LOC caps off Avalanche comeback win in return to action

Man oh man it feels so good to be back doing this. I hate these pauses. I hate them so much. Forget the reason why, whether it’s for COVID, Olympics, the All-Star Game, hell, even the offseason. I hate them all. Hockey has been my life for literally as long as I can remember, and being someone who grew up in Colorado, watching the Avalanche has always been just what I do.

Any time I can’t do that, I just feel lost. I know that’s very dramatic sounding, but it’s true. Then you compound that with the fact that there was NO hockey at all for much of the multi-week pause, and I was going through some serious at-the-rink withdrawals.

Sixteen. Sixteen days between the last Colorado Avalanche game and their Sunday matinee at Ball Arena against the Anaheim Ducks.

The 16-day break was the fourth longest in-season pause in franchise history, and with that came the expectation of some rusty play now that they were finally getting back into game action. 

Uh.. let’s just say, expectations were met. The Avs have always seemed to struggle in their first game back following the Christmas break. In fact, coming into this game, the club hadn’t won their first game after Santa comes to visit since they beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 on December 26, 2009. Well, that streak has finally come to an end, as the Avs beat the Ducks in thrilling fashion 4-2. 

Heading into this game, there were plenty of reasons for optimism. You see, they weren’t jumping straight into things after several days off completely. 

The Avalanche had completed six full practices leading up to today, meaning their conditioning should be good, their systems should be tight, and they had as close to a full lineup as we’ve seen all season.

The first period though was a great reminder of just how good this league and its players are, and the pace of gameplay is on a different level.

The effort was there early on for Colorado, but you could tell that they were having to readjust to how quickly the Ducks were closing gaps, and getting to loose pucks. They had their legs, but boy oh boy was it some sloppy hockey.

Twice, the Avalanche sprung Anaheim for partial breakaways by purely just mishandling the puck, or throwing a “pass” to an area that had no support. Thankfully, Avs goaltender Darcy Kuemper looked like he was fully engaged after the break. It wasn’t until the Ducks got a third whack at a rebound, following a turnover, that they were finally able to take advantage of Colorado’s messy opening period.

All in all, if you’re head coach Jared Bednar, coming out of the first down only 1-0, to a Ducks team that is having somewhat of a Cinderella season so far, was as good as you could ask for out of a team that had gone as long as his had without paying an actual game.

So, it was a sloppy, low-energy first period. Then the Avs started to find their groove.

After falling behind 2-0 early in the second period, the Avalanche turned their game up a level. While they didn’t look perfect, their play was noticeably cleaner, passes were crisper, they were getting more pucks on net, and forcing Gibson to make quality saves.

Devon Toews finally broke the ice for Colorado, scoring his fifth of the season with a laser from the blue line that just flat out beat the Anaheim netminder. The crowd came alive and starting with the next drop of the puck, there was another noticeable gear change for the burgundy and blue.

They couldn’t find the equalizer in the second, but they seemed to be building momentum on every shift, and it eventually carried over to the third and led to Gabe Landeskog punching home the rebound of a Nathan MacKinnon one-timer to tie the game.

After clawing back from a 2-0 deficit to even things up, and still trying to shake a considerable amount of rust, the Avs found themselves a very winnable game with more than 15 minutes left.

The bulk of the third period saw the two teams going back and forth, with neither team really seizing control of play. With just over a minute to go, however, it was none other than Logan O’Connor who buried a beautiful short-side one-timer off of a Nathan MacKinnon pass with just north of 70 seconds remaining to complete the comeback.

It was far from perfect, and there will absolutely some things that Jared Bednar will focus on in film sessions and in practice, but overall, that’s a great win for this team.

Finding ways to win on nights when you don’t have your best game is a telltale sign of a truly elite, mature team. Not once did they look rattled, the game never really felt in doubt despite the multi-goal deficit, and even though their play was a little sloppy at times, they never seemed to be running around.

Lots to build on here if you’re the Avs, and they’ll need to. While you’re thrilled with the win if you’re the Avalanche, you have to acknowledge that the details of your game need to be much much cleaner than they were tonight. 

This rest of this week, Colorado will play the Chicago Blackhawks, Winnipeg Jets, and will get their first crack at the Toronto Maple Leafs since the Avs’ disastrous loss in Toronto at the start of December.