Nathan MacKinnon drives the bus as the Avs hold off the St. Louis Blues

When a team goes 10-0-2 across their last 12 games, all while climbing the standings and eventually pulling dead even with the team that was leading everyone by several points, you expect that club to lose its edge at some point.

Against the St. Louis Blues, who are suddenly desperate for points after an injury-ravaged season has forced them into a position of trying to stave off feisty Arizona, among others, for the final playoff spot in the West, I thought the Avs might finally take their foot off the gas, ever so slightly.

When Colorado decided to give Philipp Grubauer the extra day off and roll with Jonas Johansson in the first of their back-to-back against the Blues, it gave the Blues the clear advantage in net as they rolled with Jordan Binnington.

And that’s where we saw Colorado flex in the main advantage they have in going into every game this regular season. They have Nathan MacKinnon and the other team does not.

Tonight, that was just good enough in Colorado’s 3-2 win over the Blues, pushing their point streak to 13 games and giving them sole possession of the West Division lead (Vegas, idle tonight, has a game in hand).

MacKinnon scored goals two and three for the Avalanche as the club got two goals on the power-play and Johansson stopped 25-of-27 shots for his second NHL win and first with the Avalanche. It’s also the first win recorded by an Avalanche goaltender not named Philipp Grubauer since their February 26 win over the Arizona Coyotes.

It was an odd game in that Colorado built a 3-2 lead after two periods but the game was still relatively even and then the Avs kicked it up a notch. Nursing a one-goal lead, it was time for the Avs to go into the traditional shell where teams play safe and keep teams from generating high-quality scoring chances. Right?

Not quite! Instead of turtling, the Avs did…this…

Both goaltenders made every save of the period and the score didn’t move at all despite some late intrusion from the officials, who had previously let a lot of questionable stuff go before those final few minutes.

Each team got a penalty, though, much to the anger of David Perron, who clearly tripped Nazem Kadri with his body and proceeded to scream at the officials for the rest of the game and then call it “embarrassing” in his postgame presser.

You can understand the desperation from the Blues as by the end of NHL action tonight, they had fallen out of a playoff spot as the Coyotes moved one point ahead of them (the Blues have a .001 advantage in points percentage and one game in hand so it’s just for show right now, same as Colorado’s division lead) for the final playoff spot out west.

The uphill road the Blues faces doesn’t get any easier tomorrow as they likely will have to go against Grubauer in net and either run it back with Binnington, giving them a tired goalie behind a tired team, or hope Ville Husso’s sub-par season finds a bright spot tomorrow night.

Either way, the Avs have the clear advantage going into tomorrow’s contest and the Blues still have their schedule full of games against Colorado, Vegas, and Minnesota on the slate. They even have a couple against Arizona thrown in there, too, just for a fun playoff run. It was always going to be tough sledding for the Blues but this is quite the gauntlet they’re facing.

On the other side, Colorado just keeps humming along despite playing multiple AHL replacements every night. Tonight, Liam O’Brien and Kiefer Sherwood got opportunities to show their worth and based on the end results didn’t do anything to embarrass themselves.

The Blues are battle-tested, however, and a proud team that understands how quickly fortunes can change in this league. One bounce, one hit, one moment can flip a season on its head. That’s what Colorado has to guard against and what the Blues are looking for tomorrow night.

On this night, however, is was more of the same from Colorado. They got the scoring they needed, their goaltending stood tall when asked, and they tired the other team out by forcing them to defend the final 20 minutes.

Eventually this run will hit a wall of some kind, but that day wasn’t today.

TAKEAWAYS

• I’m not even sure what to say anymore. This Avs team is really good and they’re playing fantastic hockey. They haven’t lost in regulation since March 8. They’ve been the better team in nearly every single game during this streak. They aren’t here out of an abundance of luck or good fortune. Surely those things have existed for them but Colorado’s process has remained immaculate, among the best the NHL has seen in a long time. This stretch of six games against the Blues will be very telling. St. Louis is consistently held up as the example of the “style” the Avs can’t beat, can’t adjust to, can’t attack, can’t find their way around. Whenever people express doubt about their ability to make a Cup run, it’s either the Blues or a “similar style” that stands as the theoretical road block. The Avs have solved the riddles thrown at them by the various low-scoring, grinding styles in the division except the Blues. While they’re 2-1 on the season series now, the first two games came just under three months ago when the season began. They aren’t particularly meaningful now. These next five games, though? They will go a long towards determining not only how the Blues do in their playoff hunt but also in seeing just how ready Colorado is for the war that will be the postseason. The Blues are a meaningful measuring stick for the Avs. Let’s see how they do.
• A lot has been written recently about MacKinnon being a touch quieter this year but it’s clear he’s awake now. He’s rolling. His goal-scoring hasn’t been on the same level as previous years but coming into tonight’s game, he was on pace for a 79-assist season. Not too bad for a guy who people think is “off his game” or something. MacKinnon is torching teams on a regular basis again and has been for a few weeks. He won’t likely climb back into the Hart conversation but if he keeps scoring around 1.5 points per game, he could force himself into some kind of consideration (though he will most definitely be once again dinged for his team being too good around him).
• Big win for Johansson and the Avs, to be honest. Reports out of Europe today suggested Pavel Francouz’s season is over. If that’s accurate, nothing really changes for Colorado right now. They only need a backup goaltender to play maybe four or five games during the rest of the year. If Grubauer gets hurt, the Avs cannot rely on Johansson as their guy. They would have to do something in that case. The trade deadline is now just nine days away. It’s time to address that position. Until that happens, however, everyone involved needed this, from Johansson to Jared Bednar to Joe Sakic himself. They all needed a backup goaltender to win a game for them. They rolled the dice giving Grubauer the night off and forcing the Blues into a bad spot of either starting Binnington again or turning to Husso. The gamble paid off for the Avs and now they can practice their power poses in front of the mirror. Johansson gave up the first goal on the first shot against again but settled in immediately and made a huge stop on a Mike Hoffman breakaway. With that save, his comfort level seemed to grow from there. Almost no real jumpy moments from him during the PK in the final five minutes. That win should be huge for his confidence.
• Devon Toews and Sam Girard make up the NHL’s best defensive pairing right now. Not a single pairing from any other team can hang with these guys right now. Even on nights when they aren’t putting it all together, like Girard tonight, they absolutely dominate at even strength. These are supposed to be the guys who get run over by the big, bad scary Blues and together went 16 CF, 6 CA. If St. Louis can’t bully these guys, their reign of terror is done and it’s a new age of Avalanche dominance. I think we should prepare for that as the reality very soon. This defense is suffocating, even with the occasional leak. These two guys are a huge reason why.
• If Dan Renouf is healthy, it’s time for that experiment to end. The only real pockmark from tonight is Colorado going hard on their top D on the first night of a back-to-back. Renouf at just four minutes of TOI is not okay on night one. If you don’t trust him that much, then bring up someone you do. Conor Timmins back to healthy, just bring him back and let his development continue. Even Jacob MacDonald at 12 minutes is just too much of a disparity. Especially when you consider how much Cale Makar and Girard skate each night, the Avs rolling them this hard on night one sets up for some potential problems tomorrow. It may be totally fine but if you see tired mistakes from these guys late in tomorrow night’s game, their usage tonight will be a legit factor.