“He’s an easy guy to cheer for”: Michael Hutchinson’s fairy tale continues with Game 6 victory

There are so many angles to Colorado’s 4-1 win in Game 6 that I could take here but I’d be lying if I tried to say the story was anything but Michael Hutchinson.

It was one thing for him to get the surprise start in Game 5 and get the win. He was spotted five goals in a first period where he only had to make four saves. All they asked him to do was avoid catastrophe. Easy enough.

It’s an entirely different animal for him to be put into another elimination game and have the game be much closer this time around and force him to step up and play well to keep his team’s season alive.

After a 27-save performance and allowing just one goal, it was mission accomplished for the guy who Toronto gave up on earlier in the year and was more than happy to unload on Colorado at the trade deadline.

That depth move from the Avalanche, panned by many at the time due to the poor season Hutchinson had with the Maple Leafs, has helped keep Colorado’s season alive as they erased a 3-1 series deficit and forced Game 7 with by far their best all-around effort of the series.

While the story now is the classic tale of the unexpected hero, it could have gone very differently after Miro Heiskanen’s soft floater beat Hutchinson late in the first period to give Dallas a 1-0 lead. It was as soft a goal as you’ll see in the NHL and Hutchinson’s demonstrative reaction showed he knew better than anyone he should have had it.

But he didn’t and that was that. Instead of letting one mistake turn into two, Hutchinson put it out of his mind and moved on.

Four Colorado goals later, the team was celebrating its victory and already sounding hungry to get on the ice for Game 7. Hutchinson is expected to be the man in net for the Avalanche once again as Philipp Grubauer traveled back to Denver already and Pavel Francouz’s mystery injury continues to linger.

That keeps Hutchinson into the spotlight, a place he has shown a rare calmness so far. It’s not hard to see he’s a positive-thinking person who sees the world as glass-half-full and he approaches hockey with the same optimism.

“I think a lot of hockey is just being in the right place at the right time and then being able to take advantage of certain opportunities that come up,” Hutchinson said. “This whole entire situation with the bubble, everything going on is so absurd and surreal at the same time. It’s just one of those things that happens but for myself, I’ve been able to play quite a few NHL games and practice with NHL teams for quite a few years. I’ve always felt like my game was in a place where if I got an opportunity I could be successful.”

It was only his third start for the Avalanche but he has gone 3-0-0 in a Colorado sweater, the last two coming in Games 5 and 6 of this series with the Avs’ season hanging in the balance.

Almost all of us have been underdogs in life at some point and it makes Hutchinson’s success easy to gravitate towards. He smiles when he talks about his wife and embraces the reality of his journey to even getting here, which has included a lot of AHL bus rides and wondering what his NHL future was at various points.

“Numerous times in my career,” Hutchinson said when asked if he ever wondered whether his NHL career was finished. “My career has been a long journey and I’ve been sent down and called up a bunch of times. There’s always moments when you get sent down that you think you’re never going to play another NHL game but those moments you put them behind and just enjoy playing hockey and having fun with it. For myself, it’s just keep working hard and trying to be a good teammate. It’s kind of interesting how hockey works out and how things change sometimes.”

And boy have things ever changed. The Avalanche are now relying on Hutchinson to continue playing well in order to advance to the western conference finals, where either the high-octane offenses of Vegas or Vancouver await. That’s a heavy burden to place on a guy who entered the bubble as an afterthought, an emergency-only player. Despite the whirlwind of change surrounding his circumstances, Hutchinson appreciates the gravity of the situation.

“It’s hard not to understand what’s going on, especially in the bubble,” he said. “There’s not much besides hockey. For myself, I’m happy to have this opportunity and I’m just enjoying playing and having fun out there.”

While it’s easy for the outside world to root for Hutchinson because of his story, the commitment he’s shown on a journey that has not always rewarded him the way all players hope has made it even more fun for a head coach who never got an NHL chance to watch from his bench.

“He’s an easy guy to cheer for,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “This guy has just been doing all the right things since he joined our club. For him to step in and do what he’s done for us the last couple games is nothing short of amazing because he’s kept himself ready. It’s an exciting time and hopefully he can repeat his performance whenever we play Game 7.”

It’s not hard to imagine Bednar has a deeper appreciation for Hutchinson’s journey than most of the other guys on the Avs’ roster, many of whom were high draft picks on the fast-track to the NHL. Bednar spent his career as a defensive defenseman who ground out a respectable career in the AHL and ECHL. It’s easy to see where his vast appreciation of Hutchinson comes from.

