Avs-Wild Game 64 Studs & Duds

Studs

Valeri Nichushkin, person

There have been a lot of stones thrown Nichushkin’s way over the last year because of his off-ice problems that have caused him to miss games. A lot of those stones are based on speculative information and connecting of dots that may or may not exist and I’m not here to cast any judgment on that.

The reason I have Nichushkin here is because it’s hard to admit you have a problem and put the work in to overcome some of his problems. We saw Sam Girard go through it earlier this year and come out of it seemingly better than ever. I hope the same is true of Nichushkin because the person matters more than the player.

I hope Nichushkin’s time away from the game has helped him find a way to rise up and be the best version of himself. This one isn’t about hockey.

Valeri Nichushkin, player

He was clearly rusty but he parked himself in front of the net and scored the game-winning goal in overtime, picking up where he left off. The power play dynamic is completely different with him in front of the net, as we saw. Good for him.

Alexandar Georgiev

He was Colorado’s best player in this game and by a wide margin. Georgiev was strong throughout as he stopped 29 of 30 shots and had one of his best games of the season. The puck-tracking was great, the confidence was there, and he looked in control of himself at all times.

That last point is an important one because Georgiev has run very hot this season with his emotional state and when he’s played more relaxed and focused on the job ahead of him and not the failures behind him, he has experienced his most success.

He’s a very driven person who isn’t afraid of the work but also has not gotten a complete grasp on how to productively channel that drive. He wants to succeed so badly that sometimes he becomes his worst enemy.

This was a game where he put it all together and we saw the high-end goaltender we got accustomed to seeing last year, not the inconsistent one we’ve seen for much of this season. In a game where the atmosphere continued ratcheting up, it’s encouraging that Georgiev handled the moment as well as he did.

It’s only one game and all, but this is the Georgiev the Avs were hopeful they would get more often than not.

Nathan MacKinnon

He continued his point streak not even a minute into the game as he continued to chase history. MacKinnon wasn’t at his very best against Minnesota, but he was still damn good and the Wild didn’t have a consistent answer for him. Truthfully, nobody does with how he’s playing this season and it’s a wild ride to experience up close.

Two assists for MacKinnon have him chasing some Avs history as he’s now up to 111 points, only nine behind Joe Sakic’s record of 120 set in 1995-96. He’s also now five points ahead of Nikita Kucherov atop the league but with two more games played.

The dominance of MacKinnon at home has been breathtaking. His 71 points at home right now would tie him for 15th in the NHL in overall scoring with Matthew Tkachuk and one point ahead of Cale Makar.

He’s averaging 2.2 points per game at Ball Arena! That is a video game number.

Duds

Andrew C0gliano’s weird penalty

Cogliano can make the argument all he wants that he was just trying to reach for the puck and play defense and all, but he chipped an errant stick at a puck carrier. It’s a penalty. You can’t do that!

Coming in the third period of a 1-1 game added more salt to the wound. What in the world? Cogliano’s play has been noticeably slipping lately and all of the depth reinforcements have him on the edge of the roster if they get fully healthy (a big if, I understand).

Cogliano’s chops as a leader and respected veteran in the locker room are undeniable and his intangibles are the main reason for wanting to keep him in the lineup, but the Avs are really deep at forward now, and purely from a hockey standpoint, he should probably be the 13th forward.

The penalty was a weird one but another in a string of mistakes from Cogliano that might imperil his place in the lineup moving forward.

The new guys

This isn’t any kind of long-term judgment on the four players acquired by the Avs this week, but each of Casey Mittelstadt, Sean Walker, Yakov Trenin, and Brandon Duhaime had their struggles throughout the game.

Considering they haven’t even had a full practice with the team and don’t know where they are going on the ice, it’s no surprise there were real growing pains. Trenin, in particular, was seen multiple times on the bench working with Jared Bednar to try to understand some of the details on the fly.

That’s a real challenge obviously. They have 17 more games to drill down into how to play Avalanche hockey, but the first game was a chaotic whirlwind that had them all behind the eight-ball. They now get a couple of days off to practice and do video work and start to get their bearings before their next game in Calgary next week.

For my money, Duhaime was the most immediately comfortable and all of them had positive moments on the penalty kill. Trenin’s faceoff work on the PK in particular was encouraging as he won four of eight faceoffs there.

Unsung Hero

Jonathan Drouin

Drouin’s play has dipped just a little bit after a hot middle section of the season but I was very encouraged by his play in this game. His reputation when signing was as a soft, offense-only player who was going to stick to the perimeter and couldn’t help a team in the postseason.

As mentioned above, this game had a real playoff feel to it and instead of shrinking from the increased competitiveness, Drouin thrived. You saw him working hard, grinding along the wall (see: the first goal of the game) and forechecking hard.

The less glorious aspects of hockey were the ones in which Drouin has put in the most work on his own game throughout this season and we’re starting to really see that work pay off. He’s become a bit of a menace with a disruptive stick in the neutral zone but now he’s adding a layer of forechecking prowess to that.

We’re never going to confuse Drouin with Artturi Lehkonen, but his developing that part of his game at this stage of his career is impressive and will be important with the Avalanche seemingly on a crash course with Winnipeg and Dallas in the first round.