Kadri's heroics lead Avs to emotional Game 4 win

You know, there was so much drama and so many story lines ahead Game 4 between the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues, that you almost forgot that the two teams would eventually have to play the game instead of everyone just talking about it. 

I probably don’t need to fill you in on the noise surrounding this game, it’s been basically the only thing the hockey world has talked about for a good 48 hours now, but let’s be honest here… this game was always going to be about Nazem Kadri. Regardless of what happened on the ice, we all knew the story would come back to Kadri. 

As always, we’re gonna get to the game. It was another systematic clinic from the Avalanche en route to a 6-3 win (and now a 3-1 lead in the series), but similarly to Game 3, we have to talk about the biggest story of the night first. 

I’m sitting here in my hotel room, trying to find the words for what we witnessed from Kadri tonight. It was something that went beyond this one game.

I have played hockey for right about 26 years, and I’ve been watching hockey for even longer. For as long as I can remember, the game of hockey has always been my true passion. During summer breaks, I would spend five or six days a week, 10-12 hours a day at a local rink that was (somewhat) near my house, and when I’d leave I would go home and watch tapes of games, old documentaries, and the worst quality of footage you could imagine in the early days of YouTube. 

I have been a part of the hockey community for quite literally my entire life, and it’s a community I love so much. It means the world to me. 

It makes me so upset when I see people refer to hockey culture as “toxic” or anything in that vein because I truly believe the hockey community to be some of the best, kindest, and most genuine people on this planet. Some of the most influential people in my life are hockey people, and I would say that about 90% of the people that I keep close to me are hockey people. 

I’m telling you all of this stuff that has nothing to do with the Avs, these playoffs, or this game, because all of that is why everything that unfolded over the last 48 hours made me sick. 

It made me sick to see people take something that happened within the confines of a game, and turn it into something that, not only has no place in hockey… there’s no place in the world for it. 

What Nazem Kadri had to go through, nobody should have to go through. Racist slurs and death threats… it made me sick to my stomach. I hated that people who claim to be a part of this amazing community that has given me more in life than I ever could have imagined, chose to behave like that. 

Everybody would have fully understood had Kadri looked distracted, if he couldn’t focus on playing. I mean, who could? The police literally had to be standing amongst the fans around the Avalanche tunnel as the team came out of the locker room for warmups.

Not only was he not distracted, it was possibly the best game I’ve ever seen Nazem Kadri play,  scoring a hat trick and adding an assist in one of the most hostile environments you can imagine, and holy smokes did he show just how mentally tough he is. Perhaps my favorite part of it all though, was the way Kadri handled himself after the game. 

Confident, yet measured. Emotional, yet grounded.

“I know what was said isn’t a reflection on every single fan in St. Louis,” Kadri said after the game. “I understand that and I want to make that clear. But for those who waste their time sending messages like that, you know, I feel sorry for them.”

Talk about taking the high-road. Kadri could have gotten up there and dunked on every single person that made him a villain, but instead he took his time at the mic to let people know that he isn’t going to paint with the same broad brush that they did for him. 

When asked about what it says, not just for him but everyone who may be in a similar situation as he was the last two days, that he was able to block all of that out and put on an unbelievable performance in a huge game, Kadri again had all the right words.

“It’s a good message I think, people need to be aware that stuff still happens and it’s hurtful,” he said. “I know a lot of people don’t have to deal with that, and they might not understand what it feels like, but people are trying. Which I appreciate. At the end of the day, I’m a good hockey player and I just try to provide for my team and put all of that aside. I just worry about some people, some kids that aren’t as mentally tough as I am, and you have to go through that scrutiny and criticism, and that’s why I want to do the best I can to help.”

We’ll have plenty more time to talk about Kadri, and I’ll keep coming back to him in this piece, but I couldn’t be more impressed with who he has shown himself to be, and the way he carried himself tonight was something truly to be admired.

Let’s get into the game. 

There was a good energy in the building as the game got started, really felt like an intense playoff atmosphere. Both teams looked like they had their legs off the opening puck drop, there was a good pace and plenty of physical play.

After just a few shifts though, it really looked like the Avs’ depth and speed was starting to tilt the ice in their favor. They were throwing shots on from everywhere, quality shots at that. Plenty of high-danger looks, while really giving the Blues very little to look at going the other way.

It was the exact start you wanted to see if you were Jared Bednar, but right when you thought the Avalanche were about to take over it was David Perron, who has been massive for the Blues during these Stanley Cup Playoffs and in this series, who found himself all alone on the back door to give the Blues a 1-0 lead. 

This was the first big task of the night for the Avs. They had fully controlled the first five minutes, yet they suddenly found themselves trailing, and the building alive. How would they respond?

They responded by not changing a single thing. 

The puck dropped after the goal, and the Avalanche just went right back to work. Crisp passes, winning races and board battles, putting quality shots on net from everywhere. They would not be deterred. 

