Darcy Kuemper goes full Kuemperor in a suffocating win over the LA Kings

I’ve been struggling with what to write about tonight’s Avalanche win over the Los Angeles Kings. You see, I went with the whole “goaltender steals the show” angle last night when the Avs beat the Anaheim Ducks, so it’s hard to go back to the well.

The reality is, this was Darcy Kuemper’s game. Unlike last night in Anaheim, the Avs didn’t have something to fall back on such as superior shot quality and a decent defensive effort that kept pucks to the outside.

No, you see, Colorado’s 4-1 win tonight was the most deceptive score of the season because it was never particularly close. The Avs, despite leading most of the game, got beat up and down the ice by the well-rested Kings. It was the tired Avs, having played the night before, against the wired Kings, who hung out and probably watched the Ducks-Avs game last night.

This is what we in the business always call a “schedule loss” just because of the numbers involved. Tonight’s result is, of course, why they still play the games. Anything can happen, and tonight was a reminder of just how cruel hockey can be.

Despite the Kings outshooting the Avs 34-15 through two periods, the Avs led 2-1 because of special teams and one brutal Kings turnover that became Kiefer Sherwood’s first goal in an Avs sweater.

The real story here is Kuemper, however, as he made 40 saves on 41 shots. He never wavered and never looked like he was out of control, as he occasionally has looked in games earlier this year. He surely understood that with a tired team in front of him, he was going to need the best he had to offer to get his club through this one.

Given the absurd goal support Kuemper has received this year, it seems only fitting that on a night where Colorado played one of its poorest games of the season, Kuemper rose to the occasion and turned in the kind of performance that reminded you why people were so excited when the Avs acquired him last summer.

While Kuemper making a habit of stealing games was never on the menu behind an Avs team that does plenty of greedy eating all on its own, that it took 38 games to see the first true example of stolen valor is a bit surprising but simultaneously relieving. He made it happen.

Colleague Jesse Montano mentioned in his recap after Kuemper’s first shutout in an Avs sweater last week that some players need to say goodbye to their past before they can embrace their future. Is it any coincidence that Kuemper’s two best games as an Av have come in that same timeframe?

It’s possible, but it also looked like Kuemper greatly enjoyed saying “Thank you” to the Arizona family last week and now he’s truly focused on chasing a Stanley Cup (and, if we’re being honest, a life-changing contract this summer) as a member of the Colorado Avalanche.

As backup Pavel Francouz has repeatedly played well behind Kuemper, there was a growing notion that Kuemper might have to fend the feisty Czech off from stealing his job.

With a performance like tonight, there’s no question who The Man is in Colorado’s net.

Just call him The Kuemperor.

TAKEAWAYS

• This is the worst I’ve seen the top line of Colorado’s play in a long time, possibly years, especially at even strength. Even on their worst nights they typically conjure up some kind of magic and either pot a goal or sustain pressure and do some pretty special stuff. Tonight, they scored on Colorado’s lone power play opportunity but then the lights went off and that was just about it from that group. Gabe Landeskog, in particular, has been especially poor the last couple of games.
• Everyone got crushed in shot metrics tonight, but despite that, I really did like Alex Newhook’s game. He and Andre Burakovsky were two of the only Avalanche forwards who were really moving their feet consistently and trying to put pressure on the Kings’ defense. Of the two, Newhook at least did something in the offensive zone, as everything I liked from Burakovsky came in his own end. Newhook had jump throughout.
• Talk about the ultimate emotional swing for Nicolas Aube-Kubel. He takes an inexplicably dumb penalty while Newhook has a partial breakaway with the game sitting at 2-1 just minutes into the third period. It’s the kind of mistake NAK simply can’t make because he made it too common a habit in Philadelphia and helped lead to him being given away entirely for free. Instead of watching the Kings tie the game on his mistake, he gets out of the penalty box and gets a clean breakaway and beats J. Quick with a snappy little shot and essentially iced the game at 3-1. The Avs actually woke up after that and took over the remainder of the game from that point on.
• I wrote about the depth scoring in last night’s postgame piece and tonight the Avs get goals from Kiefer Sherwood and NAK while Logan O’Connor and J.T. Compher picked up assists on NAK’s goal. Always love when the team shows themselves to be avid readers of the site (clearly I jest).
• That was the worst game Devon Toews has played in an Avs uniform and certainly the worst since Toews had a nightmare of a playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning while still a member of the New York Islanders. His play was so poor in that series, it was the primary catalyst (other than money) for the Isles to consider moving on from Toews in the first place. It has been Colorado’s gain ever since. The point is that I’ve watched a lot of Devon Toews over the years and this was the low mark of his play…and he still finished with a goal. Freak.
• Just a personal gripe here: I hate LA’s goal horn. Maybe it’s the PTSD from the Kings beating the Avs up for a long time while the Kopitar-Doughty era was in its prime, but I just cannot stand that annoying horn. I hiss and boo in its general direction.