Stifling defense again powers Avalanche to shutout victory

So, here’s the deal.

The Avs just played their third straight game that looked exactly the same but with a little variety in the results. They’ve progressively gotten a little better as they went from losing in regulation to the Coyotes, then beating them in overtime, to beating the Los Angeles Kings tonight in regulation.

The 2-0 win was Philipp Grubauer’s fourth shutout of the season, establishing a new career-high for him, as he was tasked with stopping just 18 shots. There were a couple of Kings breakaways in there and one point-blank chance on the PK in the final four minutes of the game, but beyond that simply wasn’t tested much.

That’s because the Avs, for the third straight game, kicked the ass of their opponent all up and down the ice. While Colorado’s offense continued to be ice cold, scoring just one goal against Cal Petersen tonight before adding the easiest empty-net goal you’ll ever see, their smothering defense just kept humming along.

Tonight was the 15th straight game the Avs have held their opponent under 30 shots on goal, a new franchise record that was previously held by the 2001 Stanley Cup-winning team that featured Adam Foote alongside Hall of Famers Rob Blake and Ray Bourque.

The Avs have outshot their opponents 127-46 in the last three games but have only outscored their opponents 6-4 in that time. Of note is that all four goals against were actually last touched by Avalanche players.

Grubauer isn’t getting beat cleanly and the Avs are giving up very, very little chances of consequence. Despite the offensive struggles, Colorado moves to 4-1-1 since their disastrous loss in San Jose and, was this an 82-game season, would be on a 104-point pace right now.

While that’s slightly down from the 107-point pace they finished last regular season at, it’s certainly good enough to make one think that the struggles they’re having are meaningful but maybe not quite the doomsday forbearance some have made them out to be.

Put in the best way possible, we turn to Twitter.

https://twitter.com/mxstephx/status/1370596986446098437

That’s more or less how I feel after tonight’s third straight dominant performance. The variance of “lucky breaks” wasn’t comically tilted against Colorado tonight and they walked out with a shutout victory.

This level of play will level off any game now as this level of dominance over NHL teams is something that usually only happens a handful of times per season, not multiple times in the same week. In fact, per NHL PR, this two-game stretch for the Avs is the first time a club has outshot its opponents by more than a combined 60 shots on goal since the 1991 Boston Bruins did it.

I understand people are going to continue being frustrated by the lack of, you know, actual goals, but this level of shot dominance is the kind of thing that just does not happen very often. As the Avs have won two in a row, we’re acknowledging the negatives while focusing on the positives.

We’ll probably look back on this weird stretch with AHL call-ups and laugh about what a strange set of games this ended up being. For now, the wins help the Avs keep pace in a suddenly jam-packed West Division.

TAKEAWAYS

• Lots of talk postgame from Avalanche players about keeping to it and believing in their ability to breakthrough. The messaging all sounds positive and Jared Bednar certainly didn’t sound like a guy who had many nitpicks of his club’s game tonight. Sometimes I think it’s easier to get frustrated and/or discouraged when you’re doing the right things and not getting rewarded as opposed to playing poorly and getting poor results. Few things in life are more frustrating than putting in an honest effort and getting slapped down. The Avs are staying positive and if they keep banging on that door, eventually they’ll just rip it off its hinges and storm the gates. That’s a lot of mixed metaphors and I apologize.
• Grubauer joked during his postgame presser that just because he’s not seeing consistent shots on goal doesn’t mean he can pop out an umbrella and kick his feet up and enjoy the view of the ice while he waits. I joked during the game that he was chasing pucks down in the corners just to feel alive. I know goalies have to stay mentally sharp at all times but that guy has to be fending off some level of boredom when nothing happens for long stretches. He’s done a good job of keeping a competitive attitude because he stopped two breakaways in the third period against Arizona and another one tonight.
• Nathan MacKinnon got rewarded with the freebie at the end of the game when Mikko Rantanen made a great play to chip the puck past Drew Doughty and create the two-on-zero break. Rantanen, who scored his 13th goal of the season earlier in the game, gave the puck to MacKinnon to bang home, just his sixth of the season. It’s been a tough year shooting for MacKinnon and maybe the freebie from Rantanen gets his confidence going just enough to start sledding downhill like he has the last several years.
• Devon Toews is really, really damn good and he was good again tonight. He got beat wide by Austin Wagner right at the end of a Kings PP and that’s something you almost never see against a skater as good as Toews. It’s truly a testament to what a blazer Wagner is, who looks like the heir apparent to Michael Grabner’s Cy Young throne.
• During this stretch where Cale Makar has been out, anecdotally it has felt like Toews and Sam Girard have alternated excellent games and with Toews just having a good game, it was G’s turn to dominate. Uh, mission accomplished. The Avs had a shot attempt advantage of 36-6 (!!!!!!) at 5v5 with Girard on the ice. Actual shots on goal were 23-3 (!!!!!!). Girard’s expected goals for/against tonight was 2.19-.14, a cool 94% advantage. I don’t know what the highest disparity is for a player in this very new statistic but that’s the highest I ever recall seeing it (and appropriate it’s 94 in Girard’s favor, as that was his number in juniors).