Avs-Sabres Game 29 Studs & Duds

Studs

Colorado’s stars

Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen, and Nathan MacKinnon combined for six points tonight and were awesome. Their shot metrics were superb, they dominated the eye test, and they produced at an elite rate.

Against a Buffalo team that frequently gets billed as Colorado East when the Avalanche were in their first stages of this competitive window, the Avs stars showed just how far the Sabres still have to go to match up alongside the truly elite class of the league.

When Colorado’s best players all play to their potential on the same night, they don’t lose very many games. This wasn’t even close to the same version of the Avalanche that played in Buffalo earlier this season. Colorado’s big guns got the party started and then helped slam the door shut along the way.

Valeri Nichushkin

While the Holy Trinity was great, Nichushkin was the best of all of them. He finished with two goals but could have had double that. He finished this game with seven shots on goal on ten shot attempts, ten scoring chances, and seven high-danger chances…on his own.

Both goals were classic Nichushkin goals as they were right around the net and finishing off great chances. He’s not a sniper, so why would we expect that? He’s a greasy goal god right now between the deflections and finishing right around the goal mouth.

I spent much of last season lamenting the lack of burst in Nichushkin’s skating as a result of his ankle injury issues from the Stanley Cup run that popped back up last year. A healthy offseason has led to the return of that skating prowess and he was already a menace on the forecheck as it was. Adding back in that element of skating and you see the extremely dynamic version of Nichushkin that made the Avalanche comfortable inking him to an eight-year deal.

He’s up to 12 goals on the year, just two behind Rantanen for the team lead and tied with MacKinnon. He was unbelievable tonight.

Colorado’s scoring depth

Every single line got in on the action tonight and, you’ll be shocked to hear this, Colorado’s defense also chipped in on the action.

The top line obviously had a huge night, but quietly the depth flexed a little bit. The much-maligned second line created Sam Malinski’s goal (Jonathan Drouin also snagged an assist), the Miles Wood goal gave one to the third line, and Fredrik Olofsson got an assist on Nichushkin’s first goal but it came after the fourth line had an exceptional shift in the offensive zone and tired out the Sabres skaters.

Oh and then that defense had four more points, led by this guy…

Sam Malinski

The Avs might have a real find on their hands in Malinski. I don’t want to get super caught up in the future stuff because tonight was a night of celebration for Malinski.

We’ve talked a lot this year about how Malinski is an “Avalanche style” defenseman, a guy whose mobility, aggressiveness, and puck-moving ability all fits the mold of what Colorado has actively sought out for its blueline in recent years. Indeed, when you look at those traits, you see them in all of Makar, Toews, Girard, and Byram.

While Malinski has had his rookie ups and downs, you have to love what you got from him tonight. He kept a tight gap on Erik Johnson’s entry into the zone with the puck and he attacked the puck, poking it away from Johnson and creating the odd-man rush that resulted in Wood’s goal and a 3-0 lead for the Avalanche.

The game was pretty well in control in the third period with the Avs leading 3-1, but in that situation a team is always one goal from having to really tighten up and the other team skating downhill with renewed belief.

Malinski’s one-timer to make it 4-1 was a rocket that was perfectly placed. It effectively ended the game and was the first NHL goal for Malinski. I’ve said this before, but as long as Sam Girard remains away from the club, Malinski should be on the roster and in the lineup. If Girard returns this season, the team can look at Malinski’s body of work and go from there.

Right now, you have to love what Malinski is doing for this club. It’s not overwhelming, but it is Avalanche hockey.

Duds

Second period Avs

After the fiasco second period against the Flames two nights ago where a 1-1 game turned into a 5-3 deficit, the talk about Colorado’s penchant for losing its way during the second period got a little louder.

When the Avs lost their dominating 3-0 lead at the end of the first period on a really terrible bounce (Ivan Prosvetov stopped the initial shot and tried to direct it into the corner and it caromed off Josh Manson’s skate and right back into the middle of the ice) and then Mikko Rantanen took a penalty that carried over into the start of the second period, the Avs were on the verge of being in a much tougher hockey game.

When Alex Tuch flubbed the backdoor opportunity at the start of the period, the Avs got bailed out and then got outshot like crazy throughout the frame.

At 5v5, the Sabres had an advantage in shot attempts at 22-11, shots on goal at 11-5, and scoring chances 9-6. High-danger chances, however, were 2-1 for the Avalanche. On one hand, that isn’t nearly enough quality from Colorado’s offense, but holding the Sabres to one high-danger chance is excellent.

The Sabres controlled the pace of play and really poured it on, but the Avalanche structure held firm on the quality front and they held. Once they got to the third period, it was all Colorado, but those second periods continued to be tricky waters for Colorado.

Ivan Prosvetov

I’m kidding!

Unsung Hero

Everything about Erik Johnson

This was EJ’s first return to Denver since signing with Buffalo over the summer and everyone knew it was going to be an emotional return. The stakes seemed to ramp up even more when EJ had an emotional media scrum after morning skate, stopping at one point to sit down and wipe tears from his eyes.

It wasn’t the end of the tears from any of us.

During warm-ups, his real-life best friend Gabe Landeskog stood in the corner with his kids and a sign expressing their forever love for “Uncle EJ” and EJ came by and slipped a puck through the photo hole and gave fist bumps.

Video tributes for former players have become a normal thing in arenas now. Normally they’re a sterilized affair with some stick taps and the player stands up and waves to the crowd. This video tribute featured the typical array of highlights and then finished with EJ’s holding the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche jersey on.

He skated onto the ice and waved to the ice, tapping his chest and thanking the crowd for everything as it roared in thankful approval.

I had a hard time containing my own emotions. If you’ll allow me a personal digression, this one meant a little more to me, too.

I was just starting the phase of my life that was writing about Avalanche hockey when EJ was traded from the Blues to the Avalanche. When I started covering them professionally in 2015, EJ was already established as among Colorado’s best players. Back then, it was a much tougher media environment to gain acceptance as the old guard was not very interested in being helpful or particularly kind. I was flying solo in a brand new world.

When I made my way into the locker room, it was tough there, too. Players were polite, but I was an outsider in their world and it took time to find my way through the rights and wrongs. Erik Johnson was never anything but kind to me along the way. He made me feel welcome and always offered his time when I wanted to talk, good game or bad.

In a true rarity in the locker room, he looked you in the eye and addressed you by name when answering questions. He showed respect to everyone and only looked “down” on people because he was so tall and usually had on his skates. He talked on the record with clarity and thoughtfulness and when recorders went off, he was regularly around to continue talking.

He was a warm personality in a world that punishes the kind of social awkwardness and shyness that I possess. When the Avalanche were on the verge of selling their veterans for youth and draft picks during and after the 2016-17 season of doom, Erik Johnson asked to stay. He wanted to be part of the solution here. He wanted to do it with Landeskog at his side (another player who asked to stay) and with the Avalanche logo on his chest.

The Avalanche organization had given him a lifeline out of St. Louis where the crippling weight of expectations held him back. He wanted to return the favor.

He did.

When the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, there wasn’t a single person involved you weren’t happy for, but Erik Johnson was one of the ones whose success was easiest to appreciate.

It was extremely touching to see how much Denver and the Avalanche organization meant to EJ and how much he meant to the city in return. Thank you, EJ, for being worthy of every bit of how much you have meant to us.