Avs-Maple Leafs Game 59 Studs & Duds

Studs

Nathan MacKinnon

There were other players in this game that I thought played well, but this was a Nathan MacKinnon master class. His normal dominance includes lots of shots on goal and a more straightforward level of ass-kicking but tonight was MacKinnon elevating those around him.

He finished with three assists and the first two were primary assists where he made the best play on the ice. Finding Artturi Lehkonen in front and then outwaiting a sliding T.J. Brodie for the pass to Andrew Cogliano were both fantastic plays.

The third assist was more about Mikko Rantanen, but I still saw this as MacKinnon putting on a strong performance overall. It was weird to see some of the shooting aggression fall by the wayside, but I can’t help but wonder if that was a result of him deciding he couldn’t keep taking all of the shots and tried to spread the wealth a bit more.

That’s probably me reading more into it than actually is there, but I was still greatly appreciative of MacKinnon’s performance even if not all of the numbers support such a great game overall, especially head-to-head against Auston Matthews. Except, you know, the three assists. That was cool.

Duds

Team cohesion

I’m not going to delve too deeply into the Xs and Os in this game. To my eye, this was an Avalanche team that played okay through two periods, awesome in the third period, and watched a big mistake get capitalized on late in regulation to cost them at least one point in the standings.

The Avs made two really egregious mistakes in this game, however, and both destroyed positive momentum and were indicative of the steps forward they appeared to be building.

The first was in the first period. Colorado had built a 2-0 lead and was rolling along nicely. For some inexplicable reason, Ross Colton took the world’s most obvious interference penalty and Colorado’s bleeding penalty kill couldn’t pick him up and just like that it was a 2-1 game.

The second was Mikko Rantanen’s wholly avoidable delay of game penalty in the third period when he flipped a puck over the glass in the final five minutes of a tied game. It’s incredibly frustrating to see from Rantanen in particular after he scored the game-tying goal and provided such a good moment during what feels like an extended period of struggle (despite his point production, yes).

Those disconnects are obvious with this team. They make big mistakes and the penalty kill can’t pick them up. Alexandar Georgiev in net can’t make the extra save to bail them out. It’s a textbook example of how a team loses as individuals instead of winning as a team.

To me, this is the kind of loss that raises real red flags given the results of the last few weeks. They haven’t played a really good, consistent game against a quality opponent (the Canucks game certainly had its moments!) but the team feels so disjointed right now.

There’s a gigantic hole in the lineup at the center spot and Jared Bednar seems at wit’s end with how to work around it anymore. Colorado would have a pretty formidable top nine forwards even without Valeri Nichushkin (or Gabe Landeskog or Nikolai Kovalenko…) if they had a reasonable replacement for Ryan Johansen, who just isn’t doing a lot on the whole.

The power play is struggling to get going (3 for their last 30 with this group is an ugly stretch), the penalty kill has badly struggled since December 1, and their even-strength play is consistently at a good-not-great level. This hasn’t been the elite team we’ve seen in previous years. They are a good team that makes too many self-inflicted mistakes to take the step into the elite level.

Were it not for the career year of Nathan MacKinnon, this team would not be in the position that it is. Makar and Rantanen are both struggling (relative to their abilities, obviously), the goaltending position has been a mess all season, and the depth has been a revolving door of mediocrity.

This team is built to be elite at the very top where they have three of the 15 best players in the league. When those three don’t live up to that billing, they are going to have a hard time winning games. That’s where they are right now.

The question they have to answer is whether or not this is a lull or a new normal. One is normal, the other is a scary proposition for the future of this core.

Unsung Hero

Mikko Rantanen

I wanted to use this space specifically to talk about Rantanen. There were great moments, including his game-tying goal, obviously. He made some power moves in the middle of the ice that evoked memories of the best of Rantanen, an elite power forward with elite hands and goal-scoring ability.

The passivity that has too frequently played Rantanen’s play started to melt away as this game wore on and we saw that confidence level rising. I’d love to see it translate into the next game, a huge divisional game against the Dallas Stars, but it was one step forward and two steps back after the silly penalty that ultimately led to Toronto’s game-winning goal.

The penalty kill has to do a much better job of helping Rantanen out, but this wasn’t a penalty with a purpose. It was just plain stupid. And it helped cost his team the game.