Avalanche Breakdown: Dominant Defense Leads To MacKinnon Magic (+)

Jared Bednar challenged his Colorado Avalanche squad to buckle down in their own end after an ugly effort against the Dallas Stars. 41 scoring chances in the first 40 minutes of the game will certainly anger any coach, especially at this time of the year.

It’s no surprise that for the 48 hours after the loss, Bednar didn’t even talk about offense with his team. All the focus was on putting in the work in their own end to clean up some of the “absurd” mistakes they made against the Stars.

Whatever he said certainly caught the attention of his team, as the Avalanche responded with a dominant defensive performance, allowing just eight shots on goal during 5-on-5 play. That dominance in the defensive zone allowed Nathan MacKinnon to create some magic at the other end of the ice.