Justus Annunen records first NHL win as Avs outlast Flyers

Woo boy, ok. That game left me feeling like I need a cigarette, and I don’t smoke. But, as the old saying goes, any time you can start your organization’s fourth goalie and still win, you’ll take it.

No? Is that not a saying? Well, it is now, because I said it.

The Colorado Avalanche won 7-5 on a night that felt more like a home-run derby than it did a hockey game.

Before we get into this… whatever it was. I want to throw a quick congratulations to Justus Annunen, who won his first NHL game tonight in his first NHL start. I was there in Dallas when he was drafted back in 2018, and it’s awesome to see the progression of a kid who knew what a long road ahead he had, and has navigated it really well. Awesome to see.

His English isn’t great, but he had a great line I just had to share. It’s one of those moments in sports that just puts a smile on your face.

“It was fun. That’s what I always dream about,” Annunen said. “There’s not that long of time ago that I was playing video games [as] those guys, so it’s kind of fun to play with them. It was great.”

I love it.

There was so much chaos going on relative to this game away from the ice this morning, that I really didn’t have a good pulse on what type of game we would see. You had two teams that both really needed a win. You had sweeping organizational changes on one side, you had a young goalie getting his first NHL start on the other, and the first period felt like it.

The first 20 minutes saw seven goals between the two teams. I’ll be honest, I thought the Avs missed their opportunity to win this game early. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard an NHL building as quiet as the Wells Fargo Center was leading up to, and during most of, the first period. That’s saying something because I was in the building for probably 38 of 41 Avalanche home games during the infamous 48-point season.

After getting blitzed by the Tampa Bay Lightning last night for their eighth straight loss, the Philadelphia Flyers decided it was time for a shake-up. Head Coach Alain Vigneault and Assistant Coach Michel Therrien were relieved of their duties, and Mike Yeo was put in as the new bench boss on an interim basis about 90 minutes before the Flyers were set to take the ice for morning skate.

A lot of the time, you’ll see a big change like this work in favor of the team that’s making the changes. The ownership of the result for the team’s next game shifts from the coaching staff to the players, and guys are usually pretty fired up.

That was absolutely not the case tonight, as the Flyers looked completely flat to start this game. There was no energy in the building, and there was no energy in their game. I thought the Avs were going to jump all over them and absolutely bury the floundering Flyers.

Then Colorado seemingly fell asleep at the wheel and left the Flyer’s most lethal goal-scorer wide, wide open in the slot and Claude Giroux hammered one past Justus Annunen to give his team an early 1-0 lead.

Thankfully for the Avalanche, Philly is in such a bad place as a team right now, that even that couldn’t get them going.

Give the Avs credit, that goal seemed like somewhat of a wake-up call, and they exploded for four straight, including what Erik Johnson described as a “Bobby Orr-like” coast-to-coast jaw-dropper from Cale Makar. 

It looked like the Avs were set to run away with this game. They were in control, the Flyers had all but stopped skating, and Philadelphia goaltender Martin Jones looked completely stunned. 

Mike Yeo used his one timeout to try and get his team to show any signs of life, and it’s not so much that they did, as much as it was the Avs taking their foot off the gas.

The Flyers backed their way into two quick goals as the Avs stopped committing to team defense, and left Annunen out to dry. Now, it’s not to say the rookie netminder isn’t at fault at all.

He definitely had a “welcome to the NHL” moment on the second goal, where it looked like the game was moving just a bit faster than he was used to. Other than that though, I thought he did his part in the first.

When the dust settled, the score was 4-3 after one and neither team was feeling particularly great about how they were playing.

In the spirit of being positive, I thought the Avs did a good job of settling things down in the second. Valeri Nichushkin picked up a rebound in the slot and buried it to restore the multi-goal lead, and the Avalanche did a good job of helping out their goaltender. After a seven-goal first period, Val would have the only tally of the middle frame, and that’s exactly what the Avs needed.

Similar to their win in Montreal last week, the Avs needed to play some boring hockey. Throw some cold water on the whole situation and settle into a rhythm.

That lasted all of 20 minutes.

The third period was more of what we saw in the first. Trading chances, making bad reads, flying the zone *way* too early, they just seemed content to try and out-score their problems.

I suppose they technically did, and at the end of the day, the win is what matters. Despite picking up the two points, however, head coach Jared Bednar was outwardly not pleased with certain areas of his team’s performance after the game.

“I think our team has a real good idea on what we have to do to have success long-term,” Bednar said. “It just doesn’t seem like we’re following through on it for 60 minutes.”

A win is a win, but you have to like the fact that this coaching staff isn’t pleased with mediocrity.

Cale Makar also pointed out that this type of play won’t get it done in the playoffs. You can maybe get away with it for a game, but you aren’t winning a cup by just being the more skilled team.

Thankfully, this isn’t the playoffs and they took care of business tonight. I don’t know if Avalanche teams even as recently as the last couple of seasons would’ve had a problem with tonight’s game. In my opinion, it’s a sign that they’re maturing as a group.

So, with one game to go on this five-game trip, the Colorado Avalanche sits at 2-1-1, which really isn’t bad considering their #1 goalie got dinged up during morning skate ahead of their first game, but it feels like it could be better. Especially when you factor in the fact that we haven’t seen them play to the peak of their ability yet during the east-coast swing.

The last game of a long road trip is traditionally the hardest to win, and the task is already tall as they head into New York (I’m writing this on the train, heading there from Philly myself) to play a Rangers team that has been red hot to start the season.

We’ll see what Jared Bednar can get out of this group. We’ll see what this group is able to get out of themselves. A win in the Big Apple to round this out would be impressive and would go a long way in making this five-game stretch feel like a success.