Breaking Down: Avs/Canucks, Game 59

In a game that alternated between frustrating and entertaining on a shift by shift basis, the Avs power play beat the Canucks 5-4 in overtime. The power play is something I believe needed fixing badly for far too long. I don’t think structurally it was any better but for one night it was effective at least.

Team Stats

The shot attempt battle ended in a flatfooted tie at 42 apiece but took many twists and turns to get there. The Avs decided to take a break late in the 2nd period where the Canucks built a 4-1 lead in the matter of 2:41. Unlike many times this has happened lately they found the drive to come back and score 2 themselves to start the 3rd only down 1. The Avs owned the 3rd with a 14-2 run and sent it to OT where Mack played hero once again.

I thought the defense looked sloppy all night but interesting to note that of the Canucks 42 shot attempts at 5v5, 11 were blocked, 13 missed and 18 hit the net. None of the Ds got buried really, Z was low man at +15/-19 while Duncan Siemens topped the charts at +9/-6.

The PK stopped 2 of 3, not great but they can’t be perfect every night. The power play was the star of the show, more specifically the PP1 unit, with all goals coming from those 5 players. Coming off a 17 game streak where it went 5 for 53, this was massively out of character. Here’s how a 5/6 night can effect perception, they went from 22nd in the league to 15th in the matter of a couple hours. Somehow they are now 5th in the NHL with 45 PPGs and the 5 from last night are 11% of their season total.

TOI

The defensive regime went Barrie, Z, Nemeth, Girard, Warsofsky, Siemens at 5v5 and the same overall with Nemeth/Z swapping once again thanks to PK time. Duncan was low man at 7 minutes 5v5 and 10:22 in all situations.

Top 6 forwards were Mack, Landy Mikko then a huge gap to Kerf, Compher, Nieto at 5v5. Overall it was Mack’s line again with a huge gap to Compher, Carl and Comeau. Yakupov was low man at 7:29 and didn’t play on the PP. So, why was he dressed?

Individual

– PP1 was the only offense last night, but it was prolific. Check this out:

• Barrie: 1G/4A
• Mack: 1G/3A
• Mikko: 1G/2A
• Landy: 1G/1A
• Jost: 1G

Not bad. Mack’s out of the scoring race but he’s still on pace for a total in the mid-90’s. Barrie is now on pace for a total in the mid-50’s despite missing 14 games. Mikko moved back close to a point per game and should hit the high 70’s at least.

– Tyson Jost has 3 goals in the last 5 games and 7 on the season. He’s starting to get it. What I don’t get is why he’s buried on the 4th line with Gabe Bourque and Nail Yakupov. I bet you don’t either. This man can help the team win games, he shouldn’t be 11th in forward TOI playing on the afterthought line.

– Duncan Siemens played his 2nd game of the season and his 6th NHL game of his career. He didn’t play much and aside from an optimistic rush on the PK played a smart, effective game. +9/-7 overall he also had 4 shot attempts in 7 minutes, 2 of them hitting the net. Not making a case for a noticeable increase in PT but a game like this is yards above the usual Anton Lindholm performance this season.

– Varly had an up and down game and scared the living daylights out of everyone when Mikko piled into him and he was slow to get up. He was fantastic in OT with 5 saves and had as much to do with the victory as Mack’s wonderful game-winner.

Burgundy Narrative Metric

– “Best guys being your best guys” gets a (+) Murderers Row is back
– Corsi gets a (+) yeah, it’s the Canucks but it’s also progress
– Power Play gets a (+) for the first time in forever
– Turtle gets a (-) although it happened in the 2nd
– Varly% gets a (+) please don’t be hurt….
– Referee Oppression Index gets a (+) Didn’t really like a lot of the calls but I bet the Canucks really hated this crew.

Total: +4¾

/ / / / / /

The Avs are in Edmonton for some curling on the off day and yet another game against McDavid tomorrow.