Good & Bad
Postgame Wrap: Where Do We Begin? Avs Crush Senators at Ball Arena
Where do we begin?
The Ottawa Senators were hoping to be the ones to finally end the Avalanche’s run at home. Colorado entered the game losers of two straight games in regulation, with a handful of injuries to disrupt team chemistry.
It didn’t matter. The losing streak ended. The injuries weren’t an issue.
The Avalanche scored eight goals before the game was two periods in on Thursday and went on to crush the Senators 8-2. Colorado is 18-0-2 at home and has won its last 16 in front of its own fans.
Josh Manson and Brock Nelson scored two goals each, while Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas, and Brent Burns added one.
MacKinnon (goal, three assists), Manson (two goals, two assists), Ross Colton (three assists), Makar (goal, two assists), and Nelson (two goals, assist) all had three or more points before the second period ended. This was a first in franchise history.
On top of that, Manson fought and handled Tyler Kleven in the first period. And to everybody’s surprise, Samuel Girard fought Tim Stutzle in the third period and dropped him with a right. Then there was Scott Wedgewood, who got into it with Shane Pinto after getting run over by Lars Eller.
And most of this happened after what would’ve been a 3-2 goal for Ottawa was overturned thanks to a successful offside challenge from head coach Jared Bednar. Colorado followed that up by scoring five goals on eight shots in a span of 6:18.
The Senators also pulled off the double goalie switch. They started with Leevi Merilainen and he surrendered three goals on 12 shots. Then they put in Mads Sogaard, who let in five on 16 shots. To start the third, Merilainen was back in goal to finish the game.
So I ask again, where do we begin?
“I feel like I wasn’t really doing everything differently, it was just one of those nights,” Manson said.
Colorado opened the scoring at 10:11 of the first period. Manson’s point shot found the back of the net a few minutes after he exited the box for his fighting major. The Avs doubled the lead before the break thanks to MacKinnon’s 36th of the year.
To start the second, Makar wired one past Merilainen and that led to the goalie change. Ottawa found its groove and Pinto scored to make it 3-1. The Sens added another shortly after that, but it was wiped off because of the offside challenge.
Then the floodgates opened.
Necas tallied a power-play one-timer goal from near the goal line to make it 4-1 at 11:46. Seventeen seconds later, Brent Burns banked one in off a Senators defender. At 14:23, another power-play one-timer, this time from Nelson, made it 6-1. Manson added his second at 16:48 and Nelson scored again at 18:04 to make it 8-1 before the second intermission.
Brady Tkachuk scored a shorthanded goal in the third period to make it 8-2.
Good: The Bounceback Performance The Avs Needed
It’s often hard to forget that we were a third-period comeback in Carolina away from the Avs going 0-3 on their road trip.
Playing at home has been a massive success for the Avs this year, and they didn’t waste any time getting back in that groove. With the next six at home after this, the Avalanche got back to playing their game.
The top guys all showed up. But the depth pitched in too. Colton needed a game like this just to shake off the slump. MacKinnon continued to keep pace with Connor McDavid for the league lead. Manson was an absolute animal in every aspect of the game.
Ilya Solovyov, in just his third game back in the lineup, made an excellent pass to Nelson on his second goal.
And major props to Bednar for giving Manson power play time late in the third to try to complete the hat trick. The power play itself was solid, adding two goals.
Everything was coming up for the Avs (aside from the shorthanded goal) and it was the best way they could’ve bounced back from the two losses.
Bad: Things Got Way Too Chippy
The worst part about games like this is that the losing team is often going to start running around. The Senators did exactly that, led by Tkachuk, Ridly Greig, and Nick Cousins. They were finishing every check and trying to play for their pride.
Wedgewood got run into a couple of times. Necas was hit into the Ottawa bench. Cousins tried to fight Girard in the third after Girard had already fought Stutzle. The Sens wanted to take a piece out of the Avs.
“They’re gonna come hard, and they have, they have pride over there, and no one wants to be embarrassed, so you just got to play smart,” Nelson said. “Keep doing the right things. Try to have good habits. Just be aware of different things, different guys, or different plays.”
The officiating of that game was atrocious.
