More Nazem Kadri late-game heroics save Avalanche in regulation

In an 82-game season with a normal schedule, there isn’t very much you could do to paint the 13th game of the season as particularly important. You’d still have about 85% of the regular season remaining and most likely would see that team again down the road, especially a division rival.

Maybe you’ve noticed but we’re not in a normal world.

And in this abnormal world, the 13th game on Colorado’s schedule ended up being sneaky important.

Missing half of their preferred defense (Sam Girard, Cale Makar, Erik Johnson) and their top left wing and captain (Gabe Landeskog), the Avs had to take on the West Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights in the second game of their four-game series.

With a schedule built around playing each division opponent eight times, teams are going to see a ton of each other this year. But this mattered a little more. The Golden Knights are off to a blistering start and came into tonight’s game with a hearty six-point advantage on the Avs with just one extra game played.

A loss tonight and Colorado would have fallen eight points back. Granted, this was only Colorado’s 13th game of the season but making up eight points on a team as good as Vegas with only six games against each other remaining (and there is no expectation the Avs would win all six, of course) meant this was an important game for the Avs to stay close.

Factoring in the injury questions for each team, this was a chance for Vegas to really put Colorado on the backfoot early in the season. They had scraped out a 1-0 win over the Avs two days ago as both teams had major pieces missing from the lineup and were either fighting rust (Colorado) or fatigue (Vegas).

The outcome was a scrappy game decided by one bad line change by the Avs, a razor-thin margin that could’ve gone either way.

By now, you get what I’m saying. Tonight was important.

It makes it all the more impressive that the Avs stole two points tonight as Nazem Kadri’s goal with 39 seconds to go in the third period lifted Colorado to a 3-2 regulation win.

No splitting points, no moral victories, no nonsense. After two games and still dealing with injuries to major players, Colorado evened the series. They now sit four points back and leave Vegas with a split as they head to Lake Tahoe for an outdoor game in Nevada that somehow counts as a home game for the Avs.

While anything can happen at an outdoor game, the Avs are expecting to get Landeskog, Makar and Tyson Jost back into the lineup. Those reinforcements should only tilt what has been a very even series so far ever so slightly into Colorado’s favor.

In winning the second game, Colorado’s stars stepped up and answered the call. Nathan MacKinnon scored his first goal since January 21. Brandon Saad and Kadri added goals to power the second line. Philipp Grubauer allowed just two goals on 29 shots on goal. He’s only given up five goals in his last five starts.

Going back before their shutdown, Colorado is 5-1-1 in their last seven games. With good health hopefully on the way for the Avs, now the real litmus tests can begin for these two Cup contenders.

TAKEAWAYS

• Devon Toews, blah blah blah, top pairing, great acquisition, perfect fit, yadda yadda yadda. But Bowen Byram? At age 19? Playing 25 minutes against Vegas? In his 10th game in the NHL? I tried to temper expectations for Byram coming into this year and make the point that Cale Makar was an exception to the norms of rookie defensemen but Byram just continues to show out. Even on a night where he kind of got kicked in the teeth in the analytics, you have to love that he’s even hanging tough against the quality of competition he’s facing. Vegas is no bottom-feeder and he just chewed up 50 minutes of ice time against them without the protections of the uber-talented Avs’ regulars around him. Defensively, he continues to find growth in his game and while his offense has been a little hit or miss so far, he’s still making plays with the puck (see: the game-winning goal by Kadri)
• Just again pointing out that Grubauer has been excellent so far. It wasn’t too early for people to start pushing Makar for Norris so we might as well acknowledge that right now Grubauer is 100% a Vezina candidate. 13 games in that doesn’t mean a lot but if this keeps up, he’s going to throw a major monkey wrench into Colorado’s upcoming cap crunch.
• It’s interesting to watch Ryan Graves and Conor Timmins play their way through various struggles. They’re very similar in that both guys are high-IQ players with footspeed problems that would seem to present very real limitations. Despite those similarities, it feels like their struggles have been entirely different. To his credit, Graves at least ended up on the right end of the analytics tonight (I expect Evan’s grade will reflect more of what they eyes said, however…). With no real replacement options, Jared Bednar just has to keep rolling with what they will provide. They each are deserving of decent-sized leashes, though for different reasons. Graves proved last year he can hang in the NHL, he simply has to find a groove not playing alongside Makar. Timmins is a rookie with under 100 pro games in his career; he’s still very green and learning on the fly. These are two guys who should be role players on Colorado’s defense but injuries have forced them over 20 minutes a night, shining a big, bright light on their deficiencies. I would say: Let’s not forget these guys do some good things every game, too, and not just focus on their struggles. They’re in the NHL for a reason.
• Logan O’Connor hit his ceiling hard. Evan made a great point on tonight’s postgame podcast: When your game is built around going 1,000 MPH, you can’t play 13 minutes per night. Jost and Landeskog coming back should help him slide back into a role better suited for his game.
• Andre Burakovsky needs to finish some scoring chances. They’re there for the taking. Bury a few, Burky.