The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Colorado Avalanche growing pains from the past week

 

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The Colorado Avalanche exhibited growing pains the past week as they displayed glimpses of Good, Bad, and Ugly in their home series.

THE GOOD

1. Forward Rene Bourque made his fall signing look like a stroke of genius this past week, as the veteran forward scored three goals, including an overtime game winner (sort of). Considering the team only notched five tallies for the week,  Bourque supplied 60% of the team’s scoring. While the overtime winning goal looked more like an own goal, Bourque was in position to get credit, so no one can complain. Hmmm…so if one was a betting person, what would the over/under have looked for Bourque having a week like this?

2. Rookie forward Mikko Rantanen scored his first NHL goal Friday night against the Winnipeg Jets, less than a week after notching his first assist. For a rookie, he brings a lot of scrappiness (is that a word?) to the Avalanche. Hopefully, this portends great things to come!

3. Promising prospect A.J. Greer, off to a hot start with the San Antonio Rampage in his first AHL season, became an emergency call-up for the Avalanche against the Boston Bruins. He played with energy and grit, made two of the team’s meager 20 shots on goal, was on ice for 16:34, and even earned a spot on the power play in the third period. He outplayed some team veterans. Maybe Colorado is trying to limit his games to protect his contract or guard his development, but a team needing a spark should have thought twice before sending him back to the AHL.

4. Say what you want about the mental toughness of the Avalanche but keep in mind the team is 4-0 when going into the third period with a tied game.

5. Colorado is still two wins and three points ahead of where they were after 14 games last year despite their uneven play. It’s not unusual for a young team establishing it’s identity to show moments of greatness followed by moments of ‘what the heck’. There’s a lot of hockey left in the season and plenty to be optimistic about, assuming they continue to improve.

6. Colorado has won the face-off battle in all three of the past week’s games, winning more than 55% of their face-offs. They currently rank 5th among all NHL teams for face-off wins. Now if only that can translate into GAME wins.

7. Goaltender Semyon Varlamov roared back to life in net this past week. He stopped 44 of 45 shots in the Boston game, including a second period where he stopped all 24 shots thrown at him, and kept Colorado within one goal throughout the game. He earned an impressive .978 save percent, which should help offset his rocky start.

8. Defenseman Erik Johnson leads the team in ice time and blocked shots with 38, placing him fifth in the league, added two assists this past week and leads the defensemen in points – tied with fellow defenseman Tyson Barrie. The ice time is good, as the core needs to be the ones doing the heavy lifting. Having a defenseman who can effectively block shots is also good. However, the Avalanche want to be careful their systems don’t repeat last year’s when Francois Beauchemin led the league with 50 more blocked shots than the next closest player.

9. Alternate Captain Nathan MacKinnon scored his second goal of the season (against the Arizona Coyotes) as well as tallying his 100th career assist (against the Jets).

10. The power play improved to 18.4% as Colorado scored on two of eight power play opportunities this past week.

THE BAD

1. Alternate Captain Matt Duchene left the Jets game with a head injury, one of the factors forcing Greer’s emergency call-up. As Captain Gabriel Landeskog testified, concussions are tricky things and players need to proceed with caution. He was expected to skate with the team Monday but was unable to do so. Not good. Especially since he is the team’s leading scorer.

2. Veteran forward Blake Comeau continues to battle a recurring groin injury. Initially sitting out a couple of preseason games, he came back, played a few games, and then had to sit out again. Recurring injuries always raise concerns over whether the player is truly healthy enough to resume play at the elite level necessary in the NHL. Cross your fingers he can find last year’s form.

3. The Avalanche are tied for 29th in goals with a meager 1.93 per game, 28th for shots on goal averaging 28.1 per game, and rank 29th in shooting percentage. Say what you want about the defense, but if the team can’t get goals in net, it doesn’t matter how well the goalies and the defensemen play. The team’s scoring is anemic. Surely, it can’t stay like this. Where’s Frank Drebin aka Leslie Nielsen when you need him? Guess I should stop calling him Shirley.

4. Colorado has yet to earn an overtime loss point. The only other NHL team without an extra period ‘loser point’? The Arizona Coyotes. Yeah, the team might want to work on that.

THE UGLY

1. The Avalanche still wrestle with home wins as they lost two of three at home this past week and own a 3-4-0 home record.

2. Veteran wing Cody McLeod managed to get thrown in the box for fighting penalties within five minutes of both the Coyotes and the Jets game. Everyone understands some people think fighting can stir up the team. But how about saving that for someone like the Jets’ Jacob Trouba after he gave Duchene a concussion? Fighting as a way to defend star players and prevent injuries used to be a tried and true hockey standard. Fighting for no reason? Dumb.

3. The Avalanche continue to surrender early goals to their opponent as they surrendered one to the Coyotes 28 seconds into the game. They have given up the first goal in 9 of their 14 games. Also disturbing, they tend to give up goals in clusters, allowing Arizona to score two goals in the second period 1:11 apart and giving up two goals to the Jets 2:33 apart.

4. Can the powers that be come up with a different way to celebrate men’s health other than growing some awful mustaches in November? Please? Men who can successfully grow facial hair already have it. The growing out process is U-G-L-Y, even when they can end up with a decent final product. How about celebrating by using anti-perspirant? Men’s cologne? Something that might actually attract women rather than repel them? A dead muskrat on an upper lip isn’t helping anyone. Really.

ODD SOCK

Dominic Moore scored the empty net goal for the Boston Bruins. Moore is the younger brother of former Avalanche player Steve Moore, whose hockey career ended due to a brutal targeted hit orchestrated by the Vancouver Canucks. Sometimes irony happens.

WHAT TO WATCH

1. Colorado hosts the Los Angeles Kings tonight, along with former Avalanche goaltender Peter Budaj. Hopefully, this matchup against a former player pans out better than the Coyotes when former Avalanche player Radim Vrbata earned two assists and Jamie McGinn earned one as well.

2. Will the Avalanche be forced to call up another player from the injury-plagued San Antonio Rampage if Matt Duchene can’t return to the lineup?

3. After the Kings game, the Avalanche will take their show on the road for three games, including two against division rivals. Can the Avalanche break through their scoring slump to regain a foothold in their conference?

4. Finally, will John Mitchell stay up with the team? With the injury situation and his improved play, it looks likely.