Depsite the crush, I still don’t like giving up a SHG.
Necas put in our fourth goal from an impossible angle.
Girard showed a lot of poise against a bunch of clowns.
I really wanted Manson to get the double Gordie, but he’s not a goon – even though there were legitimate reasons for him to do more enforcing. One should feel a little special when he beats the sh!t out of you.
As has been the case a couple times already this season – including the recent game against Seattle when he whooped Mason Marchment – this game turned on Josh Manson sending a physical message. It was pretty even to start, and then the Manimal laid out yet another would-be fight challenger, and it was all Avs after that. He’s been so incredibly valuable to this team, and tonight he shown the brightest in a game full of outstanding performances. I was a little surprised to learn this was only his 4th fight of the season (and 6th and 7th overall… Read more »
Alright you enjoyed the game, no need for a novel there Paul Sheldon. Lmao.
Very disappointed in Manson. Apparently there’s never been a double Gordie Howe (2 g, 2a, 2 fights) in the NHL. All he had to do was drop them in the 3rd and he’s in the record books. He probably wasn’t aware of this but someone should have told him. Otherwise he was fantastic. Don’t watch a lot of Avs but running the #1 PP out there when it was 8-1 and 8-2 was a little surprising and probably contributed at least somewhat to the chippiness. Not that long ago that would have led to a lot more fights. Not sure… Read more »
Avs PP has been awful all year. What can I say, they needed the live practice.
Whatever issue Ullmark has, his absence is very clearly hurting the Sens.
They ran PP1 when it was 8-1 because the Sens chief punks were running around taking liberties and Bednar wanted to make them pay for being classless a-holes. He did the same thing v Tampa in Game 2 of the ’22 Final at 6-0 when Palat cross-checked Makar. PP1 at 8-1 didn’t lead to the chippiness, the chippiness led to PP1.
Avs deserve to take a lap but Sens goaltending has been an issue for them all year.
Nelson has seemed pretty, pretty comfortable lasering shots from Mikko’s old office around the right dot.
Don’t want to jinx it but Manson playing in every game (and not recovering from something) so far this year has been big.
Agreed.
Super happy that Nelson is finally shooting from the right dot on the PP. He has a very good 1T. He’s a guy playing with swagger,and I hope he can keep that up through the playoffs..
Fingers crossed on Manson’s health! He’s a great contributor to the team in many ways when he’s healthy. He could barely hold his stick last season with that wrist injury.
Manson is one guy that I’m glad will be able to put his feet up during the Olympic break to get ready for the sprint that follows. Avs have been in a great rhythm. Will be interesting to see if they can turn it back on afterwards
The only thing anyone is really going to remember this game for, is as the night the Ottawa Senators season imploded from within.
Not sure if this Ullmark stuff is true. But the bizarre Staios statement. And the fact that no player or insider has come out to directly refute it. Leads me to believe there’s some truth there. If he gets dealt by tdl that’s all but confirmation. What a shit show.
What a gutless jerk Stutzle is. Picking a fight with the diminutive Girard. To Sammy’s credit, he did a helluva job. It would have been nice if Manson completed his double Gordie HT by fighting Stutzle.
Yep. Cousin’s probably needed it more as Sammy already sent Stutzle’s head against the ice. And big props to Aarif for selecting the moment Stutzle’s regret was realized as the featured image. 🙂
Total gongshow but highly entertaining. Loved seeing Girard play a tough guy’s role. Really bad goaltending and undisciplined play by Ottawa def didn’t hurt.
Has anyone figured how Stutzle skates by the puck to take a run at Sam Girard of all people, challenges him to fight, G drops him and somehow ends up with an extra 2 minutes? It’s a sincere question, I don’t get it.
Please let me know when you figure out NHL refereeing. I’d like to know…
No, we have not. The roughing minor on Girard made no sense.
Girard is simply trying to secure a puck between Amadio’s skates. Girard doesn’t even touch Amadio. Stutzle charges Girard in the definition of a non-hockey play. Girard did not even approach roughing on that play.
New nickname – Sammy “Stonehands” Girard. The “Sammy Shuffle.” Sorry for the cross reference to “Manos de Piedra” and Roberto Duran.