Avs-Kraken Game 3 Studs & Duds

Studs

Alexandar Georgiev

The Avs have played three games this season and I’ve had Georgiev in this space after all of them. He’s been awesome to start the year but this was easily his best performance so far as the Avalanche were downright sluggish to start and Georgiev kept Colorado in contact while the Kraken were vibing from a feisty crowd in Seattle’s home opener.

Georgiev stopped 37 of 38 shots and finished with a .974 save percentage to run his season total to .958. There were some silly takes over the summer about whether or not Georgiev was good enough to repeat his stellar regular season performance and while three games is certainly a drop in the bucket given how many he will play this year, he is off to a great start to definitively answer that question once and for all.

Per Natural Stat Trick, Seattle finished with 3.04 expected goals in all situations tonight. They finished with one and that’s more thanks to Georgiev’s brilliance than the team in front of him, especially in the first two periods when the Avs were outshot 30-14.

Once Colorado found their game in the third period, Georgiev’s job got much easier but he backstopped the Avs to competitiveness tonight with his top-notch play. It was exactly what an Avs team finishing a long road trip needed from him.

Logan O’Connor

He started the game off by finding Jordan Eberle and asking him for a fight following Eberle getting off scot-free in the playoffs last year for breaking Andrew Cogliano’s neck and ending his season. To his credit, Eberle took the fight and answered for the hit, which frustratingly went unsuspended, and O’Connor enjoyed easily winning his second fight of the season.

O’Connor showing that kind of heart in the name of his penalty kill partner and longtime linemate reinforces the culture that this Avalanche team is playing for one another and not just themselves and is the kind of galvanizing action that helps bring a team closer together, especially with so many new faces on the roster. That’s what being a member of the Avalanche is supposed to be about and O’Connor rose to that occasion.

Oh, and O’Connor scored a brilliant shorthanded goal when Cale Makar rimmed a puck perfectly and O’Connor outraced all of the Seattle players for the puck and then beat Philipp Grubauer to give the Avalanche a startling 2-1 lead. Once the Avs got the lead, Seattle never seriously threatened the rest of the night as Colorado settled into their game and slowly choked off the Seattle attack.

O’Connor was one of Colorado’s more competitive players while the ice was tilted in Seattle’s favor and it was great to see him be rewarded for the leadership and hard work he showcased.

The penalty kill

Another game, another perfect night for this unit. They killed four Seattle penalties, including what was essentially four straight minutes of a penalty kill in the second period and then another in the third period when it was still a one-goal game. Oh, and that unit scored the game-winning goal, too, which helped.

The reality with this unit is that it looks comfortable despite a ton of moving pieces. The personnel remains very much in flux as all six defensemen once again got in on the act with Bowen Byram being the low man on the list with only 45 seconds of PK time. Teams typically have their guys decided on, even this early in the season, and seeing Colorado willing to try out the entire defense and over half of their forwards is unusual.

To get the level of success they are with that many different faces is impressive. The underlying numbers aren’t going to wow you but with a goaltender as locked in as Georgiev is right now, that’s okay. Only giving up six shots on goal in eight minutes of PK time is pretty damn good work, though.

Duds

The power play

There were some skaters who didn’t have great nights but nobody had as big of a stinker as the power play. The Avs only had two opportunities so we’re talking about a grand total of four minutes out of 60 here but those four minutes with an extra skater on the ice weren’t even abysmal, they were borderline embarrassing.

Under no circumstances should a team with the talent the Avs possess be getting outshot on their power plays 4-1 and managing just a 1-1 tie in scoring chances with a team that is shorthanded. What in the world?

They lost faceoffs, had poor zone entries, lacked chemistry, appeared to have communication issues, and never once truly threatened to score. This has been the unit with the most sore spots to start this season so there’s a lot of room for improvement (A LOT) but right now it’s the one that feels the worst.

Josh Manson’s breakaway move

One of my favorite aspects of the shootout is learning about the random guys around the league who are really good at shootouts. It’s no surprise that a guy like Troy Terry is a go-to guy in Anaheim given his history, but guys like Wojtek Wolski and Matt Hendricks back in the day were game-winning plays in the format. Nick Bjugstad in Arizona is another guy who inexplicably rules at this.

Josh Manson found himself on a breakaway tonight and had made no move whatsoever, which was more hilarious than anything else. We keep joking after Colorado’s shootout against San Jose that the new third shooter for the Avs remains unknown (it used to be Landeskog, then Kadri, then Rodrigues) and in theory could be anybody. If tonight is any indication, it doesn’t seem like it will be Manson.

Unsung Hero

Valeri Nichushkin

The big fella was a mess next to Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen in the first period. Jared Bednar eventually went away from that trio as the game wore on and it was a maybe accidental give-and-go with Artturi Lehkonen that created Colorado’s first goal when Lehkonen put home the rebound attempt.

It was good to see that line create some offense like that because they have struggled to find their game as a group so far this year (thus the change to start the game) but cashed that chance.

Nichushkin was robbed of an assist on Lehkonen’s goal but made sure he didn’t go empty-handed as his hard work along the wall gave him a chance to ice the game with an empty net and he hit the back of the net from the defensive blueline for additional style points.

His underlying numbers rarely look as bad as tonight but he played a key role in two of Colorado’s four goals so he goes here.

Sam Girard

I wanted to find a spot for Girard because I loved two plays in particular in this game from him. He’s not a stud because he took part in some ghastly defense in the first period when he and Byram looked like they were conducting a kindergarten class fire drill in front of Georgiev that contributed to Seattle’s only goal of the night.

That ugly moment aside, Girard made an exceptional stretch pass to free Ross Colton on a breakaway that drew Colorado’s first penalty of the game and then played a significant role in the Mikko Rantanen dagger goal in the third period.

Girard pinched and attacked the front of the net, followed the puck along the wall, took a great pass from Cogliano that went through the Seattle defender’s legs and then cut to the middle of the ice, where he found Mikko Rantanen for the third Avalanche goal.

That’s the good stuff from Girard, who is off to a solid start this year.