By: Maeve Hushman, Staff Writer
The Avalanche only played two games this week (or at least in the Saturday-Friday timeline I cover). It is a much smaller sample size, but no less important to the analysis of the Avalanche’s play. They beat the Wild 4-1 and then lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 in overtime.
Things to Fix:
Will the Avalanche ever play a full 60 minutes of hockey? The world may never know. In all seriousness, even when they win there have been periods in which they take their foot off the gas. In the Wild game it was in the second period and had no real consequences, but in the Columbus game it allowed the Columbus Blue Jackets to score 4 uninterrupted goals. The Avs came back by the skin of their teeth and by two bad icing moves by the Blue Jackets. I really sound like I’m a looping recording, but if you cannot play a full 60 minutes of hockey it is much harder to win. There should be no moments off, the Avalanche need to come out of the gate fast and dominant, then maintain that. Kuemper really saved them in that second period against the Wild and when he wasn’t in net Johansson, despite a tremendous showing in the first and second periods, could not pick up the slack.
Defensive lapses, especially in that third period of the Columbus game were pretty common and it hurt the Avs. They didn’t backcheck well enough and the Blue Jackets got behind the Avs defense for most of that third period. It was a bit of a lapse by Kadri, despite an overall good game on his part, that led to the game winning goal (that hurt me to write since I love Kadri) but he lost his man allowing Bean to score. Three on three is obviously difficult to defend, but those defensive lapses are dangerous. In this game, it really came down to the lack of effort in the third. If you are playing hard, you will get down to your zone before the other team. You will play sharper and not have brutal giveaways in your own zone. The Avs D-core is also missing Makar and still missing Toews so their lapses might be more understandable. Bowen Byram, who has been playing with Makar while Toews is out, had a great night though.
The Avs seem to struggle against teams that manage to defend the “big guys” or at least defensive-dominant teams. I mentioned this when discussing their game against Vegas. Before I established this as beyond just the Knights, I wanted to watch the Avs play the Blue Jackets or Islanders which tend to lean more defensive. After the first period, I thought it was going to be a battle between the goalies. The Blue Jackets didn’t clog up the neutral zone like Vegas till the third period but did a great job throughout the game with breaking up chances and passes. They stopped the Avs from getting set up and from generating the dominant offensive pressure. I realized the Avs were in the danger zone the second they seemed to slow down. When the Avs use their speed like they did earlier in the game, they draw penalties and make the other team play catch up. They have the advantage when they keep their game fast.
Finally, the power play has really been up and down. It was buzzing in the Minnesota game, scoring early on in a five-minute major. However, the Avs were the only team to get power plays in the Columbus game, but they could not score on any of them. Injuries have been wrecking the rhythm and chemistry that had just started to get the powerplay to click. That will change shortly but they still have to figure out how to convert in the meantime.
Positives:
The top line was going off in the Minnesota game. There was amazing play by MacKinnon, which allowed Erik Johnson to score the game winner, and Landeskog really had a night for himself. The power play was absolutely buzzing, scoring early on the five-minute major. It was a very convincing performance by that line and that top unit. It is a very positive sign for those stars who have not had the explosive start many expected.
Kuemper looked great and really kept the Avalanche in the game during that second period in the Wild game. Johansson for the first two periods looked strong too, so much so that I was convinced the game would be a low scoring goalie battle after the scoreless first period. However, Johansson turned back into a pumpkin toward the end of the second and the third when he allowed 4 straight goals. He came up big with a couple huge glove saves and absolutely robbed arguably the Blue Jackets most offensively talented player, Patrik Laine. However maybe that propensity for glove saves allowed the Blue Jackets to figure out to not shoot glove side when trying to score. The Blue Jackets noticing this and adjusting accordingly is just speculation. It should be noted that the Blue Jackets were finally able to score when going five-hole or blocker-side against Johansson. Regardless of Johansson’s play, Kuemper seems to have found his groove and seems to be a good piece to keep the Avalanche in games where they seem to slow down in at least one period. If Kuemper can save them, the lack of consistent effort may not be as big of a problem.
Some real highlights of the past few games have been Byram, Logan O’Connor, and JT Compher. Compher is the Avalanche’s leading scorer. He and Byram played a crucial role in grabbing that one point from Columbus by tying the game. O’Connor always seems to be one of the hardest working people on the ice. He scored his first goal of the season in the Columbus game giving the Avalanche the lead originally. Byram scored the game tying goal in the Columbus game. He also has been arguably the Avs best defenseman this year. He has been prolific offensively and good in his own end for the most part. As for Compher and O’Connor, they are both depth pieces and their ability to play well and score is encouraging. Even if a solid defensive team manages to shut down the top line, the Avs can still score.
Finally, the team is finally an over 500 team, all because they took advantage of the 6-5 play at the end of the third period to tie up the game and grab one point. It helps the Avalanche in the standings as they try to get into a solid playoff spot and are expected to win the Central division.
Conclusion:
The Avalanche had mixed results this week but still came out of it with 3-4 points. It put them above 500 and the Minnesota game was very solid. That 4-1 win had a power play goal and amazing plays by both the top lines and the bottom six. However, the Columbus game showed some of the Avalanche’s worst tendencies, they were missing their best right wingers (their top three right wings) and their top defensive pair. Due to those absences, it is highly likely the Avalanche will bounce back easily. Hopefully they start to correct the bad habits from the Columbus and prior games. They should be able to get back to the level they played against Saint Louis last week and absolutely dominate games again.