Here's the thing about the Avalanche: The party may only be just getting started

I’m actually having a hard time getting this story started. Or, I was anyway. I probably sat here for 15 minutes staring at the milky white screen thinking “Did I just see what I think I saw?”

I mean, look, we did not witness man walking on the moon. We did not witness the Rapture or anything. All that happened was one professional hockey team full of millionaire players beating another professional hockey team full of millionaire players. But, a 5-0 Colorado Avalanche victory in Nashville? A game the Avs had to play roughly 17 hours after playing another game in another city? A game in which the Avs played the backup goalie, who hadn’t even played a game in nearly three weeks? A game in which he pitched a 38-save shutout?

No, I didn’t see that coming. Not at all.

Which only goes to prove once more that I truly know nothing about this game. I gotta be honest, I pretty much had this Avs team written off about two weeks ago. After that 5-2 home loss to Toronto on Feb. 12, on the heels of that three-game Eastern trip in which they lost all three games in overtime, I saw a team that seemed to have lost most of its confidence, a team that was stuck in a downward spiral and didn’t seem to know how to get out of it.

Since then, the Avs are 5-1-0, with three of the wins coming on the road against tough division opponents. They are officially back in the top eight of the Western Conference playoff picture. As I write this, they are actually tied in points for the first Wild Card spot with Dallas, after the Stars were shockingly shut out at home to Carolina today.

Suddenly, the Avs are playing great hockey again. Suddenly, they are a team with a hot No. 1 goalie and a backup who got some of his groove back today. Suddenly, they are a team getting balanced scoring, a team getting great play from the top guys and unexpected contributions from the scrubs.

Here’s what has me…yes, optimistic about their chances to make the playoffs now: Nathan MacKinnon appears to have finally just said “Screw it, I’m done trying to be a setup guy and I’m just gonna blast the puck on net again and make the goalie stop ME, not someone else.”

In the last two games, MacK has put 12 shots on goal. He wasn’t rewarded Friday in Chicago with anything, but he put two howitzers from the left circle past Pekka Rinne today. That one-timer from the left circle, how frustrated were all of us watching him hold back on it too much in that two-month stretch of misery? Far too often, he would appear to be ready to let it fire, only to pull back and dish back to the point.

If you’ve got a rocket shot, you gotta use it. MacK is the one guy other teams just can’t handle, and his danger meter goes up about 100-fold when he backs the D off with those cannon blasts from the left side. Alexander Ovechkin has made a living off that shot for his whole career. Do you think he’s ever gonna change? No, as he shouldn’t. I think MacKinnon had a stretch where he was trying to be too much of a good teammate in the sense of spreading the wealth offensively. But not even his linemates want that. I mean, sure, make the right pass when necessary, but MacKinnon’s skills are such that he needs to take the shot, for the betterment of the team.

Those two goals today, Rinne had no chance on. Those are goals in which you don’t have to work so hard to get. Just get up in the circle and start blastin’. He and the Avs tried to overcomplicate the game too much in the miserable two months with too much fancy-dan passing and skating.

The other things that have me excited again about the Avs’ playoff possibilities: Semyon Varlamov’s play, of course, but the Avs have cut down on their sloppy defensive mistakes. I’m not sure if it’s the right term or not, but it appears that Jared Bednar has instituted more of a trap defensive system, using more of a left-wing lock kind of system to keep play more toward the side boards than through the middle of the ice.

That goes for the penalty kill, too. The Avs are pressuring the puck higher in the zone on the PK, and trying to steer play more off to the side. It’s harder to score on tips and in general on shots from the side than from the middle of the blue line, and right now the Avs are doing a much better job of limiting really good looks for the opposing power play. They’re allowing teams to have the puck down low a little easier as a result of this change in the system, but, again, it’s easier to defend when the puck is off to the side instead of the middle of the zone.

Bednar deserves credit for implementing changes to his defensive systems. Remember when he said he wants the team to have a “Let’s win 1-0” mentality? It took a bit for the motto to catch up with the actual results, but right now the Avs seem better committed to a checking game again and thinking more about where they are on the ice defensively.

Is everything perfect? Nope. The Avs still have their flaws, but like a great actor or model, they’re finding ways to cover them up better and still wow everyone with their overall look.

It might have seemed too late, and I have my hand raised in thinking it was. But the Avs are proving that, no, it wasn’t too late.

And, maybe, the party is just getting started.

SOME OTHER TAKEAWAYS FROM TODAY:

• Grubauer really deserves credit for what he did. A lot of Avs fans were probably going “OK, scheduled loss today” when he was announced as the goalie, but he made all the stops. It was his seventh career shutout and first as an Av.
• Don’t be confused by the Avs’ terrible Corsi numbers individually. The Avs led for 57 minutes of the game. Nashville was chasing the game. Corsi numbers get skewed often in those cases.
• Did you see the kiss Big Z planted on Grubauer after the game, while Grubauer was being interviewed by Kyle Keefe? Here ya go:

Big Z plants a big kiss on Grubauer pic.twitter.com/NJpQvbxk1S

— Adrian Dater (@adater) February 24, 2019

• Matt Nieto missed the game because of a lower body injury, probably from blocking a shot in Chicago. I think he’ll play next game, but we’ll see. Sheldon Dries was called up to take his place.
• That goal by Gabe Landeskog, set up by Sam Girard? That was a flat-out beauty.
• What have I heard on the trade-deadline front? Not too much. As I said the other day, I don’t think there’s any way Big Z is dealt now before the deadline – nor should he be. Could a Patrik Nemeth or Sven Andrighetto still be somewhere else come Monday? Possible. But, yeah, winning has a way of canceling trades.