Friday, May 3, 2019

The Superstar

At some point in all of the hitting, cussing, punching, hustle and heart, playoff hockey comes down to the stars. Much ink has been spilled here about the impact of third line wingers, but in the end the story comes down to whether or not a team’s top players performed or were punished. 

In the last two years Nathan MacKinnon has developed into a player who is on a very short list of stars in the NHL. Last season he had every right to win the Hart Trophy as MVP of the league. This playoff season the young Avalanche superstar has begun to stake his claim on history. 

With a goal in the midst of a game he took over, the puck was batted not once, but twice out of the air by MacKinnon as he moved into territory not seen by any Avalanche or Nordique that came before him. He has now gathered a point in eight straight playoff games. Neither Joe Sakic or Peter Forsberg managed such an accomplishment. Nor did Michel Goulet or any of the Stastny brothers or children. Nobody in franchise history as been so consistent in the playoffs. Has the time come for us to consider Nathan MacKinnon to be one of the greats? Not quite yet, but soon. The future for Nathan MacKinnon remains as tantalizing as his present and that is a main reason why this playoff run has become so fun. 

—>

Five Thoughts

1. Jekyll versus Hyde

So far this series the Avalanche have shown that they can both dominate and disappoint. Game four saw the good Avalanche finally arrive in Denver after an uneven performance in the previous game. This time around they dominated. What are we to make of this team?! What am I seeing?! Why can’t I stop shouting?! 

The first half of the season we were treated to a juggernaut that was mainly dragged along by its top line. In stark contrast, the second half of the season begat a squad that attempted to diversify its talent and failed miserably. In the playoffs it seems that the Avalanche have finally responded to the change. Suddenly they are a deep, dominant team and the result is as awesome to watch as it is confounding. 

2. But also...

...Great goaltending helps. 

Gruuuuuuuuu!

3. So about that grinder award I made up and gave to Matt Nieto. 

(Sipping coffee) Yeah...about that. We’re gonna need you to give it Matt Calvert. Thanks. 

4. Authentic Frontier Jibberish

Until tonight Brent Burns was content to go full Mongo on the Avalanche. With at least one point in every game it wasn’t hard to see how the toothless Yeti was keeping the Avalanche pinned behind a piano. That all went up in smoke like a candy gram with Burns seeing no points and a minus-three. He was instrumental in allowing every goal by the Avalanche and was undressed more than once by speedier Avalanche players. He’ll be back, but tonight Mongo was merely a pawn in the game of life. 

5. Up Next

The puck remains in Denver for one more game as the Avalanche continue to take advantage of the Sharks by out-sprinting them at altitude. I expect the Sharks to bounce back but the Avs have the momentum. Let’s call it a victory for the home team in Game Five. 

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Oh, Mylanta

DNP Game 3 Sharks vs Avs

In game three against the Sharks, the Avalanche fumbled their way around the ice as they succumbed to a wholly unwelcome return of the neutral zone trap. It was a throwback to everything I hated about hockey in the nineties. All it needed was Peter Forsberg wearing half the Kings as a backpack and I would have settled in for a long springtime nap. 

San Jose put up a wall of grizzled, toothless gorillas at the opposing blue line who sucked the life out of the Avalanche offense for the majority of the game, and I’m not just talking about the shapeshifting yeti otherwise known as Brett Burns This series is becoming a study of San Jose forwards who I didn’t pay attention to in fantasy hockey drafts coming back to bite me.  (Thanks bunches Evander Kane, Timo Meier, Gustav Nyquist, and Kevin Labanc!)

By the time Nate MacKinnon snapped a wicked wrister by Martin Jones the Avalanche had spent half the game trying to outrace what the Sharks threw at them. But even when they did, their lack of puck possession skills betrayed them harder than Ross betrayed Rachel on Friends (or whatever other 90’s reference I can come up with that hasn’t been beaten into the ground by a wave of millennial induced nostalgia. Will and Grace? Something, something, Courtney Love’s heroin guy? I’ve got nothing.) 

With the loss the Avalanche drop their home ice advantage that they had secured a mere two days ago and risk losing control of their stake in the series. Though I feel they aren’t done after this. There is still a lot of life left in this pony.  

—-> 

Five Thoughts 

He Was on a Break!

Seeing Nathan MacKinnon doing Nathan MacKinnon things has become almost passé at times. At any one time he is the absolute best player on the ice. But I’m waiting for Mikko Rantanen to do something big against the Sharks. Tonight, aside from a couple of flashes, Mikko was essentially invisible. The entire team seemed to have grease on their stick blades but Rantanen was gone for long stretches, having been largely neutralized by San Jose. If the Avalanche are to even things up number ninety-six needs to get engaged, and he needs to do it without being put back with MacK and Landy. The Avs can’t afford to be one line deep against the Sharks much longer. 

