Jack Johnson's 1,000th game in the NHL ends in an Avalanche victory

Regardless of the result, this game was endlessly annoying.

Ok, maybe not “endlessly”, that third period was pretty awesome for the Colorado Avalanche, but they had to battle through it a bit to get there.

There were a lot of really cool, fun storylines that surrounded this game, so that’s where I’m going to start, but what we saw on the ice was frustrating at best for the first two-ish periods of the game.

Like I said, lots of fun storylines though. First and foremost, Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson played in his 1,000th NHL game tonight as the Avalanche hosted the New York Islanders, before the game started, Johnson was presented with a Silver Stick, a custom bracelet, and an Avalanche jersey (numbered 1000) signed by all of his teammates. I mentioned it during today’s Morning Skate Update, Johnson is one of the most well-spoken, and well-liked players that I have interacted with during my time covering hockey.

He’s so easy to root for. Once considered a top-tier defenseman in this league, Johnson has had a fascinating career. He was traded by the Carolina Hurricanes to LA before even making his NHL debut and would go on to become an Olympian for Team USA in 2010, then was swapped at the trade deadline by the Los Angeles Kings just months before they would go on to win the Stanley Cup. After that, he would bounce around the league with stops in Columbus, Pittsburgh, and an injury-riddled season in New York with the Rangers.

It seemed like somewhat of a fall from grace. Once a hot commodity and Olympic silver medalist, now in 2021, a journeyman looking for another chance. Enter Joe Sakic.

Sakic offered Jack Johnson a PTO to come to training camp and try to earn a job as veteran depth on a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Personally, I thought Johnson was exactly what you wanted him to be in the preseason, nothing flashy, but solid and relatively in control.

The Avs rewarded him with a contract, and despite some early-season struggles, he has filled his role admirably in almost every game of the season so far and has even been elevated to the second pairing with the absence of Bowen Byram. 

Has he maybe been a little overextended in that role? Sure, but I don’t think you’ll find anyone that would say it’s gone “poorly.”

That brings us to tonight. With upwards of 40 of his closest family and friends in the stands at Ball Arena, Jack Johnson got to celebrate an outstanding accomplishment on home ice. 

A great moment for him, and this organization.

After the short ceremony, it was time to drop the puck of Avs vs Islanders. This was the Isles’ first trip to Denver since 2019, and their last stop on a five-game road trip. 

This game started similar to the Avs’ last home game; a couple of really strong opening shifts that really seemed like tone-setters. Only this time, instead of giving up the first goal, Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon combined for a show-stopping goal that throws itself into the conversation for Avalanche goal of the year. It probably doesn’t beat out Makar’s dazzling OT winner in Chicago from earlier this year, but wow was it something. 

Quick side note, I was seated next to the Islanders staff in the press box tonight, and when MacKinnon picked up the puck in the high slot, the gentleman sitting next to me let out an “uh oh”. It was reminiscent of Alex Pietrangelo’s “oh boy” at last year’s outdoor game, and it made me laugh. Anyways, back to the game

After that goal, the frustration started. 

Colorado was largely controlling the pace of play, and generating a lot of good chances, but couldn’t get a second one by New York netminder Ilya Sorokin, who was fantastic for most of this game.

Just barely past the halfway mark of the opening frame, Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock sent a seeing-eye wrist shot towards the net that eluded both Cale Makar and Darcy Kuemper before finding the back of the net.

I winced a bit in that moment, because I got the sense that a team desperate for points to cling to any sliver of playoff hopes they might have just may have enough left in the tank to scrape out and steal a win behind a goalie who was starting to heat up.

The Avalanche had played better than a 1-1 tie, but at that moment, things were going New York’s way.

Cut to the start of the second period, and it looked like maybe the Avs had regrouped, shaken off that first period and were ready to outwork the Isles.

Colorado’s fourth line, who had definitely been in the doghouse lately, came out with an outstanding shift. They maintained zone pressure for what felt like five minutes before Devon Toews, who was playing in his first game against the Islanders since being traded by them to Colorado, cut through the middle of the ice and zipped one past Sorokin to restore the Avs lead.

As pretty of a goal as it was, the lead was short-lived. Less than a minute later a puck squirted right out in front of the Avalanche net, and J.G. Pageau was in the right place at the right time to hammer it past a scrambling Darcy Kuemper.

Again, just that feeling that the night was destined to go New York’s way.

That goal seemed to energize the visitors. From pretty much that moment on fro the rest of the period, they took it to the Avalanche. They pressured hard in the attacking zone, were winning loose puck, generating quality opportunities, and eventually took their first lead of the night as Kyle Palmieri won a battle in front and punched a puck home that Kuepmer had a hard time tracking down.

So, the Avalanche were down by one, had just gotten pretty thoroughly outplayed, and were staring at a goaltender who was making saves look easy.

If there’s anything we’ve learned this season, it’s that the Avs are not afraid of being in a position like this.

Starting with the drop of the puck in the third period, it looked like a different game between different teams.

Suddenly it was Colorado who was forcing their opponents to defend, winning races, and just throwing shot after shot on net. In fact, the Avs hung 11 shots on Sorokin in just the first four minutes of the third period.

Eventually, the pressure was too much for New York, and they were forced to take a penalty as Nathan MacKinnon was driving to the net down low.

The current state of the Colorado power play definitely doesn’t instill a ton of confidence, but given how hard they were buzzing, you thought… maybe?

Sure enough, after having to reset a couple of times, Gabe Landeskog found himself below the goal line and Sorokin scrambling to seal his post. The Avs captain bounced it off the goaltender and the puck eventually found its way into the back of the net.

We were all tied up.

After trading chances for several minutes, it looked like the Islanders had maybe taken the lead back when a puck got behind Kuemper and rolled across the goal line before eventually being swept away by Avs defenseman Ryan Murray.

There was a quick review to determine if the puck had fully crossed the line or not, but eventually it was determined that the smallest sliver of the puck was still touching the red line, resulting in no goal on the play.

One thing I’ve talked about all season is the Avs’ ability to take advantage of their opponent’s mistakes. While having a goal disallowed isn’t really a “mistake”, it was an opportunity for the Avs to make New York pay for not getting that puck over the line, and they did.

Just minutes later, the man with the freshest haircut in town, Andre Burakovsky, scored his third goal in as many games after going 17 straight without one and gave his team a lead that they would never surrender. 

It sounds like the same story over and over again, but after that, it never really felt like the game was in jeopardy. There was one play that you could probably say was a fortunate bounce for the Avalanche, but other than that… it was aces defensively the rest of the way before Erik Johnson put the game away with a 180’ empty netter.

It wasn’t pretty at times, but the Avalanche found yet another way to win a game.

I mentioned it in a piece earlier this week, but you can feel teams start to tighten up when the Avalanche start to push back. I think that’s what happened again here tonight, the Avs just overwhelmed New York in the third and took advantage of the Isles playing not to lose.

It was a great night overall, starting with the celebration of Jack Johnson. As usual, though, the Avalanche will need to enjoy the moment, and move on as they are heading to Arizona to take on the team that ended their historic home winning streak last month.

Might they be looking for some revenge?