Colorado Avalanche lean on their depth in successful road trip

It wasn’t pretty, but the Colorado Avalanche walked out of Montreal with the 5-4 shootout win over the Canadiens in a wild game that saw the Avs blow another third-period lead. Six days after the Avs watched a 3-1 lead over the Dallas Stars dissolve in 20 seconds and force them to win in overtime, Colorado watched a 4-1 lead turn into a 4-4 hockey game in the span of 4:08.

It took what was a dominant finish to a road trip and turned into a chaotic, messy survival to snatch the second point from the hands of the feisty Canadiens in front of their electric home crowd.

By the end of the game, we saw center Brock Nelson standing tall as the hero of the day as he scored a goal and an assist before tallying the game-winning goal against Samuel Montembault in the shootout as Colorado’s fourth shooter. How did we get to that point?

Let’s talk about it.

The Avalanche seemed determined to lose this game

The Avs were close to blowing the Canadiens out at various points in this game and when Nelson’s deflection 3:58 into the third period gave the Avs a comfortable 4-1 lead, their entire demeanor changed. They had been working hard all game and they came out with a killer instinct to start the third period, putting several shots towards the Montreal net and trying to get the extra insurance goal to tell the rowdy Montreal crowd that there would be no epic comeback this time.

Nelson’s goal should have been that moment. I don’t know if the team simply relaxed or if their legs started to get heavy with the weight of their third game in four nights, all on the road, stacking up on them. I don’t know the answer. If you ask them, they probably don’t know the answer either.

For my money, the meltdown in the third period was not helped by goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood allowing two goals that I felt he absolutely should have stopped and the team’s play really wasn’t so bad. Yes, the Habs had the momentum and the building was rocking and they were pushing, but they weren’t swimming in dangerous chances over and over.

However I feel about it, they blinked away a 4-1 lead and found themselves in a 4-4 game. The encouraging part was that they responded to that pretty well as they pushed harder at the end of regulation and had some good looks to win the game in regulation. It didn’t happen for them, but you could feel good about their process after the game-tying goal. Blowing the three-goal lead was their first attempt at throwing this game.

The second came in overtime when they got a power play and generated plenty of shots and chances, but couldn’t finish. This was the theme of their collapse tonight. The process was good, but the result was lacking. They moved into the shootout, where Blackwood is historically pretty terrible and has openly talked about how much he hates them.

Naturally, things started off great. Blackwood stopped the first two Montreal shooters while Charlie Coyle got his first (unofficial) goal as an Av by scoring as Colorado’s first shooter. The Avs had three chances from there to finish the Canadiens off. Val Nichushkin failed to score, Blackwood got beat by Patrik Laine, and then Nathan MacKinnon didn’t score. Once again, Colorado had the game in the palm of their hand but didn’t close it.

The fourth shooter for Montreal, Christian Dvorak, was stopped by Blackwood and Nelson mercifully ended this fiasco by clinching the game.

It was frustrating to see a team that had been so dominant for extended stretches of this game struggle so badly to put away a Canadiens team that is a fun story but is simply not on the same level as the Avs. The Avs are in a desperate struggle to try to pry second place from the fingers of the Dallas Stars for home-ice advantage in Round 1 and they have given away two regulation wins (the first tiebreaker in the standings) in the last week. The one against the Stars was obviously much worse because that means the Avs are trailing by three points with Dallas still having two games in hand, but this wasn’t great either!

Anyway, they did finally get the two points in the standings, hereby keeping the Stars within contact but also keeping the Minnesota Wild, who are only four points behind the Avs with one game in hand, at bay.

Brock Nelson shows out once again

It might have been a slow start for Nelson in Colorado, but these last two games were a hell of a way to show that maybe he’s getting a little more comfortable in his new environment.

Following Nelson’s two-goal outburst against the Ottawa Senators two nights ago, he scored two more points tonight and added the winner in the shootout. That’s obviously really important, but it’s notable that his line was Colorado’s best at 5v5 in this game. In 12:16 at 5v5, the Artturi Lehkonen-Nelson-Martin Necas line produced:

• Shot attempts: 20-9
• Shots on goal: 7-4
• Scoring chances: 11-2
• High-danger chances: 1-1
• Goals: 2-1

This was Colorado’s most consistently dangerous line and they did a good job defensively, too. The goal they allowed was the game-tying goal where they had the players in position to do a much better job defending. Nelson got beat wide but again, Blackwood needs to make that save. If that happens, we’re not talking about this right now.

As it is, the combination of Nelson and Necas away from MacKinnon is starting to show real results, not just a shift here and there of promising pressure. They combined for five shots on goal (Lehkonen added two as well) and they showed that this version of the Avs has a line capable of winning a game when MacKinnon isn’t doing much offensively.

Nelson’s strong play this week is providing a lot of hope that this Avs team finally has the kind of complete lineup that can compete for a Stanley Cup and not just slip by the first round. This group is dangerous.

Blackwood’s performance was uneven but he finished strong

I’ve already said I felt Blackwood should have stopped two of the goals he allowed, but Montreal provided a great environment for what the playoffs are going to look like. He’s never played in them before so this was a nice little simulation. It could have gone better, but I don’t want to entirely dump on him because that isn’t fair.

The goals against were a problem, but he made some excellent saves after the game got to 4-4, too. He didn’t completely fold up shop and crawl into an emotional hole, which is obviously the big concern. He only had to make one save in overtime, but it was a very good scoring chance by Alex Newhook.

Then came the shootout. We’ve heard Blackwood publicly express his disdain for the format in the past and he was 0-4 in them coming into this game. Does he hate the format because he’s bad at them or is he bad at them because he hates the format? It’s a real “chicken and the egg” situation.

Anyway, Blackwood was great in this one. He stopped three of four shooters and gave the Avs multiple chances to secure the win. This wasn’t his best night, but he showed some real moxie by gritting through a game he helped give away earlier and got them the victory. He locked it down late. If he can avoid it getting to that point in the first place, that would be great, but he lived in the world he was in and not the one he wanted to be in.

Putting things behind you and moving forward is a huge part of all of our lives but paramount for a goaltender hoping to backstop a team through four rounds of playoff hockey. It wasn’t always pretty, but he’s due some credit for how it ended.