By Maeve Hushman, Staff Writer
The Avalanche had another slow week this week, only playing two games. They lost to Columbus again, this time in regulation, 4-2 and beat the Canucks 7-1.
I was fortunate enough to attend the Canucks and Avalanche game. The Canucks goaltender, Thatcher Demko, is from my home city and his aunt works with my mom, so I went specifically to cheer him on. However, despite the fact I made a sign for him complete with a requested message from his aunt, I was unable to go down to the ice where the Canucks were warming up. I had to stand at the bar, high up and wave the sign around hoping he could see it. The friend I went with (Mandy) was great as she tried to help me get to warm-ups and up to the ice. However even with this snafu, I did enjoy the game immensely.
There is a lot of talk about NHL fans and NHL arenas. The Leafs notoriously have a very quiet arena, but quiet is not at all how I would describe Ball Arena. It is loud, fun, welcoming, and high energy. Ball Arena has a great atmosphere mostly because Avs fans are great. They are passionate about their team and really show up. It gets loud and the sound of the entire arena singing Blink 182’s “All the Small Things” completely acapella will be ringing in my ears for a while. Even if you are sitting in the nosebleeds like I was, the people who go to Avs games always seem excited to be there and that makes even the cheap seats worth the experience. It is a wonderful place to attend your first hockey game (as my friend Mandy did that night) or your 100th. If you can find those $25 nosebleed tickets, maybe give Ball Arena and the Avalanche a try. Just remember to dress warm, cheer loudly, and know the lyrics to “All the Small Things”.
Now that I’ve said my piece on the spectator experience here are some takeaways from games 10 and 11:
Things to fix:
Play a full 60 minutes...I can’t say anything more. This team seems pathologically unable to give a full game effort when the games get tough and believe me I wish I could tell you why. Mikko Ratananen in his post game press conference said, “In the third it felt like we didn’t have our legs on either side of the puck,” and “Sometimes it looks like we’re kind of effortless.” Rantanen is very self-aware and he also isn’t satisfied by that effort which is at least a good sign. The whole team looks frustrated at times but they haven’t been able to convert that anger into a sustained effort. Darcy Kuemper was the only thing keeping the Avalanche in the second game against Columbus. The Blue Jackets outshot the Avalanche every period after the first, and even though the Avs had a 2-1 lead well into the third the Blue Jackets were out-playing them. The team keeps doing this and it is incredibly frustrating to watch. The team doesn’t lack talented or hard working players but they are consistently being outworked by other teams. It is between the ears with the Avalanche and they will have to do a lot of reflection to figure out how they can maintain a sustainable and dominant effort throughout the whole game. You cannot always rely on sheer talent on paper to win games (as this Leafs fan knows all too well).
The Avalanche are an offensively dominant and creative team who cannot connect on a pass, someone please make it make sense. The amount of turnovers the Avalanches allow and the way that their passes seem to be easily interrupted and picked up has been an underlying problem. For a while, I at least gave the team the benefit of the doubt, it takes time to build up chemistry and the team had so much turnover in the roster with injuries, COVID, suspensions, and new signings. However, we are past the first ten game threshold right now and there should be some semblance of chemistry developing or establishing itself. Even in the dominant performance against the Canucks there were a few dramatic dropped or missed passes that a team better than the Canucks would’ve taken advantage of. The team lost a lot of depth pieces in the off season and it appears that those losses have hit harder than expected. It can no longer be ignored or given the simple “just wait a bit” explanation as we get deeper into the season. An offensively dominant team needs to control possession in order to pose any kind of threat and turning over the puck so easily on missed passes is a big no.
