Injury-riddled Avalanche wins behind another new face

Let’s try this again.

I tried writing about Colorado’s new guys and what a difference they were making this season but the end of the Vancouver game changed pretty drastically and I had to CTRL+A <—- that sucker so here we are again.

With injuries to nearly half of Colorado’s regular forward corps, the Avs were once again carried by a combination of their best player and the new guys, who are making cases to stick around for quite a while.

Old news Nathan MacKinnon dropped another two points tonight as he continues to put up video game production without his linemates from the last two years.

One of his new linemates, Andre Burakovsky, just keeps proving what a pro scouting win it was for the Avalanche when they acquired him over the summer for what is increasingly looking like a meager price of two draft picks.

Two more goals for Burakovsky tonight (with assists from MacKinnon, of course) drove the offensive bus for Colorado and in a league where three goals typically win the game, the Avs got it and Calgary didn’t tonight in a 3-2 win over the Flames.

The game-winning goal seemed innocuous enough when Val Nichushkin, J.T. Compher, and Vlad Kamenev played tic-tac-goal with Kamenev getting his first of the season and it gave the Avalanche a 3-0 lead.

Firmly in control of the game at that point, the Avs slowly watched as the Flames worked their way back into it with a late second period goal from Derek Ryan to give Calgary a little juice headed into the third.

Colorado eventually held Calgary off in a late push and got the win so I’m free to write about Burakovsky for the night.

Finally!

Lost amid the (justifiable) hype train surrounding Cale Makar and the continued brilliance of MacKinnon is Burakovsky, who came into the game as Colorado’s third-leading scorer and on pace for just under a 70-point season.

Fresh off back-to-back 25-point seasons in Washington, it’s striking to see him breaking out and finding his game to this extent. While it’s still obviously early in the season, Burakovsky should be in line to obliterate all of the benchmarks he’d put up in his career with the Capitals (healthy permitting, which, you might remember, is a big thing with this club right now so assume nothing).

Burakovsky put up 38 points in his rookie season and his 17 goals that year were followed up by subpar seasons involving repeated hand injuries and three straight years of him scoring 12 goals.

After tonight’s two-goal game, Burakovsky is up to 10 on the season already and sits at 18 points. His point production right now matches what Johnny Gaudreau has put up for the Flames (he went scoreless again tonight).

Coming into the season, there were very real and fair questions about who would step up and help Nazem Kadri carry the secondary scoring load. With Landeskog and Rantanen missing in action, Burakovsky has stepped up and provided more of a primary scoring role but is proving more than capable of helping this club out when the big guns get healthy.

Burakovsky’s play, in fact, has been so impressive that it’s fair to begin wondering if he should stay next to MacKinnon when Rantanen returns.

With Burakovsky on pace for a 39-goal season with a quarter of the season finished, it’s not such a crazy thought anymore.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• 3-1 on a road trip against three of the top four teams in the Pacific Division and the Avs only just got their first real action from one of their top two goaltenders tonight. That’s just so damn impressive given the injury issues of this club.
• Since the five-game losing streak (0-4-1) earlier this month, the Avs have gone 5-1. Now to avoid the extended losing again in the future and they will be sitting pretty.
• Colorado finishes this five-game roadie up in Minnesota on Thursday. The Wild currently sit in last place in the Central Division but are 4-1-2 at home. Recent history has not been kind to Colorado in the final game of five-game road trips so this is an opportunity to turn that around.
• Back to tonight, it was Philipp Grubauer’s first start since the debacle in Dallas and he was sharp as ever. His play, especially in the third period as the Flames pressed, kept the Avs out in front and he was stellar down the stretch.
• I think whatever doubts people might have about Grubauer as a legit starting goaltender should be put to bed. Just my opinion here but the man has been good-to-excellent since last March. Barring another inexplicable two-month collapse, he is Colorado’s man between the pipes.
• Makar with another point tonight, pushing him to 23 in 21 games. Whatever, man. The NHL is just easy, apparently.
• I thought the Avs were much better defensively in this one right until the end when they got a little too loose and carefree with the puck. They tightened the screws nicely through two periods but watched them get away from that a bit in the third period. Winning is rarely perfect, however, and you always have to remember an NHL team is on the other side of the ice and Colorado isn’t ‘letting’ Calgary push hard in the third period.
• That said, when the second Flames goal was scored late, Colorado spent the next two minutes pushing play the other way and really responded positively.
• It will probably get lost in a lot of the shuffle but I really liked Logan O’Connor’s game tonight. He played with his trademark speed and hustle and created a few problems for the Flames. Good for him showing well in front of his family and friends back home.
• Kamenev and Nichushkin combining on a goal was a feel-good moment for two guys trying to prove they belong in the NHL. For Kamenev, it was his first goal of the season and fourth point in 10 points. It was Nichushkin’s second assist of the season in his 17th game. I believe he is up to 91 straight regular season games without a goal now. Have to hope it ends for him soon.