MacKinnon activates superstar mode in leading Avs to victory

When you go on the road and have a virtual no-show against a division rival whom you’re competing for a playoff spot with, it’s hard to have any kind of response that makes you feel like it was just one game. That’s especially true when that road game costs you your captain, third-leading scorer, and most versatile two-way forward.

And yet in the Avalanche’s first game without Gabriel Landeskog, they completely shut down the visiting Buffalo Sabres. With the game still in question halfway through the third period, the Avalanche had given up just eight shots on goal. They ended up giving up just 18 all game as Philipp Grubauer recorded his second shutout of the season in a 3-0 win.

“It was nice,” Nathan MacKinnon said of their defensive effort. “They didn’t have their best game obviously but we did a really good job of being committed. We wanted a really good start, everyone was ready to go. It was good, yeah. We had a good defensive start. They didn’t have many shots and it was kind of a tight game early, but we managed to get a couple.”

MacKinnon starred yet again as the absence of Landeskog forced the lines to get mixed up again and head coach Jared Bednar found the right combination on that top line as Derick Brassard and J.T. Compher joined MacKinnon in a dominant effort. MacKinnon got the scoring off to a start early in the second period when he intercepted a pass, took a cross-check in the back from Jack Eichel, got up and danced Rasmus Dahlin before beating Carter Hutton glove-side with a wrister, his 35th goal of the season.

“Dahlin kind of let up when I was on my knees,” MacKinnon said. “I don’t know what he thought I was going to do with it but it was nice to get around him. The scouting report said high glove again so I just shot it there.”

This was the second time in three games MacKinnon referred to a scouting report saying high on the glove side was the weakness to look to exploit. The last one was against Detroit and former Avs goaltender Jonathan Bernier, who MacKinnon beat in that spot for the overtime winner against the Red Wings earlier in the week.

“When it’s there, I like to shoot there anyway,” MacKinnon said with a chuckle. “I enjoy it when I can and it’s a good option.”

The play was a turning point in the game as the clash of superstars was won by MacKinnon, who went against both of Buffalo’s best in Eichel and Dahlin, the stud defenseman selected first overall in last summer’s draft.

“I managed to get up a little bit. Like I said, [Dahlin] probably got caught by surprise a little bit,” MacKinnon said. “Usually, when guys are on their knees they’ll just throw [the puck] but I saw some separation and took advantage of it.”

While it was the first game for the Avs without Landeskog, it won’t be the last as he will be out for the rest of the regular season at the very least. Colorado has just 13 games remaining on their schedule.

“It’s just one game,” MacKinnon said. “We’re a better game with Landy, obviously, and that doesn’t need to be said but it’s good that everyone stepped up. The problem with that is we can’t forget he’s not in the lineup and we need to have the same effort to fill that void. We can’t fill that 35-goal scorer who was on pace for 80-plus points. That’s elite in this league to be a point-per-game player or above it. For him to go down is a huge loss for us.”

How the Avs mitigate that loss will be the key factor in determining if they manage to make the playoffs again this year. The win today put them two points behind Minnesota, who has also played 69 games, and three points behind Dallas, who has a less-nice 67 games played. For now, Colorado also jumped Arizona but the Coyotes play the LA Kings tonight, a game everyone in Colorado will be rooting for the Kings for a number of reasons.

It may just have been one game, but it was a hell of an effort. Colorado is going to need a lot more like it to get where they want to be.

Takeaways from the game

• Mikko Rantanen scored Colorado’s second goal of the game, giving him 30 on the season. It’s the second time in Avalanche history they have three 30-goal scorers. The first time came in the 1995-96 season when the Avs had four players hit the mark (Sakic, Forsberg, Lemieux, Kamensky).
• There were three empty-net opportunities in the first couple of periods. Carl Soderberg shut down Buffalo’s chance on their first PP with a stick lift and clear, Colin Wilson accidentally denied Tyson Barrie as they both fought for MacKinnon’s centering pass, and Zach Bogosian lifted a stick on another opportunity. It was mostly good defense involved that somehow saw three would-be goals not get scored.
• J.T. Compher is having a strong season overall but I’ve quite liked him lately. He was out there again flying around today and looking like a guy who belongs in this team’s top six next season.
• Since being traded to Pittsburgh and then Florida, Derick Brassard has largely been asked to be a complementary player. Even in his time in Colorado, he hasn’t been asked to be the main guy. Today, he got slotted next to MacKinnon and he responded by turning into a one-man firing squad. If that’s how he’s going to respond, he just might stick there for a few games.
• In fact, it took a very late flurry for the Sabres to outshoot the Brassard-MacKinnon-Compher line. The final total was 18 for Buffalo, 13 for the MacKinnon line. Yikes.
• Speaking of yikes, Rasmus Dahlin had one of those days where you’re reminded he’s still just a teenager. He’s had a very good rookie season and belongs in the Calder conversation but today he was on the other end of MacKinnon dismissing him for the game’s first goal.
• Philipp Grubauer obviously wasn’t called upon much in his 18-save shutout but his save on Sam Reinhart’s breakaway in the first period with the game still lacking a goal was huge. If Buffalo scores there, who knows how sideways this game ultimately goes. Instead, Grubauer shut the door and here we are.
• Speaking of Grubauer, it looks like the extended time off really did him some good. He looks refreshed and confident in net once again. He has given up just two goals on the 79 shots he’s faced in his last three starts. He has two shutouts in that time. The workload hasn’t been tremendous overall as he faced just 18 shots today and 23 in his last start but he’s very much trending in the right direction. Given the uncertainty of the goaltender position going into this summer, a strong finish to the season from Grubauer would go a long way to assuaging some of those fears.
• MacKinnon’s three-point afternoon moved him to 87 points on the season. It really goes to show what a special year he had last year that he’s still ten points behind that total but just five games from matching the 74 he played in last season. He could still catch that pace, of course, but looking at it really made me realize I might have taken last year’s performance for granted.
• It took 42 games but Gabriel Bourque got his first goal of the season. I’ve said a lot of negative things about his game this year but I’m genuinely happy for him. He’s a guy who works hard and maximizes his talent every day and seeing him get a little reward in a trying season for him is nice. He’s a good dude who deserves good things.
• Personally, I will be very curious to see if Jack Eichel faces any discipline from the league on his hit to the head of Carl Soderberg. Because Soderberg appeared totally fine, I’d be surprised if anything came of it but I agree with Bednar, who said postgame the hit was “all head.” I can understand officials missing the severity of it live but with slowed down looks, the league office would not be in the wrong to give Eichel’s hit a long look.