Vancouver slows it down, outlasts Avs in mid-week slog

When Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bedar spoke after morning skate earlier today, he mentioned that it was good for the Avs to have a stretch of games against teams that are still fighting for a playoff spot. 

“It’s a fun time of year,” Bednar said. “Edmonton, right? They’re three, four into the playoffs, three or four points from being out, so they’re playing playoff hockey right now. Vancouver same thing, right? They’re trying to dig in and get up into the picture, so every game for them is going to be desperation mode. That’s good for our team, I think it’s really good for our team… All these games are going to be intense.”.

The Avalanche are in the middle of a stretch that will see them play against four teams within 8 days who are all fighting to either solidify their playoff positioning or just get in, period. Tonight was one of those games as they welcomed in the Vancouver Canucks, who have clawed their way back into the playoff conversation after a less-than-impressive start to the season.

I’ve mentioned it multiple times this week, but you can really feel a difference in the air that surrounds NHL clubs now that the deadline is in the rearview mirror. Sure-fire playoff teams have shifted gears and are really ramping their play, and the bubble teams are in full-time desperation mode trying to pull points out of every game that they can.

When the Canucks arrived at Ball Arena on Wednesday night, they were sitting five points outside the playoffs and knew that if they had any hope of closing that gap, they’d need to play a conservative game, limit chances against, and take advantage of any opportunity that they got.

While they didn’t necessarily succeed in the latter two, but my word did they absolutely make this a conservative, boring hockey game. At least, through the first forty minutes, and it paid off as Vancouver was able to cling to a 3-1 win.

“It was safe,” Bednar said after the game when I asked if he felt it matched the intensity they were expecting from a desperate Canucks team.

It wasn’t a bad game, just one of those games that you’ve really gotta be a hockey junkie to appreciate. The Vancouver Canucks came out early and almost made you forget that this is a team desperate for points. I made the comment to some of my press box colleagues that Vancouver looked surprisingly passive. Happy to allow sustained pressure, so long as most of the chances came from the outside. 

Give them credit, I really have a hard time pinpointing any chances that you really felt like the Avs missed on for the first two-thirds of the game. While the Canucks weren’t necessarily playing a trap-style game, it was clear their intention was to slow things down and keep the high-flying Avalanche out of the middle of the ice as much as possible. 

One thing that did stick out to me though, usually when teams are playing a style of game like Vancouver was, they’re firing any and everything at the net when they are able to get up the ice. The Canucks seemed to pass up on quite a few quality opportunities when they found themselves in good areas of the ice.

Combine all of that, with the fact that both goalies were playing well *when* tested, and we found ourselves in a 0-0 hockey game heading into the final frame.

Here’s the problem Vancouver had run into in this game. When you are fine giving your opponent the lion’s share of zone time because you trust your defending, it’s pretty hard to score, and that’s a pretty important part of this game.

So when the third period started, the Canucks had more jump than we had seen from them all night, and it seemed to throw the Avs a bit. Two bad turnovers in their own end of the ice, and in the blink of an eye, the Avs had played right into Vancouver’s hand, gifting them two goals from right in front of the net.

From there on out, Vancouver doubled down their efforts to keep the Avs out of any dangerous areas of the ice. It became a neutral zone slugfest. This was the first time all night we saw much intensity at all from either side.

Now, give the Avs some credit, they took their play up a level. Sure it’s just a hair disappointing that it took giving up two quick goals for them to really ratchet up the pace, but it is what it is.

It was a good reminder of just how highly skilled and talented this team is. They took over. Suddenly the Avs were flying around the ice, forcing Vancouver’s Vasily Podkolzin to take an interference penalty. Suddenly, the Avs had an opportunity to finds a crack in what had become some pretty air-tight defense from the Canucks.

Sure enough, Nathan MacKinnon was able to walk off the wall, put a shot on net, and Nazem Kadri was there to punch home a rebound to make it a one-goal game with over ten minutes to go.

That was the first time all night there was really any energy in the building. The whole night, something just get kind of off, up until that point. It had just started to have the makings of a couple of those late-game comebacks we’ve seen the Avs pull off on multiple occasions this season, but Vancouver found a way to slow things down, and keep Colorado from establishing any real zone time, which just sucked any momentum that the Avs had built up right back out of the building.

A late power play, followed by an extra attacker wasn’t enough for the Avs to put a second goal past Canucks netminder Jaroslav Halak, and Bo Horvat would put this game on ice when he buried an empty netter with just 18 seconds to go.

Everyone from the Avs who addressed the media after the game had the same thoughts… credit to Vancouver, they played hard and stuck to their game plan, and were able to capitalize on the few mistakes the Avs made. It happens.

The Avalanche have a chance to get back on the right side of the W/L column on Friday when the struggling and Giroux-less Philadelphia Flyers come to town.