The Three-Headed Monster broke up, but even that can't stop the Avs right now

SUNRISE, Fla. – At first, it almost seemed as if the Beatles had broken up. Mikko, MacK and Landy – the Three-Headed Monster – were split up (Ringo still hasn’t joined the band). I thought, at first, that it was a silly move of desperation when Jared Bednar did it. Why break up the biggest-scoring line in hockey, in a tie game in the third period against the forever-mediocre Florida Panthers?

When the game was over?

“Jared, what does it feel like to be a stone-cold genius?”

No, that wasn’t my question to the Avs’ bench boss following his team’s 5-2 victory. But the move sure worked out, didn’t it? To start the third period of a 2-2 game, Bednar moved J.T. Compher on to the top line, with Nathan MacKinnon and Gabe Landeskog, while Mikko Rantanen moved to right wing on a line with Tyson Jost and Alexander Kerfoot.

Compher scored a gorgeous tip goal at 6:21 for the game-winner, capping off a brilliant shift by the Avs’ line and D-men in which the puck seemed to stay in the Florida zone for well over a minute. Rantanen looked like he had some good chemistry with the two smaller forwards and the Avs happily took the two points out of a BB&T Center in which they didn’t really play all that well in at times, especially the first half of the game.

Why did Bednar break up the Big Three?

“It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a little while. There may be times when we have to split up that top line to get a new line of attack,” Bednar said. “I kind of felt like our top guys were struggling to get some traction tonight. They did have their chances, and they scored on Mikko’s (first-period) tip and were doing some good things. But the regular traction that I expect out of that line wasn’t there. Partly, that was because that line was playing against (Aleksander) Barkov, and that’s a real good line, with two top D. I think maybe if I split ’em I could just get a spark, and if I didn’t like it, then I could just move it back real quick.”

I asked Landeskog, who added an empty-netter for the final score, whether he expects the band to get back together, as early as Saturday against Tampa Bay?

“Who knows, but we weren’t really sharp the first two periods and coach decided to change it up. But either way, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Landeskog said. “I think Mikko did well with Kerf and Josty, and Comph played well with us.”

Compher’s goal, his seventh of the year in 13 games, capped the marvelous shift by everyone. The final sequence was Landeskog keeping yet another puck in at the blue line, getting a shot on net that Compher just redirected with elan.

“You know how hard those guys on (the top line work). They dog the puck all over the ice, so I was just trying to create a good forecheck and get some chances with those guys,” Compher told BSN Denver. “I saw the lane from Landy. He did a good job keeping the puck in. Anytime you can get a deflection, it’s hard on the goaltender. That’s all I was trying to do there.”

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

• Erik Johnson missed some time at the end of the second period after a scrum with Barkov, but returned for the third and seemed fine.
• Carl Soderberg was tremendous, first star of the game for sure. Two goals, and a gorgeous lead pass to Matt Nieto that nearly resulted in a short-handed breakaway goal. Soderberg was fortunate on his first goal, a shortie wrister that Roberto Luongo misplayed into his own net.
• The announced crowd was 10,077, and I can tell you it was a lot smaller than that.
• Philipp Grubauer is now 7-0-2 in his last nine.
• The Avalanche came into the game fourth in the NHL in average penalty minutes per game (10:12). They took another 10 in this one – five separate minors.
• Avs practice Friday in Tampa.
• The Avs are 13-3-2 in Florida since 1996, including playoffs.