Avs Game 56 Studs & Duds: Jets No-Show

This one was a personal delight for me as the Colorado Avalanche toppled the Winnipeg Jets 5-1 in a ‘revenge’ game of sorts after getting bopped 5-0 the last time they were in Winnipeg. That was a tough game to cover in person.

Studs

Nathan MacKinnon

He set the tone with the goal 19 seconds into the game and never really slowed down. Even up 5-1 in the third period, MacKinnon was flying around the ice creating opportunities for himself and opponents.

A thing about his game that has really become fascinating to watch is the way he understands teams are collapsing on him defensively and he looks to exploit this by finding the open guys. He’s always done this to some extent (it’s a pretty basic tenet of offense, after all), but watching him actively seek it out has been fun to watch.

I might do a deeper film study on how his playmaking has advanced this season because I think it has taken a significant step forward. That was on display in this one. He finished with two points and was on fire most of the game. Bonus points for a good defensive stick lift being called a penalty. That was fun.

Alexandar Georgiev

I know the Avs gave him a nice lead to work with and defensively were pretty solid given the expected score effects in this game, but he gave up the tying goal early in the game and locked it down and never looked back.

The Jets had a couple of chances to crawl back into the game and Georgiev was just better in those moments than the talented array of Jets shooters. It was calm and collected and he played with confidence. After what I felt was not a great performance against Edmonton on Sunday, I loved his game tonight.

J.T. Compher

I just keep waiting for Compher to fall back to earth, but at some point you have to give him some credit. Against a Jets team whose second-greatest strength is their top six forwards, Compher was a guy who I was especially excited to see.

Winnipeg chose a Scheifele-Compher matchup and the Avs got the best of that decision. Even when Compher got the more advantageous Pierre-Luc Dubois matchup, he won that, too. Those are two pretty serious pivots that Compher outplayed tonight en route to two points.

What I really love about Compher’s success tonight that has been a trend lately has been his usage. He’s obviously settled in nicely alongside Mikko Rantanen on the second line but he is giving the coaching staff confidence to roll the 11F/7D alignment because he is effectively handling the split duties of double-shifting on that fourth line.

When MacKinnon succeeds at something like that, you just shrug it off because he’s exceptional and a top-three center in the world. Compher isn’t in that tier but continues the phenomenal contract year he’s having as he broke the 40-point barrier for the first time in his career. His goal came alongside MacKinnon and his assist was to Matt Nieto.

That versatility has always been one of his calling cards but his two-way effectiveness this year is on a completely different level.

Bowen Byram

If it feels like this section is turning into the same few players over and over again, well, tell them to stop playing so well and I’ll talk about other guys for a while.

I thought Byram was once again excellent tonight. He was moving pucks from defense to offense extremely well and his skating was a serious asset tonight as his ability to jump into the play was not handled well by the Jets weak defensive structure.

His goal was another example of what kind of shooter we can expect him to be in his career because he has the ability to beat legitimate NHL goaltenders on a regular basis. I’m not sure I would say it’s fair to expect him to score 20 as we are with Makar, but I think he can be a 15-goal guy pretty consistently. He has five in 18 games this year after scoring five in just 30 games last year. That’s nine goals in his last 47 regular-season games. It’s not a fluke. Probably. Maybe.

Anyway, his two-way game was suffocating once again. Makar’s absence has allowed Byram to find an extra gear to his game and I think there has to be a serious temptation when Makar returns to pair them together and see if they can get the league’s best two-way pairing (pretty tough to beat Toews-Makar, of course).

Duds

The Winnipeg Jets

Normally this space is used for a micro-inspection of the Avalanche, but how can you not be a little letdown from this performance from the Jets? The hype built all week about this game, in part because the Avs had a four-day break and in part because the two teams were as close as they are in the standings.

Even Jets head coach Rick Bowness said this would be the biggest game of the year and 11 minutes into the first period it was over. The Avs shifted into cruise control and held on for arguably their easiest win of the year.

I mentioned above that it was a ‘revenge’ game of sorts because their last matchup was arguably the easiest win of the year for the Jets, so I suppose this balanced the scales a bit.

Still, I can’t help but feel like as impressive as this win ended up being, there’s an emotional letdown from the spectators side of this as it was going to be one of the first tastes of “playoff atmosphere” the team has gotten this season. I know the Tampa Bay games were hyped, but they just weren’t that important beyond the standard two points.

This one mattered and the Jets didn’t even bother to show. Of course, the Avs played a pretty big role in the outcome, too, so it wasn’t all Jets. Kudos to the Avs for putting them down.

Unsung Hero

Devon Toews

This felt like a vintage Toews game to me. He was quiet, did a little of everything on both ends, and walked out a statistical darling. I’m not sure how you scout the next Devon Toews, but watching this guy on a nightly basis is a treat. He’s exceptional.

There isn’t a single thing about his game tonight that I really want to touch on, he just played a boring, extremely effective Devon Toews kind of hockey game. Nothing about his individual tools jump out at you. He’s not exceptional at anything but making all the right decisions and being in the right position all the time.

It’s like a goaltender getting a shutout without making any highlight-reel saves. Positional hockey is boring, but my goodness is it ever wildly effective. Even when Blake Wheeler had a step on Toews and beat him wide, Toews recovered enough to disrupt the scoring chance and the puck ended up harmlessly in the corner. Even his mistakes end up on teach tape!