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Takeaways from Avs’ victory over Minnesota: Familiar pattern
It was almost the same kind of game: Fast start, rough middle part, empty-netter at the end, Pepsi Center partisans walking happily into the night.
The Colorado Avalanche are now 2-0-0 after a 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild. The Avs so far have scored in every period of the season and have yet to trail at any point. Yet, it hasn’t exactly been easy, either.
The Avs had to get that last-minute empty-netter again to seal a win that seemed like it would come easy at the start, with a 2-0 lead in the first six minutes of the night. When fourth-line Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored at the 5:57 mark of the first, this seemed like it was almost over. It wasn’t.
It was a 2-2 game entering the final minute of the second period, when the Avs’ top line got themselves a pretty easy goal – Mikko Rantanen to Gabe Landeskog for a tap-in – that gave the Avs a lead they would hold, with Ryan Graves getting the empty-netter.
“You’ve got to remember, there are pretty good hockey teams on the other side,” Landeskog said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we gotta play 60 minutes. For us, it’s going to be important for us to keep chipping away. We got some things to clean up, things like D-zone breakouts and things like that, getting five guys in the picture, helpin’ out.”
This is officially called the “nitpicking” stage of an otherwise perfect start in the won-loss column. The Avs, for the second straight game, just dominated the early going. The second period was a bad one, but the Avs did play a good third period mostly, despite being outshot 12-8. Philipp Grubauer, who was again the victim of some bad luck with tip-ins from his own teammates, was outstanding in the final 20 to get the win in net.
Rantanen, again, was superb. He’s got four points in the first two games. His goal, at 4:30 to open the scoring, came on a turnaround wrister with Landeskog setting a good screen on Devan Dubnyk. His pass to Landeskog late in the second was pure Mikko – right on the tape.
“I had one of those chances in the beginning of the first game, but missed it,” Landeskog said.
Not this time.
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
- Valeri Nichushkin got his first career point as an Av with an assist in the first period. His previous NHL point was March 25 of last season, for Dallas. Now, if he can just get a goal. He went 57 games without one last year with the Stars, which seems unfathomable given his speed, size and skill.
- There were a couple of defensive breakdowns tonight with the Ryan Graves-Conor Timmins pairing. That’s gonna happen – they’re both still kids – but you can’t have multiple breakaways against like what happened in this one. But “Gravy” finished a plus-3 and got the empty-netter, and afterward Jared Bednar said he thinks he can be a “shutdown” defenseman. High praise right there. It’s a tribute to Graves that he is getting ice time at the end of games with just a one-goal lead.
- For the second straight game, the Avs scored an own goal in the first period. Thursday night, Joonas Donskoi accidentally deflected a puck in, and in this one Erik Johnson redirected Ryan Suter’s slapper past Philipp Grubauer.
- Kind of a tough night offensively for the second line, I thought. Tyson Jost put himself in the penalty box twice in the first period, including one for playing a puck with his hand off a faceoff, and Nazem Kadri was a bit quiet offensively. He had a real good scoring chance in the third period, but his shot was deflected. Jared Bednar was OK with the line, though, saying he thought they played pretty well. Kadri did win 10-of-16 faceoffs.
- Donskoi moved up a notch to that second line, with Andre Burakovsky dropping to the third line, with J.T. Compher and Matt Nieto. That line, too, was a bit quiet offensively.
- Cale Makar almost had his first career regular-season goal, on the power play in the third. He had Devan Dubnyk beat up high, but his wrister caromed off the crossbar.
- The Avs, in the first two games, have played an ad on the jumbotron that advocates fans calling their cable companies – DISH, DirecTV and Comcast – to stop blocking Altitude. Altitude and the Big Three remain mired at loggerheads on a new carriage deal. There was lots of booing during the ad. We’ll assume fans aren’t thrilled with either side at the moment.
- If anybody has any lower-back tips, I’m all ears. I am NOT doing well with the low back right now. I bought a firmer mattress the other day and it did not do anything. I had a ruptured disc in 1997, with surgery. It’s starting to feel like another one maybe. Anybody ever have fusion surgery? How did it work for you?
- Here is the scoring chance “heat map” of the game, courtesy of Natural Stat Trick. When your team has more of an avocado look in front of the goal, that means you had the better scoring chances close to the net.
- The Avs again played their official victory song – or so it seems – “Stayin’ Alive” – by the Bee Gees. Geez, I bought the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack when I was 10, I think. Apparently, the equipment manager gets to choose the song.
