of the champion

To be honest, it has not felt very much like the Avalanche’s title defense has ever really started. We know that it has, of course, in the logical sense, but in the “feeling” sense where we think about Colorado’s busted lineup and all the problems with consistently icing the same guys, it definitely does not feel like it.

Yet every team treats Colorado as their own personal litmus test. When I was in Winnipeg earlier this year after the Avs got blown out by the Jets on that diaster of a road trip, the city was abuzz for days because of what they did to the champs. They didn’t care who was in or out of the lineup. The “A” on the front meant Colorado was on the schedule and they got two easy points that night.

With the Oilers in town, you know that is a team desperate to exact some kind of revenge on Colorado after the four-game sweep in the postseason last year. Add on top of it the third-period comeback and overtime win in Edmonton earlier this season and you have the recipe for a very motivated Oilers club today in an advantageous position thanks to the schedule.

Edmonton opened up leads of 3-0, 4-2, and 5-3. It didn’t matter. The Avs just kept fighting, working, grinding. At no point did Colorado ever fully take over the game. They just took advantage of their chances against a weak defense and a struggling goaltender. It’s the same recipe that you saw the Avs roll out in Game 4 when they completed the sweep of the Oilers.

Regardless of the specific matchup, I just loved that the Avs scrapped. We’ve seen the Avs go away in some games this season but today on the second half of a back-to-back against a rested and motivated team, Colorado held its ground. They stood firm in the center of the ice and told the Oilers, “No, YOU move.” The Oilers did.

And that’s why the Avs are the defending champs and Edmonton is not.

Duds

Alexandar Georgiev

A key element to a team’s success in back-to-back settings is one of the goalies, usually the starter, taking on the harder matchup and really saving the day. Look no further than last week when Georgiev stood on his head in Minnesota and stole two points for the Avalanche.

That caliber of performance would have really helped today, but the Avs just didn’t get it. The Avs also didn’t get a good performance from their defense, which in my opinion was nothing short of terrible all game. Even as the Avs pushed and kept trying to climb back into the game, the defense would allow another guy to get wide open and take advantage of Georgiev.

Here’s the but. BUT. Despite that just porous defense in front of him, goals three and four from Edmonton are both from distance and behind some kind of screen. That’s tough for goaltenders but fighting through screens and puck-tracking is, well, a huge part of the job. Georgiev didn’t do it well at all. Giving up high-danger goals is the nature of the position, but only two of the goals today were high-danger goals. There were two medium-danger and one low-danger goal tacked on, and that’s where I think you’re asking for more from Georgiev.

The Avs outscored their goaltending as Jack Campbell was significantly worse on the other end, but this could have been a regulation win for the Avs with a better day from their starter.

Colorado’s net front defense

So, here’s the thing. I don’t think Georgiev was good today. You just read that part. I also think the defense in front of him, especially the part the defensemen are primarily responsible for, was just atrocious.

Edmonton finished with 14 high-danger chances in the game, which isn’t an astronomical number but is far too high for a team of Colorado’s caliber to be allowing. That made Georgiev’s job pretty tough. Here’s the heatmap of shots from Edmonton.

Not great, Bob!

It looks like someone put an ice pack over Colorado’s goal with how dark blue that area is. Makar is an extremely important player in Colorado’s lineup, but he can’t be the difference between competency and disaster in their own zone. If anything, Manson for Makar should be an upgrade in that specific area as Makar has shown quite a bit of uneven play defending his crease this season.

As a team, it just wasn’t an area where Colorado was any good today. They were bad at it and put a ton of pressure on Georgiev, who didn’t handle it as well as I’d have liked. That’s hockey sometimes, though, and these are the kinds of games you have to steal a couple of times per year. It’s not often a team survives a game where they were this poor defending, but sometimes the willingness to scrap can carry a team through days where execution is lacking.

Evan Rodrigues

Might have the worst game I’ve seen him play in an Avalanche sweater. He was on the ice for four goals against, contributed heavily to the defensive failures that led to those goals, and balanced none of it with a positive impact on offense.

Rodrigues was, simply put, terrible today. I can’t stand plus/minus as a metric but the -4 next to his name pretty accurately sums up the kind of game Rodrigues had. The reality matched the hype.

Unsung Hero

Sam Girard

Take that, haters!

Just kidding. I’m not out here trying to shadowbox my Twitter mentions, but I do know a section of people who will roll their eyes and/or dismiss this section upon seeing who I picked.

I do want to start out by saying that I don’t think Girard was incredible or anything in this game. If I did, he’d be in the Studs section. He DID have two points and once again played a solid offensive game. His production has skyrocketed pretty much since the start of 2023.

Why is he here, though?

His 1v1 work against McDavid in overtime, the best and most dynamic hockey player in the world (in my opinion). The on-ice results aren’t anything special as he lost the numbers battle against McDavid with a 9-16 Corsi split and 8-13 shots on goal in Edmonton’s favor.

But that one shift in overtime? Roll tape.

I mean, this is excellent. Girard forces McDavid wide initially, cutting down on his angle to shoot, then gets his stick on the first shot attempt to help keep it from being dangerous.

The puck gets back to McDavid as he’s halfway up the wall to the blue line. He has plenty of space and Girard has almost no momentum going from a near-standstill. Girard uses his stick to momentarily disrupt McDavid trying to go around him on his forehand side and then keeps his stick in the shooting lane.

McDavid takes the puck around behind the net, a classic McDavid move to create even more space. Girard’s brilliance here is that he doesn’t follow and cuts McDavid off at the back post before McDavid can even try a wraparound attempt. This cuts off another scoring chance. When McDavid circles again on high, Girard is in his pocket and gets his stick on the next shot attempt with it missing the net.

Girard went 1v1 with the best player in the world for about 12 seconds and allowed 1 shot on goal and helped win possession back for the Avs. Here’s a more isolated look at it.

Whatever you feel about Girard’s game, that shift in overtime was enormous in helping get Colorado the second point. You know what else was?

Devon Toews

No commentary necessary.