From Rut to Resilience: Bowen Byram's Turnaround and Nathan MacKinnon's Historic Feat

After the road trip from hell, the Colorado Avalanche needed to get back in the win column. 

The Avs extended Arizona’s losing streak to nine games with their 4-3 victory tonight. Their home record improved to 21-5-0. With the win, Colorado also overtook the Jets to slide into second place in the Central Division.

It wasn’t the smoothest contest on either side. Devon Toews said both teams were “a little bit undisciplined.”

Six penalty kills, four powerplays, and three coach’s challenges later, the Avs successfully completed their 16th comeback win of the season.

Etched in Hockey History

With a goal and an assist tonight, Nathan MacKinnon is back to his scoring ways. After being held to just one goal in six games over the course of the road trip, his place in the Hart trophy race was questioned by some. Nikita Kucherov is producing at such a high clip, it will make it challenging for MacKinnon to take any nights off the scoresheet.

MacKinnon’s game-tying goal was reviewed for goaltender interference, but it didn’t stand.

His role on the game-winning goal from Toews really highlighted the skilled player we’ve watched all year. His ability to evade the hit behind the net and maintain possession allowed the play to continue.

He’s chased numerous records this season, but tonight, he unlocked the high-honor of getting his name just below Wayne Gretzky’s in the leaderboard for the longest home point-streak in NHL history at 26 games.

He surpassed Bobby Orr for sole possession of the second-longest run behind Gretzky’s impressive 40-point streak. It puts his season into perspective to imagine those two names next to one another in a sentence.

MacKinnon also became the first player to post a home point streak of more than 25 games since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96.

Records that haven’t been touched since the late-80’s/90’s are being overturned by the likes of MacKinnon tearing up the league alongside Connor McDavid and Kucherov. It’s a fun era of hockey to bear witness to and punctuates MacKinnon’s special year.

There’s no denying the Avs have to climb out of the hole that was the recent road trip, but it’s important to appreciate this year to the fullest.

Backend Contributions

Now at 48 goals, the Avs’ defense accounts for the most of any in the league.

We’re spoiled to have a front row seat to the most productive d-corps in the league, and in the same breath, they’re not without criticisms.

A high point has been the play of Bowen Byram over the last three games. Byram finished the night with two assists. 

On the opening goal, Byram dumped the puck into Arizona’s end. Karel Vejmelka tapped the puck around the boards and Barrett Hayton’s stick accidentally deflected it to Miles Wood behind the goal line. Wood acted fast and fed Ross Colton at the bottom of the left-circle and Colton wristed the puck in.

His d-partner, Jack Johnson, also contributed in a big way and recorded a goal and an assist.

Johnson helped to bring the Avs back into things inside the second period.

Ryan Johansen worked around Nick Schmaltz near the blueline and made a pass to Johnson opposite him. Johnson skated wide to the bottom of the right-circle and wristed the puck in off the far-post. No one seemed happier for him than former Olympic teammate Zach Parise who was the first to give him a big hug.

On their third goal, Johnson must have been feeling it a little. With the puck at the blueline, Byram rotated low to the right-circle and Johnson found a seam between two Coyote’s players to tag him up.

Byram moved the puck well and completed a cross-crease pass to MacKinnon at the post. MacKinnon jammed away at it until it went in.

Johnson’s secondary contributions alongside Byram’s rise in play was a welcome sight.

The pairing recorded three scoring-chances-against at even-strength – tied with Sam Girard and Josh Manson for the fewest of the defensemen – but also accounted for twelve scoring-chances-for at even strength, just two behind the team-lead from Cale Makar and Toews.

Jared Bednar said that Byram’s defending details are better when he plays more confidently. 

Bednar revealed that after some early struggles on the road trip, Byram met with Assistant Coach Nolan Pratt one-on-one.

“They went over some things, looked at some video,” he said. “He was just caught in a rut. Right away the last three games after that, I see a more involved player, more assertive in all areas.

He has the ability when he’s playing like that, he has the talent and the vision to build and make plays and help us score goals. That’s what he’s done over the last three games. I find when he’s playing like that, his defending is better as well.”

Finally, Toews notched the game-winning goal to complete the bluelines’ five-point night.

Toews weathered some contact along the boards to get the puck to MacKinnon behind the net. MacKinnon’s journey wasn’t without incident but he smartly avoided most of a hit to give himself time to slip the puck to Jonathan Drouin coming between the hash marks. Drouin quickly dropped the puck back to Toews, and Toews wristed the puck from distance to put the Avs on top.

On the whole, the Avs sincerely limited scoring chances at five-on-five compared to their previous contests. At five-on-five, it was actually a season-low of twelve shots-for according to Natural Stat Trick. The trouble is with six penalty kills, over half of Arizona’s shots came on the man-advantage and four-on-four. The kill did as much as it could, but struggled to finish strong. They allowed one goal-against and another which came just after the kill’s end.

Makar and Toews had a difficult showing in Tampa and I speculated that their high-usage has run them a little ragged. Both are such important players in all situations, it’s hard to use them any less. Makar is eighth in the league in ice time.

The penalty kill time was split more evenly between defensemen than we’ve seen lately. Manson and Girard helped pick up some slack on the kill to alleviate some minutes from Toews and Makar. Makar still played the most of anyone, but Girard was right behind him. This time the difference was in seconds instead of minutes between all the D.

Makar acknowledged the benefit of having more help on the PK, but he was quick to issue a criticism of his play too.

“It’s been good. It’s nice having everybody be able to play PK,” he said. “Everybody should be playing PK, in my opinion, we got a lot of good D-men that should be contributing on both ends of the ice.

It’s good to get those guys in there because we’re gonna need them at some point for РК.

In terms of individual stuff, I don’t know if that’s being allocated anywhere else based off my play recently.”

Makar has been kept off the scoresheet in five games. He leads the all NHL defensemen in points on the powerplay (27) and is the goal scoring leader among Avs’ d-corps (13).

It’s unusual. Even though there were stark improvements as a team against Arizona, the stunted play of Makar, and Toews to a lesser extent, is a vital part of the lineup that needs to be rejuvenated.

The smart play of Girard and Manson has been another bright spot. Perhaps some combination of less time on the kill for Makar and Toews and more goal support throughout the team can give the top pair enough space to take a deep breath and get back to the basics.

Makar has never shied away from self-evaluation. Sometimes he’s even too hard on himself. His night was any other young defenseman’s dream. Six shots on net, four additional attempts, two blocked shots, a 51.72 Corsi-for percentage at even strength, and the team-high in ice time at 27:09. Even when he’s critical of his own play, he’s trusted with the most ice for a reason.