Breaking Down: Avs/Hawks, Game #75

The Avs put a dagger in Chicago’s season with a key stretch win. The Hawks really needed to take both ends of the home & home to stay in the mix so this was far from an easy afternoon. Resiliency is back.

Projectile Lineup

The big news is that Mikko Rantanen didn’t dress and won’t for a little while. Coach Bednar said it was somewhat beyond day-to-day so we’ll see. Captain Gabe is ahead of schedule but even so getting in a game before the regular season ends would be a surprise. Vlad Kamenev took to the ice with the other walking wounded for the first time in months. He won’t play this season but it’s promising as far as what he can do for conditioning this summer. Aggz returned to the lineup with Mikko out and we kept the same 11F/7D regime.

Scratch: Mikko (UBI), Landy (shoulder), Nieto (LBI), Barbs (LBI)
Injured: Kamenev (shoulder)

Team Stats

The first period was played at a high pace on the ice if not the shot board and with very few whistles. The Hawks gradually took control towards the end and began a 21-4 run that lasted until the penaltyfest began around halfway. The teams traded goals during that run then the Avs took the lead for good with a Colin Wilson score 5v3. The 3rd began with Andrighetto making it 3-1 and then score effects took over but not nearly to the extent we saw in Dallas on Thursday. Chicago got within 1 with 8 minutes to go but an ENG from Brassard sealed it.

Tale of the tape at 5v5 was +33/-50 and the Hawks led shots on goal in all situations 31-25. Chicago did most of their dangerous shooting in the first where they were +12/-4 but it was even afterwards. Shot pace at 5v5 was only 114 per hour which is misleading. This was a fast game with lots of back and forth, just not near the nets.

The power play scored for the first time in forever but it was at 5v3 and the normal PP looked as pathetic as ever. The were 1-5 overall vs the worst PK in the league. The Avs 27th ranked PK had a fine afternoon stopping all 3 chances.

TOI

Top 6 forwards at 5v5 were Mack, Carl, Compher, Kerfoot, Wilson and Calvert. In all situations it was Compher (24:43, tops on team), Mack, Carl, Wilson, Kerfoot then a big gap to Calvert (14:55). Agozzino was low man at 6:55 and Bourque took the honors at 5v5 with 6:40.

The defensive regime went EJ, Big Z, Barrie, Girard, Cole, Nemeth and Graves. Overall it was EJ (23+), Sam (18+), Barrie (18), Cole (17), Z (16+), Nemeth (13) and Graves (6). Graves was low man on the team and only had a handful of even strength shifts.

Individual

– The goal of the power play is to score and the Avs efficiency there is in the top 10 of the league. As far as generating shots and shots on goal they sit towards the bottom of the pack. It works but it’s ugly and depends mainly on opponents randomly making mistakes rather than forcing teams to make mistakes. This is something to study in the off-season but the feeling I get is that power play scoring is random and not something the team can depend on when needed. Stats for the sake of stats rather than being a strong part of the Avs attack plan.

– With the victory the Avs moved back into the 2nd wild card slot for the moment. Arizona got a point for an OTL in Jersey and the Wild got smoked by Carolina. As noted above the Hawks needed both of these head-to-head games to stay relevant and now sit 6 points out going into tonight. The Yotes visit NYI today and with a win and an Avs loss will regain the 8th spot, dicey. The Wilds play Nashville tomorrow. The Avs have Monday and Tuesday off then play Vegas but the big game vs Arizona looms on Friday.

Burgundy Narrative Metric

– “Best guys being your best guys” gets a (+) best guys are gone so yay depth
– Quality vs Quantity gets a (-) very little of either
– Power Play Watchability gets a (-) the saga continues
– The Dreaded Turtle gets a (+) not a bad one but it was there
– Starting Goalie Battle% gets a (+) another quality start for Groob
– Referee Oppression Index gets a (+) Didn’t care for this crew much but I bet Chicago was somewhat less impressed.

Total: +2¾

Next up

On to Chicago for the back end of the home and home this evening

Thanks as always to the NHL and Natural Stat Trick for numbers and visuals