Avs shell Golden Knights in key matchup despite “sloppy play”

Okay, now what?

The Avs had a huge series against Minnesota and they destroyed the Wild to the point where one of their beat writers spent the following week harping on how shots are counted because there was nothing else of substance from that series to delve into.

Colorado went to Arizona and pulled three of four points against the Coyotes in a classic trap series.

Tonight, they began their clash of the titan series against the Vegas Golden Knights featuring the top two teams in the West Division.

Tonight, Colorado thrashed Vegas 5-1 in a game where the top Avalanche players didn’t even play particularly well.

Cale Makar bounced back from his horrible game against Arizona two nights ago by immediately fumbling a puck in his feet and watching Max Pacioretty put Vegas up 1-0 just 40 seconds into the game.

The Avs gave up a breakaway on the very next shift. Philipp Grubauer shut it down and then from there, the Avs pretty much took over the game and didn’t look back.

It wasn’t anywhere close to the yeoman’s work from Marc-Andre Fleury we saw last time Vegas was in Ball Arena as he got beat by a couple of softies, especially J.T. Compher’s backhander that made it 2-1.

But that’s how it goes sometimes. A team isn’t going to have its best every night, the same way Colorado and Grubauer didn’t have their A-game in the 3-0 Vegas victory in that last matchup.

Fleury’s play dipped a little, Grubauer’s rose a little, and the top forwards from each team traded some chances, and Colorado took advantage of no Alex Pietrangelo for Vegas as the bottom six forwards from the Avs completely dominated their counterparts.

Much is often made of the Vegas fourth line, led by the physicality of Will Carrier and Ryan Reaves. Colorado’s fourth line is often viewed as a source of frustration from Avalanche fans, especially this year as they’ve struggled to score.

Well, goals by Compher, P.E. Bellemare, and a primary assist on Makar’s goal by Logan O’Connor and boy howdy, would you look at that?

Colorado’s fourth line won them a game.

Up to this point in the season, this was THE game, not just another date on the schedule.

Colorado’s win moved them into a tie with Vegas atop the division. The Avs can overtake the Golden Knights and be the sole leaders of the division with a win on Saturday.

How Vegas responds will be interesting to watch. A week ago, we watched the Avs ensure the Wild would have no response as they repeated their beating of Minnesota in both games.

What will Vegas do after they were on the receiving end of what Vegas head coach Pete DeBoer called a “good ol’ fashioned ass-kicking?”

Clash of Titans 2.0. A potential playoff matchup preview. Please. The universe demands it.

But where would that series open? That’s what these two teams will take one step closer to determining on Saturday afternoon. Tonight was really just the beginning of the race to first out west.

Giddy up.

TAKEAWAYS

• Lineup questions abound now after such a great night for the fourth line. Matt Calvert was nursing some nagging injuries and they thought it was a good time to give him a night off and we saw the production tonight. I think this sets up for an effective rotation to try to keep these guys as healthy as possible. If there are guys higher in the lineup that are nursing something, it would be smart to take advantage of clearly having 13 very capable forwards and start rotating guys in and around the lineup to keep them healthy and fresh. The playoffs aren’t locked up but it would take a massive bottoming out from the Avs to miss the postseason at this point. Their focus will be on winning the division and as they try to chase it down, they can start to get serious about this rotation.
• No word on Jacob MacDonald but even before he blocked a shot and then took a couple big hits, he was not having a very good game. Conor Timmins just got healthy and they could be able to replicate the same kind of rotation mentioned above at forward with their defense, too. Granted, Timmins hasn’t made anywhere near the kind of impact MacDonald has but you remember he’s still a kid the Avs would very much like to develop.
• Philipp Grubauer won’t be the story of this one but him bouncing back after giving up the first goal on the first shot of the game was huge. He immediately stopped a breakaway that would’ve put Vegas up 2-0 and the Avs absolutely dominated from that point on. He was just steady as ever and more and more I think he has a very calming influence on how the team plays in front of him. There’s a head coach in Jared Bednar who never loses his cool and stays even-keel at all times and a goaltender who is completely unbothered by everything in the world. When you have those two presences leading and anchoring you, it’s very easy to slide into that mindset where any situation is recoverable and every situation can be handled. The Avs play with a certain level of maturity that you really only see out of championship teams. They’re imperfect, of course, but they hunker down in tough spots and are consistently producing quality results. I think Grubauer plays a huge role in their attitude.
• Similarly, I think Nichushkin is the perfect glue guy for Tyson Jost and Joonas Donskoi. He does a little bit of what Jost does (great defensively) but produces closer to Donskoi. He doesn’t have the premier finishing ability to be a top-six player but he’s a master of the small details. He’s great on the forecheck, he goes hard to the net, he uses his size effectively without putting himself in dangerous situations where he takes penalties (he has just 4 PIM this year), he’s great on the cycle and when all else fails, he provides effective screens in front of goaltenders. Any way they can take his two-year deal and make it four?
• A great third-period team, Vegas came out guns blazing on the first shift as both Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen failed to clear pucks from their own zone that caused them to be hemmed in their own zone for two minutes. The Avs survived the sequence after Grubauer smartly covered the puck immediately off a won faceoff so the Avs could change personnel. After those opening couple minutes, the Avs scored to make it 5-1 and it took all of the wind from the Vegas sails. They never sustained a serious push again (they did score on a scrambly play with about five minutes left but it was called back after Colorado successfully challenged for offside) and that was that. It was encouraging to see the Avs respond to the early onslaught by taking advantage of the overly-aggressive Vegas defense to put the final nail in the coffin. Hallmark of a great team.