Nathan MacKinnon destroys Boston and 3 more takeaways from a comfortable Avalanche win

The Colorado Avalanche returned home from their brief two-game road trip and kept up their winning ways with a dominant 4-1 victory over the visiting Boston Bruins. It felt like a blowout much longer than the score would indicate as the Avs struggled to score, but the reality is that Boston’s high point in the game was when they scored the first goal and promptly got smoked the rest of the way.

This wasn’t a competitive game other than Colorado battling against their own ability to actually cash in on some chances, but there’s something to be said for a team not allowing a team getting waxed to hang around and steal two points from them.

The Avs moved to 5-0-1 to start the year with 11 of 12 points earned. It’s an excellent start not just for the team, but for this guy…

Nathan MacKinnon dominates again

Stop me if you’ve heard this before (don’t actually, this is my space), but Nathan MacKinnon is really special and when he’s on his game, the Avs are tough to slow down, let alone stop entirely. It was a slow start for Colorado, but after MacKinnon’s second goal of the game, the shots on goal read: Bruins 9, MacKinnon 8. Goals were also Bruins 1, MacKinnon 2 in that moment, so, you know, The Dogg was checked in and barking up a storm.

While the rest of the Avs lines were having solid games, the MacKinnon-led top line was completely dominating. At the time of MacKinnon’s second goal, shot attempts were 17-3 for that trio. There’s no other way to put it. Those kinds of numbers are video game numbers and exemplify what a freak of nature MacKinnon really is.

The final numbers for MacKinnon’s line were unbelievable. It was nearly a perfect performance, statistically, as they played only 10:31 as a line at 5v5 but this is what they did:

• Shot attempts: 22-3
• Shots on goal: 8-0
• Scoring chances: 13-0
• High-danger chances: 3-0
• Expected goals: 0.91-0

I normally don’t like citing expected goals for a line in a single game, but when the expected goals percentage finishes at 99.47%, I mean, come on. I have to mention that! I’ve never seen a line finish with that kind of number before and I’m the kind of hockey nerd who likes to browse line data for fun.

Missed opportunities almost hurt the Avs

Entering the second period with a 2-1 lead, the Avs turned the wick up and dominated puck possession through the middle frame. Here were the advantages the Avs put up in 13:33 of 5v5 time:

• Shot attempts: 32-10
• Shots on goal: 12-2
• Scoring chances: 13-3
• High-danger chances: 3-0

If there was one complaint you could have about Colorado’s offensive approach all night, it was that they were too comfortable taking the perimeter shots the Avs were throwing at Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman instead of trying to create higher-caliber scoring chances. With all of those shots and scoring chances in the second period, to only produce three high-danger chances is a touch disappointing, but this is really nitpicky given how lopsided those numbers are.

What really stood out as a problem, however, is (you guessed it!) the power play. The Avs received three power plays in the second period alone and in those six minutes, this is what they did:

• Shot attempts: 8-0
• Shots on goal: 4-0
• Scoring chances: 4-0
• High-danger chances: 2-0

In my opinion, I don’t have a huge problem with how they played with the man advantage. Scoring a goal is obviously, you know, the entire point, but the Avalanche process remained solid. MacKinnon’s “shootiness” made things a little tougher on them, not because he isn’t a dangerous goal-scorer (because obviously that isn’t the case), but because when he gets frustrated he gets a little less discerning with his shot selection and just starts lobbing pucks at the net and hoping for something good to happen.

If you compare that approach to his two goals, the first was a beautiful move on a breakaway that badly fooled Swayman and the second a no-brainer one-timer that rocketed past Swayman’s ear. I’m not even really complaining about MacKinnon’s approach; at some point, somebody has to shoot and Cale Makar can be a touch deferential at times and Martin Necas is always that way.

One thing I will say is that I didn’t love is that they moved Victor Olofsson into that shooter’s spot on the half-wall and then…promptly didn’t get a puck to him in a shooting position. He has a lethal one-timer; the Avs moved him there because of it, and didn’t utilize it. They did try to force a few pucks to Brock Nelson in the bumper position, which is smart because Nelson has been very good there in his career, but forcing it isn’t the answer. Take what’s given to you, guys!

Anyway, those missed chances felt like they might haunt the Avs because games go like this all the time where a team is getting run over but hang around and then a game-tying goal puts the team that had been playing on their toes stuck on playing on their heels. That’s hard momentum to reverse, but the early-period goal by MacKinnon in the third stemmed that tide.

Zakhar Bardakov’s debut

We here at DNVR spent a lot of time in the preseason talking about our growing hype about rookie Zakhar Bardakov and how good he looked in the games and not just in practice. Then the season began and Avs head coach Jared Bednar leaned into his comfort zone with Parker Kelly at the fourth-line center spot and left Bardakov a health scratch for the first five games.

After news broke earlier in the day of Joel Kiviranta‘s injury that will keep him out “indefinitely”, it was Bardakov’s time to get into the lineup.

Things started poorly as the first shift of his NHL career resulted in a defensive zone breakdown and the first goal of the game as the Bruins broke down the Avalanche’s defensive structure and Charlie McAvoy hit John Beecher on the backdoor for an easy, easy, easy tap-in goal for the offensively-challenged Beecher.

That wasn’t how Bednar wanted things to go early with his guy and you could see the reticence that caused in his willingness to put him over the boards again. Bardakov’s fourth-line linemates, Kelly and fellow rookie Gavin Brindley, each saw regular shifts and both had quality moments but Bardakov was getting skipped in the middle portion of the game as he took just two shifts in the second period.

Bednar gave a little more trust to Bardakov once the Avs made it 3-1 and there was some breathing room, but this wasn’t a good defensive performance from Bardakov and the fourth line. There are now two rookies on that line, so Bednar has to be willing to live with some growing pains, but Bardakov needs to do a bit more if he wants to force Colorado’s hand with the return of Logan O’Connor on the horizon (in the next month).

Good Josh Manson rocks

When you’re talking (or writing, in my case) about Josh Manson, the conversation frequently focuses on the variance in his game and the chaotic element he brings. On his good nights, he’s a physical presence who jumps into the play and creates havoc on offense and defense. On his bad nights, he takes too many penalties and gets beaten on defense, usually because he is being too aggressive.

Tonight was one of Manson’s good nights. The shot metrics were dominant but he also scored the game-winning goal with a bomb from the blue line. He’s never going to light up the scoresheet, but he isn’t a total nothing in the offensive zone, either, and he doesn’t have hesitation about letting shots fly when he has the chance. He finished this one with one goal on three shots but also added a blocked shot for good measure.

Manson also displayed some of the snarl he’s known for after Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov ran Avs goalie Scott Wedgewood in the third period. There was no hesitation from Zadorov and he absolutely knew what he was doing. After the post-whistle scrum ensued, you could see Manson giving Zadorov the “let’s handle this like hockey men” head shake, but there were already too many stripes in between them at that point.

You add all of that up, and this is why the Avs love Manson the way they do and why they value him so much. You have to live with some distinct negatives in his game, but when he’s on, he’s a real handful.