The brilliance of Darcy Kuemper just made this a series

The vast majority of games, there’s plenty of stuff for me to talk about. I can get into systems breakdowns and the different matchups that worked or didn’t work and all of the work that goes into line matching and the randomness of special teams on any given day.

Today, though, Colorado lost their first game of the series 4-2 to the Arizona Coyotes thanks almost entirely to Darcy Kuemper. Granted, he had zero shots on goal himself so he needed some help but he got just enough to take care of the rest.

Two empty-net goals and two opportunistic moments in the sun was all Kuemper needed as he made 49 saves en route to bringing the series score to 2-1 in favor of Colorado.

While the final ended up 4-2, it was really a 1-0 game for most of it and the question of whether or not the Kuemper riddle would get solved today dominated most of the action.

When an Andre Burakovsky shot bounced around and found its way behind Kuemper, the Avs were given fresh life.

One bad line change in the final minute of the second period and Brad Richardson made the Avs pay as he beat Pavel Francouz high on the glove side to reclaim Arizona’s one-goal lead.

It was the second goal Arizona scored while taking advantage of a self-inflicted wound by the Avalanche. On Derek Stepan’s goal to make it 1-0, it was a botched breakout by Nazem Kadri that kickstarted the goal and the poor change late in the second period changed the entire complexion of the third period.

Instead of going into the third period tied for the third straight game, where Colorado eventually separated and found wins in Games 1 and 2, the Avs were trailing by one.

While the Avs had come back against St. Louis in their first round-robin matchup, Colorado only managed to come back from deficits going into the third period one single time during the regular season. It simply wasn’t Colorado’s strength and today we saw that play out.

Of course, Kuemper and Arizona got the win despite Colorado putting 92 shot attempts on and accumulating 39 scoring chances and 16 high-danger chances. Kuemper simply wasn’t going to give in today.

This was the exact formula the Coyotes used to not only back their way into the 11th seed of the play-in round but also in beating Nashville in four games. Arizona getting caved in and hanging on by the seat of their pants isn’t a glitch, it’s their entire existence.

As frustrating as it might be for Colorado today, they have to simply take what they know to be true (they’ve dominated the majority of this series and they’re clearly the better team) and keep putting in the work. There are no shortcuts to beating a goaltender on this kind of hot streak. The only answer is hard work, more traffic, taking his eyes away, and trying to do everything they can to make him the Final Boss of this series.

Game 4 is Monday afternoon and turned into a pivotal one as Arizona looks to use this momentum from getting crushed but stealing a game to try to even the series while Colorado looks to once again push Arizona’s season to the brink of elimination.

I’d say it’s going to be a lot of fun but Darcy Kuemper would probably stop that, too.

TAKEAWAYS

• There really isn’t a whole lot to say from an analysis perspective here. Darcy Kuemper is the only reason Arizona kept it close in Game 1 and while they played better yesterday, his brilliance was still a major reason it was as close as it was. Kuemper was the only reason any of us gave Arizona much respect going into this series and three games in we’re seeing that come to fruition. It’s obvious Colorado is the better team but Kuemper is absolutely on fire and that makes this a mess in the making. This is part of what makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs equal parts spectacular and daunting. You can build the best team around but if you run into a hot goalie, your season immediately is in jeopardy.
• Obviously the series sitting at 2-1 right now means Colorado isn’t sweating this just yet but they have to take care of business on Monday. They do not want anything to do with a best-of-three against the hottest goaltender around.
• While most of the Avs played lights-out, Mikko Rantanen is still really struggling in a way that is obvious only because we’ve come to expect him to be spectacular more often than not. He got paid and now has to be one of Colorado’s best players and he simply hasn’t been, despite the deceptive production that has him right at the top of the scoring list on the Avs.
• Probably a symptom of a back-to-back but Cale Makar looked completely out of gas both times the goaltender was pulled. Uncharacteristic mistakes from him and he just looked like he was spent. Weird to see the mortal side of him after such a superhuman rookie season.
• Tough loss for Pavel Francouz. He wasn’t particularly good or bad as he wasn’t severely tested much but he came up one save short. The Richardson goal was a great shot. He won’t start Game 4 but he didn’t do anything to dissuade the team from using him again should they have another back to back should they continue on in this playoffs.
• Val Nichushkin and Joonas Donskoi weren’t great today. The Avs definitely need more consistency from them, especially with Nichushkin getting a “second line” job. His offense needs to start to show up.