Breaking Down: Avs/Devils, Game #7
The Avs took down the last undefeated team with a strong performance in New Jersey last night. The 5-3 score was misleading thanks to ECHL-level officiating but they persevered anyway. Ten points from the top line, including Captain Gabe’s 3rd career hat trick, was the difference.
Projectile Lineup
Sven Andrighetto made his season debut after missing the first 6 games with LBI. JT Compher was put on injured reserve in advance of Marko Dano joining the team once he gets his immigration papers in order. Compher was skating yesterday but it appears he’s not close. The staff could have just sent Dries to the Eagles so it appears they like him on the roster, for now. It’s going to be tough for Barbs to make the lineup this year, he’s been the designated healthy scratch every game they’ve needed one.
Scratch: Dries, Barbs
Injured: Compher (Haut du Corps)
Team Stats
There’s not much to focus on here since there were 11 power plays and over 17 minutes of special teams situations. As you can see from the chart below there was absolutely no flow to this game but once the refs did put the whistles away the Avs dominated.
Tale of the tape was +36/-27 at 5v5 and Shots on Goal were 34-30 overall. That’s borderline low event but with no flow it’s no surprise. The sneaky bad stat of the night was having just one high-danger scoring chance at 5v5 while giving up 7 to New Jersey. This has been a trend all year and a very disturbing one at that.
The power play was 1/6 and PP1 was back to looking awful again other than a highlight reel score off the rush by Landy. Vlad Kamenev made his debut on PP2 and looked fantastic. That group has been the only bright spot so far and I would advocate for benching the top unit in favor of them whenever possible.
The PK had their weakest night of the season, letting up 2 goals which doubles their season total. This was pretty much inevitable with the amount of penalties the Avs are taking but it still hurts. The Hischier goal was legitimate but Boyle’s goal in the 3rd came on a phantom tripping call that was just part of the nightmare the officials inflicted upon anyone watching the game.
TOI
Nathan MacKinnon led all forwards in 5v5 ice time with less than 15 minutes, followed by Mikko, Landy, Calvert, Nieto and Soderberg. In all situations it was the top line again then Carl, Kerf and Jost. Adrighetto was low man with 10 minutes total. Kamenev was low man at 5v5 but still played over 12 and a half minutes thanks to lots of PP time and some PK shifts.
The defensive regime went Johnson, Nemeth, Cole, Zadorov, Girard, Barrie at 5v5 then EJ, Nemo, Sam, Barrie, Cole, Z in all situations. Sam Girard’s 5v5 time has been slipping since the opening week in favor of the defensive guys like Cole and Nemo. Probably not a smart thing to do but coaches love being risk-averse.
Individual
– Those that doubted the top line could back up last year’s performance could be in for a plate of crow. All 3 are in the top 25 for scoring so far and averaging more than a point per game. Mikko’s on a 152 point pace, Mack 129 and Gabe 94. Spoiler: They won’t end up like that but they can definitely surpass last year’s totals. Gabe had a hat trick last night, Mack had assists 2, 3 & 4 and Mikko had a goal and 3 assists of his own.
Mikko’s shown a whole new level so far this year. The big knocks have been that he doesn’t use his size and falls down all the time. He’s staying upright this year and making Forsbergian moves like flattening opponents when he has the puck. On Gabe’s 3rd goal he went behind the net and bowled over 2 defenders, while he had the puck, then moved it to Landy wide open in the slot. Even his empty-netter was powerful, tossing aside former Avs prospect Will Butcher with one hand while popping the clincher in the net with the other. Stunning.
– Vlad Kamenev has gradually been given more responsibility by the staff and he keeps passing the tests. Against the Rangers he was a PK staple, last night he got a shot at playing with PP2 and looked fantastic. Playing with Sven and Bourque at 5v5 they were a solid 4th line and even a little dangerous in the o-zone. We still need to see more but he’s earning the trust of the staff game by game and should be on the verge of moving up the lineup soon.
– Big Z had the kind of game we all want to see regularly. He was engaged and physical and made Drew Stafford his personal whipping boy. He was a +14/-7 at 5v5, tops on the team and tied with his partner Patrik Nemeth. I’d rather see him break apart the hideous Cole/Barrie pairing and get back with TB4 like at the end of last year but he and Nemeth have been so solid together it’s not a bad spot for him right now.
– Philipp Grubauer made his second start and got his first win for the Avs. He looked like a guy that hasn’t played much, which is going to be the case until Varly stops being amazing. He had no chance on the first goal and the other two came on a delayed penalty that wasn’t a penalty and another penalty that wasn’t a penalty. I’ll leave the style analysis to the experts but I’ll characterize his game as satisfactory.
Burgundy Narrative Metric
– “Best guys being your best guys” gets a (+) 10 points from the top line, you bet
– Quality vs Quantity gets a (-) Little of either and the lack of quality is a big issue
– Power Play Watchability gets a (-) Terrible, if Ray Bennett had hair he’d be tearing it out watching PP1 screw up every single time.
– The Dreaded Turtle gets a (+) 3 goals and 13 shot attempts in the last 12 minutes, nice
– Starting Goalie Battle% gets a (+) for Grubby but not a strong one
– Referee Oppression Index gets a (+) This was one of the most unwatchable and poorly officiated NHL games I’ve ever seen. The officials destroyed what could have been a very enjoyable evening between two young and fast teams. The refs had several phantom calls on both sides, the linesmen flat out refused to drop the puck until they psyched out one of the centers and threw someone out. Every. Single. Time. Hopefully the Avs and Devils management takes advantage of private channels to the league to complain about these morons.
Total: +3¼
Next up
The Avs arrived in beautiful North Carolina last night for an afternoon game tomorrow against the Canes.
Thanks as always to the NHL and Natural Stat Trick for numbers and visuals
