Avs-Predators Game 62 Studs & Duds

Studs

Chris Wagner

I really loved Wagner’s game. I thought his speed and physicality were factors throughout and his line was the best the Colorado Avalanche had to offer from beginning to end.

Wagner has played decent hockey as the 4C recently and I wonder if the Avs eschew prioritizing an upgrade at that spot to put all the resources into solving the 2C quandary instead.

This was his best game to date and it’s always easy to be seduced by the best a player has to offer and believe that is his “real” ability level but I don’t think Wagner should normally be too far below his work in tonight’s game.

Wagner also won five of his eight faceoffs, including winning two of three defensive zone faceoffs against Ryan O’Reilly, one of the league’s elite faceoff guys. That’s an area the Avalanche badly need a serviceable center not named Ryan Johansen to emerge and Wagner also added PK time to his night, too.

All of those would have been gravy had Wagner not clipped the post when he beat Juuse Saros cleanly in the third period when the game was still 2-1. That goal could have changed the game around but that wasn’t the world we inhabit. Quality night from Wagner, though.

Duds

Nearly everyone else

I’m not even talking about individual performances here, but rather the way the team played the final two periods of the game. The first period wasn’t incredible but it wasn’t bad by any means.

The second period was pretty sleepy but the third period sticks in my craw quite a bit. Down 2-1 heading into the final frame, this was a position of comfort for the Avs the first half of the season. Lately that has slipped a bit from being dominant to just okay, but tonight was unacceptable.

They barely put up a fight. Wagner’s shot rang off the post and it felt like when it ricocheted out of harm’s way, Colorado’s chances at even tying the game died with it. It was just a really disappointing period of hockey.

The Avs are a .500 road team right now. That obviously isn’t a five-alarm fire or anything, but they are reliant on being an elite home-ice team to compete in the division race and they, simply put, are not winning enough on the road to seriously contend for the top seed in the Central Division.

Colorado currently sits in the third seed in its own division, which would mean opening on the road. If they aren’t going to be any good on the road, having a home-ice disadvantage throughout the postseason is going to be a problem!

Nashville won its eighth straight game tonight and is on an absolute tear, but I don’t really care. Colorado’s runway for excuses is just not there anymore, at least not for me. They didn’t play a very good game at any level and their stars didn’t shine the brightest.

Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar have underwhelmed at times and Devon Toews took an unnecessary penalty in the third period that resulted in Nashville securing the insurance goal and further sent the Avs into an apathetic state about the rest of this game. Alexandar Georgiev was hilariously outplayed by Saros.

There wasn’t anything about this game that should truly encourage Avalanche fans except that it ended and the Avs have 20 games remaining to try to catch their divisional foes.

I’m being a little more “hostage of the moment” than I normally allow myself to be, but tonight left a really sour taste in my mouth. It didn’t look like a team anywhere close to greatness. It felt all too familiar to a team slipping closer to complacency than gearing itself up for a deep run.

Sooner or later, that has to stop or their season will.

Unsung Hero

Nathan MacKinnon

He sure wasn’t perfect, especially defensively, but at times it felt MacKinnon was the only member of Colorado’s top-nine forwards who realized a game was taking place. His goal was a perfect shot that beat a locked-in star goaltender, but that was it for his production.

MacKinnon’s level of play has been so insanely high this year that it can be easy to forget nights like this, but when he’s good for “only” one point, he needs help. When he doesn’t get it, it feels like the Avs are a million miles from being a serious contender.

It always feels that way when it goes this way, but it was still fun to watch MacKinnon with the puck be a menace at times. This is a special level of play.