My advice to remedy this would be to simplify the game a bit. Stay speedy, but sometimes the Avalanche complicate things unnecessarily because they are so offensively creative. Sometimes the most unexpected or complex play isn’t the best play. There is usually a high risk to reward ratio when it comes to complicated plays, and when you are up 2-1 you don’t need the reward enough to put that lead at risk. It’s all about Hockey IQ and decision making. This team has a lot of young pieces which still have a lot to learn and adjustments to make, even though one of the youngest players on the team, Bowen Byram, looks like a veteran player out there at times. There are also just new pieces on the roster in general that need to figure out how they fit and establish trust with their teammates. Hopefully that team bonding will help in general with the amount of turnovers made because of missed connections, but in general if the Avalanche maintain possession of the puck and keep their plays more safe and simple in those moments
Again with me repeating myself, but unfortunately we still have to talk about the power play. The back pass is a move very well known for making or breaking a power play (at least in my experience) and the Avs seem to be relying on it. However, the person who has the speed to make it work is Nathan MacKinnon and that makes the back pass predictable. The back pass cannot work without speed so when the second unit tries it, sure it is less predictable but it doesn’t have the potential to work as well. I know about the finicky drop pass because the Leafs used to do it all the time in their powerplay when it was broken. When the speed isn’t there or the other team defends against the biggest star the powerplay can’t get set up. So, finding alternatives to those back passes might make the power play more dangerous. The Avalanche did score twice on the power play in the game against the Canucks, but the Canucks penalty kill is the worst in the league, which should be noted. I also refuse to believe that the answer to the power play is removing Nathan MacKinnion because that was the biggest noticeable change, since MacKinnon was out with injury. Although, maybe having MacKinnon out of the lineup made the power play less predictable.
The game against the Canucks was impressive in general, but I will not be convinced of this team's longevity and ability until I see them win against a team with a strong defensive system. The Canucks are known for their inability to defend, despite a decent blue line showing this year. However, the Avs lost two games in a row to the Columbus Blue Jackets, a team that is known for being defensively strong. The Avalanche play incredibly against teams with weak defensive systems, but teams with good defensive systems stop up the star players and make it impossible for the Avs to look like themselves, see both Blue Jackets games and the game against Vegas. The game against the Canucks was fun and definitely brought some good energy and momentum to the team, but the Canucks have a horrible defense, and even though they have some offensive talent, their top line talent has not been performing at all. They rank 26th in the league for goals per game. Therefore, while a 7-1 victory is nothing to turn your nose up at, it really doesn’t mean much unless the Avalanche use that momentum to defeat teams with legitimate competitive and defensive chops.
Positives:
I think this will be the third article in a row I tout Darcy Kuemper. Even Head Coach Jared Bednar praised the goalie’s performance. As I watched the Columbus game, when the third period came around I thought, “Dang the Avs are going to win this not because they deserve to but because Darcy Kuemper is standing on his head.” Kuemper single handedly kept them in the game. He has been covering for the team's defensive lapses. His performance in that Columbus game is the one Avalanche player other than Burakovsky who had a great game. While the Canucks game didn’t test him much, he still did an excellent job in that game.
Andre Burakovsky is back and better than ever. His effort gave the Avalanche the lead in the Columbus game. It was a great individual effort from Burakovsky in his return. It was the best he had looked all season. It is a very good omen for the future since Burakovsky is playing in the top six. Hopefully having him back as a scoring threat will lead to more chances for that top six as it becomes more difficult to defend all of them. That could be seen in the Canucks game in which seven games were scored by seven different players. It was a great sign for the Avs existing reputation as an offensive powerhouse. The amount of players scoring in the Canucks game also speaks greatly to how deep the team is offensively even without star player Nathan MacKinnon.
The Avalanche had an almost completely healthy D-core in the line-up in the game against the Canucks. Bowen Byram left the game in the second but before then the Avs full D-core was assembled, and it looked great. They were absolutely dominant in the game against the Canucks. However, it must be noted that the Canucks are below the NHL average for goals for and their offense wasn’t giving much of a fight at all. It is trying to parse out two influences, were the Avalanche playing really well or are the Canucks really bad? I think the Avalanche looked like the best team on the ice by a long shot. That is a positive sign. Taking a huge win out, even if it was against a bad team, is a huge moral booster. That game against the Canucks could be what it takes to kick start the Avs back into their normal dominant performance.
Conclusion:
Avs fans are great, and they deserve a team which plays well and scores on the power play. They deserve a team who can win games 2-1 and 7-1. Hopefully, despite the fact that star center Nathan MacKinnon will be out of the line up for a couple weeks, the win over Vancouver and the lessons learned in the loss against Columbus will be what it takes to get this team to perform. If they can utilize all of the positive energy and emotion coming off that Vancouver game, they can go on a tear and assume their rightful place at the top of the Central division. If they use that momentum, they will show up and win for all those Avs fans who make going to games so worthwhile.