The Avalanche is winning easy - and not at all satisfied

How much is Erik Johnson loving life playing alongside Sam Girard right now?

“I hope I play with him the last five years of my contract,” Johnson said, after posting three assists in the Avalanche’s 5-2 win Saturday night over the Philadelphia Flyers in a fun, warp-speed game.

This is a tough story to write. There were a lot of very good performances in the Avs’ win, which moved them to 2-0-0 on this young season. Colin Wilson – Wilson! – scored two goals. Gabe Landeskog scored what proved the game-winning goal on a great tip. Semyon Varlamov made a brilliant save, along with 34 others. Johnson had the three apples.

But Sam Girard? Wow. The Avs have a player on their hands, folks.

Playing 22 minutes and 37 seconds – most of any defender – Girard was spectacular. He assisted on a J.T. Compher and was a plus-3. It was deeper than that, though. Girard made several great plays in getting pucks out of the zone in the midst of heavy, fast forechecking from a Flyers team that is no slouch up front. A slip pass here, a spin-o-rama there, Girard just gets the puck out so, so well. Frankly, Johnson has never played with a guy able to do that in his Avs career.

Now, Johnson can get out of his zone safe in the knowledge that, if he doesn’t have the puck, Girard will probably get it and get it out and he can go prospecting some for offense at the other end.

“You just don’t see too many guys like him at his age,” Johnson said.

The Avs now have a team, folks, that doesn’t have to be at its very best to win games now. There were moments when the Avs stumbled a little in this one, nowhere more so literally and figuratively, when Mark Barberio collided with Varlamov where both were trying to control the puck, leading to a tying Flyers goal in the second period.

The old Avs, for sure, would have hung their heads over something like that and let it affect them. This team just shook it off, grabbed a lead again and never looked back. Easy. Peasy. And yet, the Avs aren’t anywhere near satisfied with how they’re playing.

There’s another big difference from teams of the recent past. A win or two and they would get too self-satisfied and coast a while and pay for it. 

“I think that one of the great things about this team is yes, obviously we are happy to win – that’s the whole goal of this thing is to win hockey games. But I think we’re also mature enough to realize we can play better, we can do things better and I think that everybody is on board with trying to fix those as quickly as possible,” newcomer Ian Cole said.

Gabe Landeskog broke a 2-2 tie with his first goal of the year, at 7:18 of the second period. Landeskog outmuscled Travis Sanheim in front of net and deflected Nathan MacKinnon’s point shot past Brian Elliott. The goal withstood a Flyers challenge of goaltender interference.

Varlamov made one of those saves that you’ll see a lot on those highlight shows that run all night on NHL Network. It came with the clock under 10 seconds left in the second period and it preserved a 3-2 Avs lead.

Jakub Voracek gave a pretty backhand pass from the side of the net to Sanheim on the other side, with Varlamov partially committed and falling forward. Sanheim one-timed a shot to the near side, but Varlamov snagged it with his glove. Lead, preserved.

That Varly gem atoned for that blunder earlier in the period that cost him a 2-1 lead. Varlamov tried to freeze a puck too far out of the net, a sequence in which Mark Barberio was going to play the puck. Barberio had to put on the breaks and tried to get out of the way, but it was too late and he collided with Varlamov. The puck squirted loose, and Mikhail Vorabyev put it into the vacated net.

“It was a fun game to be a part of. They obviously like to play fast and get up and down the ice and we want to do the same thing, but we want to stay within our system. I think we obviously have a lot of speed on our team and can use that to our advantage but we don’t want to give up too many odd-man rushes the other way,” said Alexander Kerfoot, who was outstanding as well (two assists).

See, I could barely even get to Kerfoot. This is a tough team to give out all the proper candy to – just like the old days.