Avs overcome sloppy start, extend home winning streak to 18

Full disclosure: this game was a little bit of a disappointment for me. The Colorado Avalanche came into this game against the lowly Buffalo Sabres with a chance to extend their winning streak to 10 straight games, and an opportunity to push their home winning streak to an absurd 18 consecutive wins. While they did eventually do all of that, they made it a little harder on themselves than they needed to for a good chunk of this game.

Jared Bednar told us last week that the home winning streak has become something that the team is really rallying around and is using as some added motivation, especially since we’re in the thick of a grueling schedule ahead of the All-Star break.

With that, I thought the Avs were going to come out absolutely flying. I thought we were going to get one of the best 60-minute efforts we’ve seen from them. Given their opponent, I expected this game to play out similarly to a game of Tecmo Bowl when someone is playing with Bo Jackson.

Well, that didn’t quite happen. It’s not that the Avalanche were “bad” tonight, not even close, but it’s just that we saw more of the same mental mistakes that plagued them just a week or two ago. I’ve said it multiple times now, on podcasts and in written pieces, every single team that comes to Ball Arena wants to be the team to knock the Avs off and end their historic streak. Every single team that plays them, home or road, wants to beat the team that looks unbeatable. You’re going to get every team’s best effort. Every. Single. Night. 

The first period was really kind of whatever; the Avs got the better of Buffalo for the first half of the period, then there was some back and forth, some decent zone time for each team, and I thought both teams had their legs. For the most part, I thought things were pretty equal, the difference in the period ended up being that Colorado has really really really good skill players and Buffalo has a bunch of guys trying to figure out what they are in this league.

One of those really really really good players for the Avs, Mikko Rantanen, made an absolutely ridiculous no-look pass to Gabe Landeskog, who found himself all alone in front of the net for an easy tap-in. 

It was after that goal, and as the opening frame was winding down, that this game really became frustrating for me.

The Avalanche took a lead into the dressing room with an opportunity to make adjustments, clean up their play a bit and just bury a team they’re clearly better than. We’ve seen them do this more times than I can count this season, it’s part of what has made them so ELITE this season.

They didn’t do that though. In fact, it kind of went in the opposite direction. Buffalo came out in the second period and took it to the Avs. The Sabres were just flat out working the Avalanche, and it didn’t take long for them to tie the game up by winning a loose puck battle in front of the net. 

One thing head coach Jared Bednar has talked about being a key for this group has been making sure you’re putting in the work first. He’s talked about the importance of having players like Nazem Kadri, and the team as a whole really, do the right things and following the right process to put themselves in a position where their skill can take over, and I think we can all agree that when they’re doing that, they’re near impossible to stop.

That was the element of their game that they were missing for most of the night. While I don’t think this is a long-term issue, it is something that needs to be cleaned up if they’re going to make a deep run. We hear it all the time, you can’t make those mistakes that you make against the Buffalo Sabres, against playoff teams in April.

Here is where the script of this game flipped. It was a frustrating first 30 minutes, I did not think Colorado’s performance had been to the standard they have set for themselves. As we’ve seen from this group though, all it takes is one shift and one play to get themselves right.

After some nice puck movement, and a stroke of bouncing-puck luck, AHL call-up Dylan Sikura poked the puck through traffic and Nazem Kadri (who else) punched it into a wide-open net. Buffalo’s coaching staff thought they could maybe get the call reversed by challenging for a “Missed Stoppage Event”, meaning they thought Alex Newhook had batted the puck out of the air with his glove and Sikura was the next player to touch it, which would have resulted in a hand pass.

After a relatively quick review though, it was determined that the puck was played legally and the goal would stand. It also meant that the Sabres would have to play a man down as a result of the failed challenge.

It was during that power play that you knew this one was likely over. In the blink of an eye, the Avs were a different team than they had been all night. They just looked more confident, and a lot of those lazy mistakes started to disappear. 

Mikko Rantanen would end up scoring on that power play to make it a two-goal lead, and the Avs finally looked like the team I was expecting to see when I arrived at Ball Arena. They locked it down.

Buffalo technically did push back in the third before Val Nichushkin iced the game with an empty-netter, but similar to what we saw last week when the Chicago Blackhawks came to town, it was nothing very threatening, and the result never felt in jeopardy. 

I know I sounded very down on this game for most of this, but you’ve gotta always be looking for areas to improve. Even though it doesn’t feel like it right now, this team still has room to get better.

“I think it changes throughout [different] stretches of games,” Avalanche goaltender Darcy Kuemper said of still having room to improve. “Sometimes little areas of your game can fall off a little bit, starting making mistakes you weren’t doing earlier. So you change a couple things… do a little maintenance throughout the season.”

That’s exactly why I am simultaneously frustrated by stretches of this game, and not at all worried long term. This team seems to understand what it is. They’re very self-aware and have the ability to adjust. It’s a long season, you’re not always going to have your best, and your ability to identify that and make changes where they’re needed is what teams have to do in order to make a deep run.

18 straight wins on home ice, and 10 consecutive wins overall, holy smokes. Like I said, you’re always trying to find ways to be better, but man is this a fun stretch of hockey to be watching right now. The team is having fun winning right now, but there is a real business mentality to it as well. The Avs seem to be focusing on the process and understand that if they put the work in first, the results will eventually follow, even if you have to fight for it a little like they did tonight.

One more game before getting a well-deserved, eight-day break for the All-Star game. Let’s see if they can make it 19 straight when they welcome in the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday.