A film room review of Avalanche players and plays.
Welcome back to another edition of Avalanche Film Room! Last time we went into the video room and talked about the progression Jean-Luc Foudy has made in the AHL this season as he continues developing into a player who may someday help the Avalanche. Today, however, we’re going to dig into the final shift of last night’s 3-2 overtime victory…
Ahhh, back in the Avalanche Film Room. Now, this is comfortable. Before we get too far into this piece, it’s vital I say that if you have not already read Meghan Angley’s piece on Jean-Luc Foudy from earlier today, you stop and do that first. I will be making frequent references to it. It’s free and unlocked so no excuses.…...
“Mini-Val”. That’s what Avs coach Jared Bednar was told he was getting when the Avs went out and acquired Artturi Lehkonen. Turns out, that proved to be about as good a comparison as you could make. Lehkonen proved to be a perfect fit on any line coach Bednar put him on. He spent time with Nathan MacKinnon, he spent time…
The Colorado Avalanche blew out the Nashville Predators 7-2 in Game 1 of the playoff series last night to give the Avs the early edge. There’s lots of hockey left, of course, but Colorado’s dominant five-goal first period ended the game before the Predators even really had a chance to sink their teeth into the contest. One of the areas…...
The entire Cale Makar experience was legitimately one of the more thrilling things I’ve had the pleasure of covering in my short career covering the Colorado Avalanche. From the draft to his UMass career, which started off with a “meh” freshman season, to leading the Minutemen to the national championship and playing in Game 3 of Colorado’s first-round series 48…...
The dust has settled on the biggest U20 tournament of the year and after all four Avs prospects at the tournament played in the final match, the USA brought home the gold over Canada. The Avs players ranged from rock-solid to downright stunning throughout and on this edition of The Tape we breakdown some of their top plays. 1. Justin…...
The year that no one wanted is finally over. While the majority of 2020 is better left in the rearview, it wasn’t all bad on the ice. On this edition of The Tape, we look back at some of the best plays made by the Avs last season. 1. Depth dominance. We start with a little reminder that even a fourth-line…...
362 minutes. That’s all the Three-Headed Monster played together at five on five this season, less than 11% of the Avs total time. The reason for that obviously boils down to injuries for the most part but heading into the playoffs that should be far less of an issue. While the Avs may not go with that line all the…...
The Avalanche did not target Pierre-Édouard Bellemare to come in and be an offensive juggernaut. They signed him to help the penalty kill, anchor the fourth line, and to bring leadership to the locker room. The offense was a nice bonus, though. The 35-year-old center from France was having his best season in the NHL before the league shut down,…...
When the Avs traded for Andre Burakovsky in June of 2019, they were taking a bit of a gamble. The talented youngster was making good money coming off a season where he fell out of favor in Washington, and the Avs did give up some good value to get him, sending second and third round picks to acquire the then 24 year old winger.
Turns out, they knew what they were doing.
Perhaps this is controversial, or perhaps it isn't, but let it be known: as of right now, Samuel Girard is the Avs #1 defenseman.
Still just 21 years old, Girard led the Avs in average time on ice at 21:19 a game, but where the staff trusted him more than any other player on the team is at even strength, where he averaged over a full minute more than the next closest player (Erik Johnson). While Jared Bednar and Nolan Pratt won't hesitate to put Girard on the ice with Cale Makar for offensive zone face-offs, they pretty consistently use him in defensive matchups against the other teams best players.
There is no player on the Avs more frustrating to both fans and the coaching staff than Nikita Zadorov. Some nights, he looks like he can be a top-pairing defenseman capable of shutting down elite players in the NHL. Other nights, you wonder if the organization really doesn’t have six other defensemen they could be playing over him. The other…...
Well, who saw this one coming? Picked up in a deadline day swap back in 2018, Ryan Graves was looked at purely as a depth defenseman who would hopefully regain some of that promise he had after putting up 30 points in the AHL as a 21-year-old. He didn’t exactly light the world on fire in Colorado, as he put…...
When the Avs signed Valeri Nichushkin on August 19 in the dead of the summer, it was met with a lot of skepticism (myself included). Why did the Avs, as deep as they had been in years, decide to take a chance on a struggling player? Why would they block younger players already in the organization? Why was this reclamation…...
Tyson Jost. The man who evokes many emotions by just putting his name out there on the internet. It’s been a struggle for Jost in his third NHL season as he hasn’t quite broken out as expected and on the deepest Avs team in years has found himself increasingly relegated to fourth-line duty. There have been plenty of nights where…...
The Avalanche toppled the Boston Bruins on Saturday evening in a 4-1 win that was Boston’s first regulation home loss of the season. The game-winning goal came in the second period when Ian Cole scored his first of the season. As always here in Avalanche Film Room, we wanted to breakdown exactly how the Cole goal came to be. It…...
Colorado’s 4-2 win over Columbus was an entertaining hockey game full of highlights. The Avalanche came back from a 2-1 deficit period in the second period to earn their second straight home win. That deficit is where we begin with this edition of Avalanche Film Room. Trailing 2-1 halfway through the second period, Colorado was pinned in their own end.…...
When the Avalanche took Bowen Byram fourth overall at last month’s entry draft, it cemented Colorado’s future defense as one filled with stars. When Joe Sakic met the media shortly after, he was not shy about the organization’s intention to give Byram a long look in training camp this year. With injuries to Erik Johnson and Ian Cole, it would…...
Back in 1970, Alvin and Heidi Toffler published “Future Shock”, a book in which the couple posited society was undergoing a significant structural change and it was overwhelming people as a result. Fun fact: The concept of information overload was soon popularized as a result of their work. Fast forward nearly 50 years and focus on hockey instead of society…
There were a lot of film room-worthy moments from last night’s 6-2 stomping over the Calgary Flames but the story of the night was Cale Makar in his NHL debut. There were a lot of nice plays from Makar throughout his near-15 minutes of ice time but let’s be honest here: the goal is what we’re all going to remember…...
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