The dumpster fire that was the Stadium Series game, while only a week ago, feels like a very distant nightmare after a blue-collar week of hockey from the Avs. A few of this week’s result don’t necessarily look sexy from afar, but they gave me assurance that this team is going to be fine. Some of you are probably reading this after last week’s blog and thinking that I’m a lunatic, and you would not be wrong, but its the only way I know. Hockey season is an absolute rollercoaster of emotions for me and I don’t know how to get off, so at the start of every season, I put my seatbelt on and hope that I make it all the way through. It’s not always fun, and its certainly not healthy, but I simply can’t stop now. If that sounds like the kind of person you want to hear about hockey from then let’s get into it.
While this week was undeniably a success it started with some serious turbulence. The Avalanche had a one-goal lead on the Tampa Bay Lightning going into the second period Monday night, and then things took a sharp downhill turn. The Lightning scored three straight goals, and then things got BAD. Mikko Rantanen was tripped and went flying shoulder first into the end boards. Something I, myself, am very familiar with. Except when I do it people usually laugh. No one was laughing when Mikko went down, and for good reason, it looked like it could be a potentially season-ending injury. Thankfully it appears that the undisclosed upper-body injury will only keep him out a few weeks instead of a few months. The Avs came back to steal a point when they sent the game into overtime, but the highlight of the third period was Mackinnon’s monstrous reverse hit. Ondrej Palat came flying across the ice, and MacK absolutely emasculated him with a hit that drew attention from Palats teammates, mayhem ensued. Lightning players that came after MacK were met by the Ryan Graves instead, and he wasn’t gonna take any shit. Graves protected his superstar and didn’t have to drop the gloves to do it, the kid just gets it. Overall just getting the point felt like a huge win in what could have been an incredibly demoralizing game.
In Wednesday nights contest against the Islanders, the Avs began their workmanlike performances. They recorded a goal in each period and really limited the offensively incompetent Isles. Andre Burakovsky added another goal to his already impressive numbers. Burky’s ability to shoot the puck has been huge for an Avs offense that could really have struggled with all the injuries this season. While Burakovsky’s abilities have been on display all season, Avs fans finally got to see NHL rookie Martin Kaut make his debut. Kaut was the 16th overall pick in the 2018 draft, but at 18 years old was a project pick. Now 20 years old and with 20+ pounds of muscle added since then, he might be starting to find his groove. The Avalanche initially drafted him as a skilled forward with good size, but to be an NHL regular he was tasked to find a way to find a grittier side to his game. From all accounts, that’s what he’s done in his time with the AHL affiliate (Colorado Eagles) and that’s why he got the call-up. While Kaut was making his debut fellow rookie Cale Makar was back on his bullshit, being just really really fucking good at hockey. Makar had yet another multi-point night (2 apples), but maybe his best play was on the one goal he didn’t assist on. Makar drove the net from the point skating by Mat Barzal (you know the guy who won the NHL fastest skater at the All-Star game) and slinging a puck through the crease that found its way to Graves, then MacKinnon, and was then tipped in by Landeskog. That is what we call a perfect goal, every skater on the ice touches the puck one by one and then the puck ends up in the back of the net. It was the perfect way to wrap up a dominant performance and head onto the road.
I gotta be honest here, I was at the bar for both the Kings and Ducks games. I’m a 24-year-old kid that isn’t paid to do this so every once in a while I like to try and have a normal life. I have a pretty sporadic attention span on a good day when you add alcohol and a bunch of people to that, its not exactly a recipe for success. I did my best though and even streamed pretty much the whole Kings game on my phone like the fuckin nerd that I am. What I remember from those games though it does not seem like I truly missed that much. I mean the Avs scored two goals in two games and came away with two wins. I have no stats to back it up, but that’s gotta be the first time in franchise history they’ve done that during a back to back. The last thing I’ll add on these games is that I had no clue Donskoi had hands like he showed on that Shootout game-winner. I mean he absolutely undressed Jonathan Quick, so bad in fact that Quick promptly snapped his stick into a million pieces right after the puck went in.
If you watched the Avs this week you’re probably thinking to yourself “why hasn’t this moron mentioned Pavel Francouz at all?”. Well, have no fear that’s what’s about to happen. Frankie had such an incredible week that it would have been a massive disservice to just mention it in passing. Francouz started all four games this week including both games during the California back to back. And to cap it all off he was awarded the NHLs first star of the week. During those games, Francouz obviously went 3-0-1 and posted a GAA of 1.46 and .941 save percentage. Most importantly though he got his first career NHL shutout against the Ducks. He was one or two bounces away from three straight shutouts in fact. Frankie has been a fucking rock all season long, and he should have gotten this shutout much earlier this season, but that’s neither here nor there. The Avs are blessed to have one of the best goaltending tandems in the NHL, and with Grubi out for significant time Francouz is going to need to continue his stellar play. Also worth noting here that the Avs just re-signed Francouz to a well earned two-year extension.
That’s it that’s all. Altogether that was really an incredible week of hockey and proved that the Avs can win low scoring games with some consistency. The snow is gooooooood. See yall next week.
P.S. The 40th anniversary of the Miracle On Ice was this Saturday. Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the last 40 years I’m sure you’re well aware of that game and its significance not only in hockey but in politics as well. The legendary announcer Al Michaels has an incredible line during the broadcast, “I’m sure there are a lot of people watching this game who don’t know the difference between a blue line and a clothesline, it’s irrelevant”. I remember talking to my dad about the game, and about how much it mattered to the American public. His mother (my grandmother) had never seen a single second of hockey, but he says even she made sure to watch the game when it was finally televised. That’s what that team of college kids meant to the whole country. Hockey and sports, in general, can sometimes transcend themselves and those moments are so powerful. If you’re not familiar with the whole thing I can’t recommend the movie “Miracle” enough, not only does it tell the story, but Kurt Russell puts on a stellar performance. If you don’t get fired up watching that movie we probably aren’t going to get along very well, and you might just be unamerican.
P.S.S. I’m planning on doing a little blog later this week covering the deadline deals. This little write-up has taken up enough of my night.
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The Snow Report 