New faces lift Avalanche to unfamiliar places

This had all the red flags of a classic let down game for the Avalanche.

Coming off an improbable two wins over the weekend against good teams battling for playoff positions, Colorado rolled into Detroit, which somehow has already been mathematically eliminated for almost two weeks.

This is a Red Wings team so bad in every facet that they’re threatening to make the ’16-17 Avalanche look downright decent at times. Detroit is the worst non-expansion team the NHL has seen in its modern history.

Colorado rolled in on a six-game winning streak with eight straight wins on the road. They are battling for first place in the west with the St. Louis Blues. The Avs absolutely needed a win tonight.

Led behind three guys who weren’t Avs a little over a week ago, Colorado got the win it needed although the 2-1 score suggests it wasn’t quite the walkaway victory the Avs might have preferred.

No, instead it followed much more like the first matchup between these two teams as Anthony Mantha got Detroit on the board early when he beat a swimming Michael Hutchinson for what would be their only goal of the game.

Things didn’t look promising for Hutchinson as he was sliding around looking as shaky as possible in stopping just three of the four shots he had to face in the opening frame.

He got better from there but more on him later.

It was the other trade deadline acquisition, Vladislav Namestnikov, who tied the game late in the first as he outmuscled two Red Wings for a rebound sitting in the crease behind Jonathan Bernier. Namestnikov kicked the puck to his blade and slammed it home to tie the game.

A 1-1 tie after one where the Avs outshot Detroit 14-4 seemed like a positive sign of things to come. Instead, the game downshifted into extremely low-event hockey and the final shot count ended up 27-18.

The difference in the game came when Logan O’Connor, the third musketeer who wasn’t on the Avs until recently, broke behind the apathetic Detroit defense and beat Bernier with a quick wrist shot.

It was the result of a gorgeous all-around play and was basically the last fun highlight of this putrid hockey game.

If you were trying to sell hockey to a newcomer of the sport, this was not the game to show them. Wherever Drew Creasman is down in Arizona covering the Rockies at Spring Training, I hope he found something better to do than watch this slog of a game.

But in the end, aesthetics are just for the warm fuzzies inside. All that matters is getting the two points and the Avs did just that, sweeping Detroit and getting them one closer to replacing Colorado as the team to beat in the “worst teams in recent history” race.

That Detroit team is terrible so let’s all root for them to go all the way and finish well under the 48-point barrier required to keep the Avs in last.

For Colorado, the win means a perfect 3-0 road trip, a seven-game winning streak, franchise-record nine-straight wins on the road (also tying a league-high this year), and they move just one point behind the Blues now with one game in hand. They also move six points ahead of Dallas and are now even in games played.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• I’ve been lighter on the criticism of special teams than most because I think it’s a complicated issue and the injuries are REALLY driving a stake through the confidence of those units. BUT. Holy smokes was that unit absolutely awful tonight. With a chance in the third period to essentially sink Detroit with a man advantage, the Avs barely registered any pressure despite having the puck inside Detroit’s zone for most of the two minutes. Girard and Landeskog passing the puck back and forth up high because neither guy wants to shoot knowing they aren’t likely to accomplish what they want with it was the pinnacle of the confidence problem. MacKinnon trying to forcefeed pucks into the center of the ice is causing more problems than it is solving and I’d rather just see MacKinnon tee it up and go bombs away all the time instead. Put it on your best player and if it still fails, it fails. All this cute stuff beyond that, it just isn’t working, especially missing Rantanen and Kadri off the top unit.
• The second Colorado goal…my goodness. Mark Barberio makes a great play in the corner and gets rocked. MacKinnon makes a nice play to Landeskog, Landeskog gets blown up and makes a perfect stretch pass to Logan O’Connor coming off the bench. Then O’Connor cashes in on the opportunity and it was curtains on a lethargic Detroit offense. That’s great team hockey, though, and a perfect example of the differences between this current Avs group and the absolutely awful Red Wings. You didn’t see a Detroit team that was out there playing for each other and despite a better-than-normal effort, the difference in the game was all teamwork and not individual skill. That’s hockey, baby.
• I’m not going to beat this horse much more but the Avs seriously need more than this from MacKinnon. I can’t see how he beats out Draisaitl for MVP at this point so no worries about the Hart but with the Avs dying for help, they are getting it from everywhere in their lineup but their superstar. It’s a testament to how solid this team is but MacKinnon’s little funk here can’t continue much longer.
• Michael Hutchinson was much-maligned after a poor showing in Toronto this season that saw them trade for Jack Campbell to replace him. Colorado was a fresh start for him and a chance to prove he still belongs to hang around the NHL conversation a bit. It was a rough start for him with the first goal against being pretty iffy but he responded quite well from there. His biggest save was easily shutting down a breakaway in the final five seconds of the second period that kept the game tied. He had a handful of nice saves in the third period, too, and certainly did well for himself in his Avalanche debut. The win made him the fifth (!) goaltender to record a victory this season.
• The production void from MacKinnon continues to quietly be filled by Gabe Landeskog, who now has points in five straight games. It’s not quite the same as peak MacKinnon but with so many injuries ravaging the forward corps, it’s been instrumental in this win streak staying intact.