- My podcast, “Can’t Hear What Jeremy Says” is starting to finally come out on the pod feeds. Here is the link to the podcast’s Spotify page. Be patient with me as I keep fine-tuning the pod, in all aspects.
- Here is Bednar’s postgame presser:
— Adrian Dater (@adater) October 6, 2019
MORE NOTES AND QUOTES FROM AVS PR
Going back to last season, Colorado is 9-2-2 in its last 13 games against Central Division opponents, including a 4-1-0 mark at home.
The Avs have won eight straight regular-season games at Pepsi Center going back to the 2018-19 campaign. Colorado is 13-2-1 in its last 16 regular-season home outings. Including the postseason, the Avalanche is 12-1 in its last 13 contests at Pepsi Center and 17-3-1 in its last 21.
The Avalanche has scored a power-play goal in each of its first two contests, going 3-for-12 (25%) in that span.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Gabriel Landeskog’s second-period goal was the 178th of his career, tying him with Matt Duchene for seventh place in franchise history. Landeskog’s marker was the 27th game-winning goal of his career.
Nathan MacKinnon notched two assists to tie Duchene (250) for 10th place in franchise history.
Cale Makar has points in consecutive games, the first Avalanche rookie defenseman to tally a point in his first two appearances since Stefan Elliott did it in three straight games from Nov. 26-30, 2011 (2g, 1a).
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare registered his first goal in an Avalanche sweater.
Valeri Nichushkin tallied his first point as a member of the Avalanche.
Matt Calvert skated in his 500th NHL game.
Ryan Graves finished with a career-high +3 plus-minus rating.
QUOTES
Colorado RW Mikko Rantanen
On Tonight’s Game: “It wasn’t our best game, I think defensively we were a little bit sloppy with the puck, especially in the neutral zone and D-zone. Some things we can do better but obviously we have to look at Grubi (Colorado G Philipp Grubauer) and how he played again. He was making some key saves at the key times of the game, so it was a good team effort though.”
On His Assist: “It was a good entry from us I think, we spread the play and then we came back again. You know it’s hard for defensive teams to defend that. I think we had four guys on the rush and then Nate (Colorado C Nathan MacKinnon) tried to go to Gravy (Colorado D Ryan Graves) it came through to me and then it was kind of 2-on-1. I tried to show the shot a little bit and Landy (Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog ) was stopped at the net like he should do and he was in a good spot.”
Colorado G Philipp Grubauer
On The Third Period: “I think we were sitting a little bit too much back in the last period. I think if we get on our horse a little bit more, like the last period against Calgary wasn’t the best one. Today we did a little bit of a better job eliminating the chances but the guys that are coming out, they’re scoring in every period. The power play is always top notch at creating chances so it’s good to have those guys they make it easy for me back there.”
On Preparing For Minnesota: “I watched all the goals they scored in preseason, all the goals they scored in the first game. They just like shooting from the blue line and getting bodies in front so you can’t really give too many rebounds. If we give up rebounds we have to eliminate the secondary chances, which our guys did an amazing job today taking away the second chances and committing to blocking the shots.”
Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog
On Playing As A Five-Man Unit: “At times, especially the first 10 minutes of the game I thought really we came hard and we were just rolling over lines over the boards and everybody was in the O-zone creating momentum which is what we talked about after last game as well, which is what we need to keep doing. I think we still need to clean up our D-zone exits and things like that, coming back as a five-man unit and helping our defensemen back there ultimately. That’s the good thing you’re 2-0 and there are a lot of things we can clean up.”
On His Goal: “I mean I’m not surprised when I get those on my tape from Mikko (Colorado RW Mikko Rantanen)
anymore, he’s been serving those for years. I was glad I was able to put it in.”
Minnesota LW Kevin Fiala
On Tonight’s Game: “We played a pretty good second and third period. We were pushing. I had a couple posts, good turns there, they didn’t go in. There are still 80 more games, but it’s going quick. We’ve got to find ways to win games.”
On scoring goals as a team: “Two goals is not enough. We just have to get more goals, get more shots on goal, get more people in front of the net. Maybe it is just too easy for the goaltender right now. Maybe just one more guy in front to help get goals. It’s going to come.”
Minnesota D Ryan Suter
On The Use Of The Timeout: “I think we just all got a little ticked off. We knew that we hadn’t played good at all, and we wanted to get going.”
On Offensive Chances: “I think we had some good chances. That effort is going to get us a lot of points this year. There were a lot of positives. Obviously, we’ve got to fix some of the negatives, but it was a solid game. We just weren’t able to get that third one to tie it up