Give a ton of credit to Blues goaltender Ville Husso, he was outstanding in the first, and was the only reason his team took a 1-0 lead to the dressing room after one. 

I know I’ve talked a lot recently about Colorado’s ability to stay even-keeled in situations like this, but this period stuck out to me. There was every reason for the Avs to start gripping the sticks a little tighter, try to force passes and shots in areas where there weren’t lanes, you know, like we’ve seen them do in years past. 

Again though, they just wouldn’t do that. 

“We didn’t get phased,” Avs defenseman Erik Johnson said postgame. “We knew that if we stuck to our game, we were capable of playing that way and we stuck with it.”

Well they certainly did stick with it, and they were rewarded big time over the course of four minutes and 53 seconds. 

The Avalanche came out flying to start the second, picking up right where they left off. You could see that St. Louis was bending, and the only reason they hadn’t broken yet was because of Husso, but it was clear to everyone in the building that things could not go on much longer like this for the Blues. 

Sure enough, just before the three-minute mark of the period Erik Johnson made a brilliant play to walk the the blue line, found a shooting lane and ripped one past Husso. The Avs were off and running, and the flood gates were about to burst open. 

That goal just reiterated to the Avalanche bench that they just needed to keep pressing, keep doing what they were doing. As much as they were already controlling play, they ramped it up even further, St. Louis was officially on their heels. 

Less than 90 seconds after Johnson got the Avs going, Nazem Kadri put his first stamp on this game by beating Husso on the short side off an odd-man rush. You want to talk about taking the air out of a building? The Enterprise Center went from playoff atmosphere to DMV atmosphere in about 5 seconds flat after that puck hit the net. 

It was a one-goal lead early in the second, but you could see that the Avs were starting to run downhill, and you didn’t get the sense the Blues were going to be able to stop them. 

Sure enough, 22 seconds later Devon Toews decided to get in on the action after a great sequence from Gabe Landeskog to outwork three Blues in front of Husso, the puck found Toews’ stick and it was in the back of the net before Husso could track it. 

The building was stunned. Their team went from a 1-0 lead, to a two-goal deficit in the blink of an eye. I remember looking down from the press box and seeing people still returning to their seats from the intermission after the Toews goal and you could tell they couldn’t believe their eyes. 

What happened next was maybe the weirdest decision-making I’ve ever seen from a team that absolutely has to win a playoff game. Just moments after Toews stretched the lead to 3-1, Nazem Kadri was going for a line change at the end of a shift, and he was suddenly met by both David Perron and Pavel Buchnevich who took turns getting in cross checks and hits in the back. Kadri didn’t respond or retaliate, what did happen was the Avs finding themselves on a full two minute 5-on-3.

This was the game. Right here. Score, and they’re done. Don’t score, and you give them life. 

The first power play unit had a couple looks, but credit St. Louis, they played a really structured PK, they had active sticks and got in lanes. With time expiring on the 2-man advantage, the Avs rotated their on-ice personnel to get some fresh legs and just seconds after the penalties expired, and the crowd started to roar to life, it was none other than Nazem Kadri again who just put sucked the life out of the building. 

A phenomenal cross ice feed from Bowen Byram was slammed home by the wide open Kadri. Not technically a power play goal, but it had all the same effects as one. 

You could feel it. That was the game. Four goals in 4:53 to give the Avalanche a three-goal lead, and they had absolutely dominated at 5-on-5. Things were going o have to drastically change for the Blues to legitimately get back in this one. 

The Avs got in some penalty trouble late in the period, and gave away a couple goals while shorthanded to draw the score back to a one-goal difference. Still though, there was a calmness to them. It had been a period dominated by them, and even though the score wasn’t maybe what they’d have liked it to be, it was the same mentality as the first intermission… keep doing the same things, and we’ll be ok.

The third period was a defensive clinic, just like we saw in Game 3. The Blues couldn’t get pucks to the net, they were starting to press in a desperate way, and when you do that typically things have a way of going wrong. 

Before the Blues could get their second shot on net of the period, Nazem Kadri put the cherry on top of an incredible night for him. Val Nichushkin dug a puck out of the corner and threw it out front, where Kadri essentially boxed out teammate Mikko Rantanen to punch home his third of the night. You could tell he wanted it. 

Seven hats came out of the crowd, with Kadri miming like he was throwing one as well, and the home crowd was headed for the exits. 

A late power play gave the Blues a look or two, and Kuemper had to be sharp, but the only other goal in this one was a Mikko Rantanen empty netter with 1.1 seconds remaining.

It was a great night for Kadri and the organization, as they now head back to Denver with a chance to punch their ticket to the Western Conference Finals. The fourth win is the hardest to get, so Wednesday should be a great one. 

We’ll depart St. Louis with Kadri’s thoughts on those who showed their ugliest colors the last 48 hours:

“For those who hate, that was for them.”