Matt Nieto‘s Big Adventure

Upon scoring his fourth goal of the playoffs on a fluky bounce off of his skate I officially declare that I have no idea what I’m talking about and recognize that the Shjon Podein/Mike Keene Super Grinder Torch of Honor has been passed to Matt Nieto. I await with baited breath the next goal that he scores off of his ass so that I can see another shot of him on the bench laughing like he just won a Carolina Panthers beer koozie in a nearby crane game. 

Have Goalie Will Travel

It isn’t a secret that the Avalanche are in the playoffs largely because of the late season efforts of Philipp Grubauer. Despite doing their best to give the Sharks the puck tonight, Grubauer kept the Avs in the game. Since watching Semyon Varlamov breakdance his way down the depth chart after being the beneficiary of what I can only assume was extreme nepotism it’s nice to have a guy consistently stand on his head in the crease for the Avalanche again. I’d like to go a while without having to act like I’ve been paying attention to Washington’s goalie pipeline while having David Aebischer flashbacks. 

The Glue

Am I to believe, simply based on his absence and the subsequent result, that Matt Calvert is the straw that breaks the back of opposing teams? After watching the likes of J.T. Compher, Carl Soderberg, Sven Andrighetto, and Rene Bourque stab at the puck tonight like a bunch of fifth graders poking a dead rat I’m starting to believe it. I spent my entire previous DNP extolling the virtues of Tyson Barrie but now I’m wondering if I should have devoted a few hundred words to Calvert instead. If Bulldog hadn’t been brutalized by Brent Burns on a hit that made my molars hurt there is a chance that he gets under the skin of San Jose and the Avs find a way to win. 

So I’m Saying There’s A Chance?

The Avalanche were not as bad as I’m making it out to be. They didn’t get the bounces against San Jose and the fact that they tied the game is a testament to their teamwork and heart. I’m starting to love this Avalanche squad, and that is saying a lot since part of me has been slowly dying over the past fifteen or so years while the Avs have nestled into consistent mediocrity. The pieces are there for the Avs to shock San Jose. 

They sport three fast defenseman (Barrie, Girard, and Makar) who back up an interesting mix of power forward types (MacK, Landy, Wilson, Soderberg). They can hit (Zadorov), they can lock people down (Johnson), and they are pesky (Calvert, Cole, and Nieto). 

The question at this point is can they do it consistently? I’m betting in the next game they show they can. If I’m right, this will be the kind of game four that opens a lot of eyes around the league to the dawn of a new age for the Avalanche. One that us old timers have been waiting for for a long time.  If I’m wrong, then it’s back to another offseason of waiting for the kids to grow up. 

We’ll see. 

Monday, April 29, 2019

Trade Barrie!

Throughout the years one of my hobbies has been to pay attention to the Avalanche fans who doggedly pursue the one player they think is the reason the Avalanche are failing to win. 

Occasionally these people, who presumably spend their free time shouting at rocks, clouds, or John Elway, will target a player and actually be correct. Like, for example, Matt Duchene, who was miscast as a top line center and lacked the motivation to be one. But mostly the scorned Avalanche player du jour is generally undeserving of the wrath that is heaped upon him. Take for example Paul Stastny and Ryan O’Reilly. 

Those gentlemen were hard working, defensively responsible, and the kind of players a team needs to succeed even if they are not superstars. Yet during their tenure in Colorado, they drew the ire of critics who felt their salaries were too high while their contributions were too thin. As with any stereotype, there is a nugget of truth. Those two did not always work well on the team and their frustrations with the direction the Avalanche were going at the time influenced their play. However, once they were gone, the Avalanche spent a considerable amount of capital and draft picks trying to replace them. 

This brings us to Tyson Barrie. During the swoon that hit the team in December that erased the team’s massive gains from early in the season, at any given time, in any given comments section under an Avalanche article there would be a comment to trade Barrie. “He’s soaking up salary while not playing defense!” howled the commenters as they gnashed their teeth and shook their fists, presumably at twin posters of Joe Sakic and John Elway (whom I’m throwing in to this argument as an example of how public sports figures in Denver can never, ever do anything right, until they trade down ten spots to land a potential superstar tight end before scoring a beast of an offensive lineman and a potential franchise quarterback in the second round and/or guide two legendary teams to Super Bowl victories at the end of their career. I’ll let you pick.)

True, Tyson Barrie is not Brent Burns. Nor is he Erik Karlsson. Nor is he Mark Giordano. He is also not Tony Stark, Jim Brown, Jesus Christ, or Clark Freaking Kent! New toys are fun. Cale Makar is great to watch. Samuel Girard can be the best skater on the ice at any one time. They both have very promising careers. But time and again Barrie has shown more often than not that he is the player that stirs the Avalanche offense from the blue line. 

In game two it was not Brent Burns or Erik Karlsson who stole the show. It was Tyson Barrie and his three points that turned the tide in San Jose and sent the Avalanche back to Denver with a clean slate. Trade Barrie? Get a life.