Aarif Deen
Brett Kulak was a perfect fit. In his first game with the Avalanche, a day after getting traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Kulak quietly had a solid defensive night for the Avs. More importantly, he seemed to play well with Sam Malinski on the third pair, while also getting looks with others, including Josh Manson.
If early returns are an indication of what they’re going to get from him, then it just might be what they needed. This is the different look head coach Jared Bednar was talking about after the trade.
The Avs won 4-2 in Utah. This was the first time in four meetings that the Mammoth didn’t challenge the Avs and make things difficult.
Having a healthy blueline, with the addition of Kulak, helped make that possible.
10 Takeaways
1. Here’s a surprising statistic: Kulak finished with the most ice time at even strength on Wednesday, playing 18:21 to beat out both Devon Toews (17:41) and Cale Makar (17:15). Kulak finished with 19:03 in all situations, trailing behind the top pair and Brent Burns (19:06) but ahead of Sam Malinski (16:11) and Manson (17:50).
2. You can tell Bednar was excited to try him in all kinds of situations, with several partners. And none of it really felt out of place. So far so good but it’s still just one game.
3. Nathan MacKinnon will play on Thursday. In his absence, Brock Nelson centered Martin Necas and Gabe Landeskog, and that line meshed really well. Do you put MacKinnon back with those wingers? Or is it best to pair him with Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen to keep the Nelson line together?
I personally would like to see Nelson continue to play with Necas and Landeskog. At least for now.
5. Speaking of Landeskog, it’s so nice to have him back. The Avs improved to 32-2-7 in the 41 games Landeskog has finished this season.
4. Necas continued the power-play momentum he had at the Olympics and scored a beautiful one-timer from the right circle. He was able to play that role permanently without MacKinnon in the lineup. And I’m starting to wonder if things should remain that way even when MacKinnon returns.
Kudos to my colleague Evan Rawal for pitching that question to Bednar postgame. Bednar wouldn’t commit to it because MacKinnon has had success there in the past. But he did admit that they’re discussing different options for the PP to get it going. Their performance against Utah was a good start. It’ll be interesting to see how it looks with MacKinnon back in the fold.
MacKinnon was also successful on the man advantage at the Olympics.
5. Parker Kelly’s magical offensive year continued. He’s up to 13 goals and 23 points in 56 games. It’s hard to believe we can even say this, but 20 goals is very much a possibility.
6. The depth stepped up early. Kelly’s goal made it 1-0, and Victor Olofsson added to the lead. This was Olofsson’s 11th of the year and his first on the road.
7. I wrote about this in the postgame story, but it was nice to see Scott Wedgewood bounce back from a tough game in Montreal in late January. Wedgewood was 3-3-1 in January.
8. I know the goal was disallowed, and for good reason. But how about the amount of power Brent Burns was able to get on that backhand shot? It was impressive.
9. The Utah Mammoth always play the Avs hard dating back to their Arizona Coyotes days. This game wasn’t really much of a challenge in that same way, but the first three meetings this year were. Still, Colorado went 3-0-1 against the Mammoth, who could be a potential first-round opponent.
10. MacKinnon returning should push Zakhar Bardakov out of the lineup. As the fourth-line center, Bardakov played a team-low 6:54 on Wednesday.