Breaking Down: Avs/Blues, Game #2
Much like opening night I don’t think we should be taking a ton from this game, but this time it was fun. The Avs compete level was under scrutiny here and they answered Wednesday’s no-show with a dominant performance. There is still a little rust and sloppiness to work out over the next few games but they’re ready for business.
Projectile Lineup
Coach Bednar made a couple of tweaks to lines and pairs but no subs. Captain Gabe moved up to the top line completing the 3-Headed Monster once again. Andre Burakovsky moved from 1LW to 2RW, which I think is a good call. He’s versatile but much more dangerous overall on the right side. Brandon Saad moved from RW to left on that line as well. Ryan Graves moved up to play with Sam Girard with Sam switching from left to right. Conor Timmins played primarily with Ian Cole. The top pair, bottom 6 forwards and Grubi in net remained the same.
Attack
Landy – Mack – Mikko
Saad – Kadri – Burky
Nuke – Compher – Donny
Jost – PEB – Calvert
D
Toews – Makar
Graves – Girard
Cole – Timmins
Gardiens
Grubi
Frank
Scratch: none
Injured: EJ (COVID protocol)
EJ will come out of COVID protocol today and Bo Byram’s quarantine will be complete. Both will skate while everyone else has the day off. As of right now it’s unclear where Byram will be placed but Shane Bowers and Logan O’Connor appear to be headed off the taxi squad, the guess is to make room for Byram and Timmins.
Team Stats
Active officiating was the underlying story of the night with a combined 11 power plays and a 4v4 stretch in P1. There was basically one stretch of 5v5 that lasted for about 14 minutes and the rest of the time was special teams or recovering from same. No flow. The Avs got their first 5v5 goal of the season from the captain after 84 minutes of play and from there went bananas. 4 goals each in P2 & P3 in just under 31 minutes. Impressive.
Tale of the tape at 5v5 was +28/-23 and expected goals came in at +1.12/-0.45. Shots on goal in all situations heavily favored Colorado 38-21. Game pace was a hideously slow 74 shots per hour. Part of that was all the special teams chopping up the game and part of it was St Louis just not shooting the puck ever.
Andre Burakovsky continued his PPG per game pace with Mikko, Kadri, Mack and Toews joining the party. The power play went 5-for-7 tying a franchise marque. Just for the record I don’t think they’ll keep a 63% pace all year, I’ll be happy with a third of that. PK shut down all 4 St Louis chances to keep their perfect start intact.
TOI
Top 6 forwards at 5v5 were Jost (13:04), Calvert, Compher, Bellemare, Saad and Kadri (9:27). In all situations it was Kadri, Compher, Calvert, Mack, Jost and Mikko. Ok then. Burky was low man at 8:16 5v5 and 11:52 overall. There was a lot of the Blendar working early then once score effects took over the top 6 got a lot of rest.
The defensive regime went Girard, Graves, Toews, Makar, Timmins and Cole. Overall it was Girard (23), Graves (22+), Toews (21), Makar (19), Timmins (15) and Cole (14+).
Individual
The 3HM had 10 points combined, Landy got his 200th NHL goal and Mikko his 100th. Solid.
While Cale Makar bounced back from a grisly opening game with a couple of electric scoring chances, Sam Girard showed why he’s the defensive leader of the Avs. He did it all and in all situations. At this point he’s the top shutdown defender while also leading the team in shots on goal. Shoutout to Devon Toews for his first Avalanche goal and a solid game overall. I think we’re really going to like this guy.
Grubi didn’t see a lot of work but crafted a shutout while notching his 2nd career assist on Burky’s power play goal. Nice job.
I think the main downside to this series was that there was little time when both teams were competitive concurrently. We didn’t get to measure where both teams are when they’re on it, so that will remain a mystery until perhaps early February when we get a back-to-back of day games in St Louis.
Burgundy Narrative Metric
– “Best guys being your best guys” gets a (+) great leadership and production from the 3HM
– Quality vs Quantity gets a (-) little of either, next big step is fixing this
– Power Play Watchability gets a (+) a lot of these were garbage but 5 goals is 5 goals
– The Dreaded Turtle gets a (+) kept pushing even after STL waved the white flag
– Starting Goalie Battle% gets a (+) offensive and defensive threat, booyah
– Referee Oppression Index gets a (-) a little active for me in the early stages. I did like that they shut down the Blues before any trash behavior got started in mop-up time
Total: +2¾
Next up
A trip to LA to play the Kings (Tues, Thurs) and the Duck (Fri, Sun). Both these teams gave the Avs big trouble last year. 6 points is definitely the target, less than 5 means trouble.
Thanks as always to the NHL and Natural Stat Trick for numbers and visuals