“Not just for Hutch, but for all the guys that don’t have an easy path but they want it and they stick to it and they buy into their dreams and they invest in themselves to just continue to try to battle to play at the highest level they possibly can,” Bednar said. “I think there’s value in those players because they appreciate what they have in playing in the best league in the world, playing this game for a living. You have a healthy respect for what it takes to get here and when you get here you don’t want to let it go. Those guys tend to give their all every single night. There’s lots of up and downs in most guy’s careers and they have to battle in order to stay. It’s not an easy league to get to and certainly is not an easy league to stay in but if they respect the game and give it the effort it deserves, you come to appreciate it. That’s what we see in Hutch. I couldn’t be more happy for this guy. He’s just a great person, a great teammate. It makes it easy to cheer for him.”

Nobody thought they’d be cheering for Michael Hutchinson in a Game 7 of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs but as the man himself said, “It’s kind of interesting how hockey works out.”

TAKEAWAYS

• Nathan MacKinnon was okay through two periods and a superstar in the third. He’s having the kind of postseason we shouldn’t take for granted because it doesn’t happen very often. There’s a reason he is Colorado’s ace in the hole no matter what injuries or matchups find the Avs. MacKinnon is on a different level right now.
• Cale Makar continues to make a large impact on this series. He was stupendous in both ends tonight, playing with the kind of snarl that will surprise only the uninitiated at this point. And if someone is still not familiar with Makar, shame on them. He’s living up to his vast potential right in front of us. He has 21 points in 24 career playoff games. He’s still just 21.
• Don’t devote much time to opposing players in this space but I’ve loved watching Miro Heiskanen play in this series. He’s the best player on Dallas and I certainly hope this isn’t the last playoff battle we get between Heiskanen and Makar in their careers. They’re both such mature, dynamic talents from the blueline that you can’t help but be thrilled for the future of the sport. Extend that out to the other teams still alive out west and you add Shea Theodore and Quinn Hughes to this list and it becomes obvious why teams are ignoring size more than ever and trying to find defenders with high-end puck skills at the top of the draft.
• This was the first game of the series that did not feel like complete mayhem. The first period was a pretty even battle that finished tied at 1-1. The Avs slightly edged ahead with a goal in the second period and then took the 3-1 lead in the third. Dallas had just one PP and it was arguably that unit’s worst effort of the series. Everything that had been true for five games suddenly wasn’t anymore. Sports are wild like that.
• Both of these teams lost in Game 7 of the second round last year so neither team has the edge in trying to exorcise a demon here. Both were brutally close games that had they gone a little differently would’ve meant Colorado and Dallas in the conference finals last year. What a world that would’ve been, eh? I do think Dallas will go in feeling the pressure for the first time because they’ve blown the series lead and have to be filled with the self-doubt right now. That said, it’s a veteran-laded group over there with a lot of playoff experience. If there’s a group that can erase the failures of Games 5 and 6, you have to think it’s one with this kind of makeup.
• Game 6 was the first time it felt like everything really went Colorado’s way. They got the always-crucial lucky bounce when Jamie Oleksiak shoved J.T. Compher into Anton Khudobin right as he was trying to stop Nikita Zadorov’s shot from the point. They had five power plays, scored on none of them, and didn’t pay a price for it. They were called for just one penalty all night. Those were the breaks within the game that really helped Colorado. The reality is that Colorado’s power play simply HAS to be better in Game 7 and generate a goal for them. That unit has to find its way immediately.
• Injuries continue to be absurd. Already down both regular goaltenders, a top-three defenseman (Johnson) and two regulars at forward (Donskoi and Calvert), the Avs lost Conor Timmins and Gabe Landeskog to injury during the game. Timmins took a hard hit from Andrew Cogliano and might have hit his head hard against the glass while Landeskog’s leg was cut by Cale Makar’s skate during a battle in a corner. Landeskog returned, skated for a shift, then was shut down from there.  The Avs obviously cannot lose Landeskog and even the Timmins injury could prove costly beyond just missing Timmins himself. I said on the postgame podcast I’d go with Bowen Byram here but fully expect Kevin Connauton to get the call. Hope for the best for Timmins. Please no more head injuries for him.
• I tweeted this out after the game in response to a specific question but found it a fun fact so I’ll put it here as well:
  • MacKinnon has 25 playoff points. 288 players recorded 25 or more points during the regular season.883 players played in at least 1 NHL game this season.Basic math says MacKinnon’s playoff totals have outscored the regular season totals of 595 players