Avs Mailbag: Jost, Johnson, the Boston performance, Nichushkin, and more

Welcome to the weekly Avs mailbag, where we answer whatever Avs questions you have on your mind. If you have any questions for the mailbag, leave them for Evan Rawal on twitter or respond in the comments.

If the Avs were deciding their next captain today who would it be?

— EastCoast Avs Champ (@eric_hervieux) December 8, 2019

It might be a while before the Avs have to decide on a new Captain. Landeskog needs a new contract after next season, but I’d be surprised if that doesn’t get taken care of. This, however, is a hypothetical situation, so I’ll answer the question. I don’t normally like to default to the “best player as captain” mantra, but I really do think it would be Nathan MacKinnon.

Cale Makar handles himself very well for his age, and Erik Johnson is the vet who would get consideration, but I do think it would go to MacKinnon. The team goes as he goes, and he’s the most competitive guy on the team by far, which sets the tone for the entire team. He will not accept anything other than winning, and you can tell that’s starting to rub off on all the other players.

What exactly is Tyson Jost? I'll leave it up for interpretation.

— Matt Kleinholz (@mkleinholzASU) December 8, 2019

He’s a decent bottom six forward. The underlying numbers show the Avs are pretty good offensively when he’s on the ice, and that’s a step forward for him this year. He’s a very good forechecker and has drawn a lot of penalties this year for someone who doesn’t play a ton. I think his defensive game leaves a lot to be desired in his own end, and that’s somewhere he needs to vastly improve if he’s going to settle down into being a third line center. His other weakness is his skating, as he just doesn’t have the speed to separate, and struggles to create a lot of his own chances because of it. He’s still young, but I’m not sure how much more growth there will be overall, especially if his skating doesn’t improve. For me, he’s not an ideal third line center because he lacks some ability defensively, and I don’t think he’s good enough to play in the top six consistently. He’s not a bad player by any means, but the way the lineup is moving, he’s in a tough spot. That’ll be an interesting contract negotiation this summer.

https://twitter.com/stephhouse11/status/1203894693668511744?s=20

When you talk about defense, everyone focuses on the six guys playing on the blue line, but there’s a lot more to it than that, and I think the Bruins game was the best defensive game the Avs forwards have played all year. They really clogged up the neutral zone and didn’t allow the Bruins to gain the zone with any speed. There were no bad turnovers at the offensive blue line that could have given the Bruins some odd-man rushes. In the defensive zone, they were on their game, helping out a lot down low, and taking away any lanes for the Bruins defenders to shoot. There was a lot of play to the outside and that’s just fine with everyone. The Avs were also very clean on the breakout, and outside of a few moments here and there, were able to exit the zone cleanly, or the wingers were able to chip it out so that they weren’t stuck in their own end too long.

When you only give up eight shots on goal through two periods, I think it’s fair to say the other team isn’t at their best as well, and the Bruins were maybe looking for that perfect shot too much. No Patrice Bergeron certainly helps against that team too.

Which upcoming teams will be the Avs’ toughest challenge?

— Jackie Kay (@tigervixxxen) December 9, 2019

St. Louis. They force the majority of the teams they play to slow the game down to a crawl, and the Avs don’t really want to do that. To be completely honest, the way things are going in the West, that’s the only team I think can take the Avs in a seven game series, just because of the way they play. That game at the end of October was brutal to watch, and that’s how the Blues want it to be. That’s this team’s toughest challenge. The other team coming up that I’m interested to see them against is Carolina, as the Avs have given up a lot of shots to them in the past few years.

If you could experience the full 24 hrs of one sports professional (literally in their skin, feeling their feels, having their skills) who would it be, and what day would it be (game day, draft day, any old day, day they were traded)?

— Brandon Watson (@BrandonWatson) December 9, 2019

For me, it would probably have to be the starting quarterback of a team in the Super Bowl. That would be an insane 24 hours to go through. You may never get that opportunity again on what is probably the biggest sporting stage in the world. The amount of hype that goes into that game is unmatched, and it happens over two weeks, so on game day, you’re sitting there over-prepared, just wanting to get to the actual game with millions of people watching. If you win, you’re the hero, and if you lose, you may never get that chance again. That would be a crazy 24 hours to experience.

How does this team just keep rolling despite numerous key injuries? Is it a confidence thing, a tight locker room, something else entirely?

— Denver is a City of Champions (@MacWinnon) December 9, 2019

I think it’s just an organization focused on the goal in front of them. They don’t want to make excuses, and they’re understanding how they need to play in order to be successful. It helps that through all the injuries, they’ve had their mega-star center upfront in MacKinnon healthy to carry the way, and he’s taken yet another step forward this year. On the back end, Makar is essentially becoming a star in front of our eyes as well, and having those two healthy (so far) has made a big difference.

I would say the other thing is just how good the goaltending on this team has been, and maybe that’s been overlooked a bit. That may have been the biggest question mark for this team heading into the year, and both Grubauer and Francouz (when they’ve been healthy) have been pretty much lights out. Obviously coaching has to go into this, and Bednar has the team rolling, but when you’re missing as many forwards as the Avs have been, you have to get some great goaltending to succeed and the Avs have gotten that.

https://twitter.com/on_the_jFritts/status/1203835679270031360?s=20

Yeah, I would say it’s a little too early, but I do think the Avs will consider it. Even when he wasn’t scoring, Bednar was very happy with his play all over the ice, so to see him stick around wouldn’t be a huge surprise. With Martin Kaut dealing with a mystery injury in the AHL, and guys like Colin Wilson and Matt Nieto heading to unrestricted free agency this summer, the Avs may need wingers next year, and none have the size Nichushkin does. Because he’s still pretty young, he’s still going to be a restricted free agent, so unless he drops off the face of the earth, him not being back next season may be a pretty big upset.

What do you see as Erik Johnson's future in the organization? I mean, I think the defense looks a little better without him. What do you think?

— Pokecheque 🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@Pokecheque) December 9, 2019

EJ’s inevitable return is going to be interesting to watch. I actually felt he was starting to come around a bit offensively before he got hurt, but he was getting exposed in other areas. We have already seen in the playoffs last year that Bednar isn’t afraid to move him to the third pairing if he doesn’t feel he’s playing well, so a drop in ice time wouldn’t be a huge surprise.

Honestly, I know everyone is happy with Graves playing with Makar, but I wish there was a way for Johnson to be in that spot. It would be the non-traditional way to build your top four, having two left shots on one pair (Girard and Z) and two righties on another (EJ and Makar), but Makar has played the left at lower levels and seems to like it, and we’ve seen EJ do it off and on. I don’t anticipate that happens, just because right shot defensemen are hard to find, so you want to keep them on their strong side, but just something I’d like to see.

I think a trade of EJ would be a major surprise. For one, he’s a big part of that locker room, and Sakic has been loyal to guys who have made commitments to the team in the past. Secondly, I can’t imagine that contract would be easy to move with Johnson over the age of 30 and declining production. You also can’t just have only young guys on defense, and Johnson is a good guy to have around with all the guys coming up. Johnson can still help this team, but that may just have to be in a lesser role.