Their superstar unexpectedly missing in action, the Avs found their spark in an unlikely place

When the Avalanche originally signed Val Nichushkin after Dallas officially gave up on him and bought him out, I went back and watched the video of his draft day to see what impressions were back when he was still considered a high-end prospect.

Just listen to this conversation. It’s almost spooky how on the nose it ended up being. We all know Nichushkin never lived up to his significant draft-day billing but has still proven himself a legit NHL player, albeit more of a depth one.

But watch the goals from the highlights above and then watch his game-winning goal, his second goal of the game, in overtime tonight against the Anaheim Ducks to propel the Avs to a 3-2 victory.

Some real similarities, eh?

With seven shots on goal, two that went in, and two hits in 15 minutes of ice time, this was the Nichushkin the Dallas Stars thought they were drafting with the 10th pick back in 2013 (nine picks behind some guy named Nathan MacKinnon). It hasn’t always worked out that way but when Nichushkin is the best version of himself, we see the player who was a game-changer for the Avalanche tonight.

He was downright awesome when Colorado needed someone, anyone to step up in the last-minute absence of MacKinnon, who participated at morning skate but was a late scratch after getting to the arena and feeling after-effects from the headshot he took two days again from San Jose’s Joachim Blichfeld. While Blichfeld was suspended two games for the illegal hit to MacKinnon’s head, that’s not a comfort to the Avalanche, who are now without their top two players in MacKinnon and Cale Makar.

It would’ve been great to hear from Nichushkin himself after this one but he has been notoriously interview-shy since arriving in Colorado and that continued tonight. He was nowhere to be found on the slate of Zoom interviews and that seems to be just the way he likes operating on the ice and off: in the shadows, doing his own thing without much fanfare or attention.

When a guy has a breakout game like he did tonight, however, there’s honestly something endearing about a player who has every reason to come into interviews with the media and say “neener neener haters” but instead chooses to avoid the conversation altogether. He was hired to do a job and tonight he did it at the highest level so far this year. He’d love to repeat that performance but he has to focus on doing the little things right and taking it one day at a time.

Boom. Did it for him. With that out of the way, for the Avs’ sake, he needs to keep on chuggin’ along for however long MacKinnon remains out.

TAKEAWAYS

• Lots of thoughts in here tonight so buckle up. Let’s start with Nazem Kadri. Moved up to the top line, I’m just not quite sure what to make of his game sometimes. Tonight was one of those weird games where it felt like he was constantly around the puck and his underlying numbers were awesome, but watching him tonight I couldn’t help but feel like he personally helped throw away so many good offensive chances. The disallowed goal due to high stick was a tough one after he made a great play to get that puck out of the air but beyond that, it felt like he was around a lot of missed opportunities. What to make of that? It’s always a good thing to be around quality offensive chances and there will be nights where things just don’t go your way. That’s hockey, but boy it felt like Kadri was personally responsible for a lot of great looks that fizzled out. I’m making anything of it, just thought it was an odd night overall for him. He played a ton and was better defensively than we’ve seen in a lot of games so I’m good overall, just a night where I struggled to get a good read on him.
• Conor Timmins didn’t even play 10 minutes tonight but I liked almost all of it. It was easily his best effort, especially offensively, as he was aggressively moving the puck and moving his feet well. There was one poor read that led to an odd-man rush but he didn’t let that bother him. I’m a little disappointed his play didn’t result in the increase in ice time as he was going so well but in a 2-2 game throughout the third period, I understand why the coaching staff went with a little more of their comfort zone than the rookie defender.
• Mikko Rantanen? I know he’s coming off a four-point game literally two nights ago so I’m not going to overreact a ton here but the Avs paid this guy a lot of money to be a star player for them with or without Nathan MacKinnon. He had four shots on goal but I wanted to see a little more of an assertive presence from him with no 29 around to run the show. I’d love to see Rantanen really learn to take over the team whenever MacKinnon isn’t around, which is at least an uncommon occurrence. He’s supposed to be your other star forward, it’s fair to ask him to step it up a notch or two when your leading man goes out, right? Look at Devon Toews and Sam Girard on defense. Cale Makar goes out and those two have stepped up and kept a mostly AHL-caliber defense (at least in terms of career GP) afloat in Makar’s absence. It’s been remarkable. Rantanen could stand to use a little of the Toews/Girard mojo, I think.
• Big surprise but I’m talking Tyson Jost in this space. He got a surprise bump into Kadri’s vacated spot as 2C. Look, the shift where he botched the zone exit with the softest clearing attempt known to mankind was atrocious and appropriately punished. He knows better and he made sure on two other occasions later in the game he didn’t screw it up again. The truth is, though, it shouldn’t take having a goal crammed down his throat for him to learn that lesson. His play was indicative of a larger, teamwide problem from the Avalanche tonight. They may have created a lot of quality scoring chances and generally outplayed the Ducks, but they were far too disengaged physically. This isn’t a team that lives and dies by how hard they hit other teams but when they are at their best they are imposing their will on opposing teams with effective play, even if it isn’t overly aggressive or physical. The Avs are a quality team when they’re winning puck battles and using their legs to capitalize on mistakes. Tonight, the Avs were using their legs plenty but were far too ineffective in the greasier aspects of the game. It felt like the first Ducks goal was a picture-perfect example of a team that had a decent first period but got a little too self-satisfied and let their play slip and it burned them. It’s one thing when a team forces mistakes on you but that goal was purely self-inflicted nonsense.
• Beyond that, I thought Jost responded really well. One of his primary matchups on the night as the “2C” was to take on Ryan Getzlaf head-to-head and Jost got the upper hand against him and broke even against Sam Steel, his other main assignment. Look, Jost’s success this year has been fine but limited purely to defense and against weaker competition. He played up tonight and notched a well-deserved assist on the game-tying goal while taking on stronger competition than normal. The penalty wasn’t great but he’s shown over a lot of games that isn’t a regular habit of his. It was an encouraging game and it wouldn’t be the worst thing for Jared Bednar to give him a little more top-six burn while J.T. Compher and P.E. Bellemare continue struggling to find any of their form from last year.
• Toews and Girard…wow. They keep taking turns being solid but one having the stronger night of the two and tonight was Toews’s turn. He kicked ass. His work in OT was great.
• Andre Burakovsky has looked significantly more engaged recently but his work on the top PP unit with four minutes left in regulation was nothing short of unacceptable. The puck gets worked around to him and he walks in for a clean look and misses everything and clears the zone. That unit struggled to gain the zone again, in part because of a soft Burakovsky pass up the boards that was easily intercepted and cleared by the Ducks. He cannot play that kind of soft and weak hockey when being promoted in the lineup and with a potential game-winning PP on the line.
• Dan Renouf first career point! Congrats to him.
• Gabe Landeskog’s newborn son is named Lucas. We look forward to covering his draft year here at DNVR in 2038.