Studs Discipline Lost in what was ultimately a disappointing night, one upside I enjoyed was that the Avalanche only had to kill one penalty on the night. It’s a little skewed because they also were called for another one that resulted in a penalty shot, but both situations were thisclose to going well for the Avalanche. They didn’t, however, but…
The Colorado Avalanche (16-9-2) returned to Ball Arena for the third game of their homestand. They received more reinforcements in the way of Val Nichushkin who returned to the lineup tonight after missing two games due to illness. As a result, the lines received more remixing. Nichushkin joined the second line made up of Mikko Rantanen at center and Tomas…
Tonight the Colorado Avalanche were downed 4-2 by the Winnipeg Jets. On just the second game of their homestand, the Avs left some division points on the table. The score coming out of the first period didn’t fully capture Colorado’s start. It wasn’t all bad, and Avs even had a jump early into things, but they lacked urgency by the…
Studs Nathan MacKinnon Remember two whole games ago when I was frustrated that Nathan MacKinnon hadn’t taken over a game in a while and even though he was finding his way to points, he just didn’t look like Nathan MacKinnon? Fair to say that’s over. His goal and assist tonight felt like the Jets got off easy as he was…
In this era where these new services, servers, and mountains of data produce such riveting firsts as “NO MINNESOTA VIKING TIGHT END HAS EVER STEPPED BETWEEN THOSE TWO HASH MARKS WITH HIS LEFT FOOT ON A THURSDAY NIGHT BEFORE!!!”, you have to wonder if we haven’t given into the data hype just a little bit.
Nathan MacKinnon drops a goal and two assists playing next to Jonathan Drouin who adds two assists of his own as the Avs get past the Anaheim Ducks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cka_-4J2rE
Studs Nathan MacKinnon This is the all-world player that we’ve become accustomed to seeing in Denver. I criticized him in this space the other day for some lazy habits that creep into his game when he isn’t playing his best. Tonight we saw the monster, the dominant player who doesn’t get discouraged when he doesn’t make the play he wants…
The Avs returned home for the longest homestand of the season yet. They’ll get five games at home and started with a bit of a redemptive game against Anaheim tonight. After losing 4-3 in a shootout on Saturday, the Avs took the series tonight with a 3-2 win. In a refreshing change, Jared Bednar livened up the lineup with several…
The on-ice product created by back-to-back hockey games is simply not up to the standard it should be for the NHL. One team trying to play as little hockey as possible creates terrible games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dj7pEUe0aM
Just one more game. One more game and the Avs return home for a December filled with home games and a Monday off from team scheduled events. When they looked at the schedule upfront, Los Angeles was no doubt the toughest competition to come out of this three game road trip. But after losing the last two outside of regulation,…
Studs The Avs through two periods Some context here is important: The Avs were playing their second game within 24 hours (tonight’s game started two hours earlier than last night’s game that ended in a shootout), traveled (Anaheim to LA is probably the easiest travel, but still) lost their best player in Cale Makar to injury, and were playing a…
Another two-goal Bowen Byram game that the Avs don’t win. Not that weird but weird that it’s happened twice. Zero pucks in the net from MacKinnon, Rantanen and the rest of the forwards feels like a glitch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wERqmAZ4IQ
Studs Bowen Byram I wrote after the loss to Arizona that despite Byram’s obvious miscues I felt his game was moving in the right direction and I feel this was a small vindication of that. He scored two goals in the first period and had chances for the hat trick throughout the game. Both goals were a result of exactly…
The Colorado Avalanche came to The Pond in hopes of delivering Anaheim’s ninth straight loss. Things were obviously tough for the Ducks after their 8-2 loss to Colorado on November 15th in Ball Arena. They lost eight straight from that point. Tonight they had the chance to reset the losing skid that followed that game against the team that spurred…
You may have just watched the best player in the world score on his own net. You also saw some pretty good hockey from guys like Miles Wood and Nathan MacKinnon. Plus a whole bunch of weirdness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf2vc422Ljs
Studs Nathan MacKinnon I actually really liked most of what MacKinnon did tonight. There were some of those maddening passes into space to nobody and some offensive zone turnovers that created extended defensive possessions, but in that third period when the Avalanche needed a lift, he was there. It was his one-timer that got the Avalanche tied and, arguably, got…
The Colorado Avalanche started their three game road trip in Arizona tonight. Alexandar Georgiev earned his nineteenth start in net after a terrific performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They rolled with the same lineup as the Tampa game and Sam Malinski was recalled from the Colorado Eagles to join the Avs as an extra defenseman on the trip. Georgiev…
The Avs are putting it all together depth scoring from Ryan Johansen, Cale Makar being Cale Makar, special teams functioning on both ends, Alexandar Georgiev standing on his head, and more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX65YMj52kQ
Studs Ryan Johansen You score two goals in a game the Avs win, you’re a Stud. Those are the rules. The Avalanche have needed that offense to come from other areas because they are not as prolific offensively through their defense (despite Cale Makar’s brilliance) as they normally are, so it’s vital that the man brought in to be Colorado’s…
The Colorado Avalanche had one more game at home before taking off for a three game road trip later this week. Before they could fly out, they had business to handle in Ball Arena against the 10-6-5 Tampa Bay Lightning – now 10-7-5 after tonight. The Lightning started the year without two-time finalist and Vezina winner, Andrei Vasilevskiy. Both teams…