Last night, the Colorado Avalanche showed what can happen when you combine good defense and steady goaltending as they dropped the Nashville Predators 2-1. With Peter Budaj in net, the Avs gave up no soft goals and, as a result, we’re able to win the game. The razor-thin offense is still struggling to put points on the board (just 2 goals), but Budaj and the defense held the Predators of the board for most of the game.
Much like the Columbus game the night before, this one was well-played by both teams and extremely tight defensively. The teams combined for just 13 shots in the first period and no one was able to score. Things opened up a bit in the 2nd period (24 shots), but, still no team was able to put one in the net. Actually, Nashville did score around the midway point of the 2nd, but it was waved off thanks to an early whistle.
vs. last year:
By the start of the 3rd period, it seemed like we’d never score on Chris Mason. We hadn’t scored in 5 periods against him this year, and he seemed on track to record his 3rd shutout against us in two years. Turns out, he’s human after all. At the 4:58 mark, Ryan Smyth let go an innocent looking shot off from the faceoff circle. To be honest, it looked like Smyth, at the end of his shift, was just looking to get a faceoff in the Nashville zone. Instead, it snuck through the 5-hole and gave the Avalanche a 1-goal lead. Later in the 3rd, Ian Laperriere - back in the lineup after missing 12 of 12 games - put home a sweet pass from Jaroslav Hlinka to give the Avs a 2-goal lead. It turned out to be the game winner, as Alexander Radulov scored with just 21 seconds left, spoiling Budaj’s shutout bid. Jason Arnott had a chance to tie the game as time was expiring, but couldn’t get his stick on the centering pass; if he had, this recap would have had a decidedly different feel to it.
I mentioned Ian Laperriere’s return to the lineup. Also making an appearance was Jordan Leopold, who just missed 21 games with an injury. Joel Quenneville dressed 7 defensemen to ease Leopold back into the lineup (Tyler Arnason missed the game due to injury and TJ Hensick was a healthy scratch).
Leopold didn’t play all that much (9:06), but looked generally steady in his own end (a 180º turnaround from the last time we saw him). With all the defensemen playing well recently, I’m curious to see who sits on Saturday (or whenever we go back to 6 defensemen). To see if I could find any hint, I made a list of ice time for the defensemen in this game, and compared it to their average ice time for the season…
- Hannan, 24.9 Minutes, +25%
- Skrastins, 17.9 Minutes, +20%
- Clark, 17.8 Minutes, +6%
- Finger, 16.4 Minutes, +1%
- Liles, 12.1 Minutes, -17%
- Cumiskey, 9.6 Minutes, -18%
- Leopold, 9.1 Minutes, -56%
It’s kind of surprising to see Skrastins up there in minutes like that (and those were almost all EV minutes for him). Although I think most people would prefer to see him sit, based on the ice time in this game, it looks like it might be a choice between Liles and Cumiskey. Neither saw a ton of ice in the 3rd (6 shifts for Liles, 4 for Cumiskey). Since Liles plays on the PP and Cumiskey generally does not, I’m figuring Cumiskey will sit for now.
Game Notes
Game notes are here
Lines
With just 11 forwards and the critical loss of Tyler Arnason, the lines were tweaked a wee bit. The first line remained intact. Jarsolav Hlinka replaced the scratched Hensick on the 2nd line. Lappy replaced Richardson on the 4th line…promoted to the 3rd line in this game, leaving Svatos and Richardson to double up on the final line. Richardson actually played quite a bit (11:43). Svatos, on the other hand, did not (6:50).
- Stastny, Smyth, Hejduk - 20:28, 1g 0a 1pt, -2
- Hlinka, Wolski, Brunette - 14:02, 0g 2a 2pt, +3
- Guite, McCormick, Laperriere - 13:26, 1g 1a 1pt, +2
- Richardson, Svatos, Leopold - 8:27, 0g 0a 0pt, +1
Quick Hits
- Stastny has won 23 of 35 faceoffs in the last two games (65.7%).
- John-Michael Liles is 3rd on the team in blocked shots (49).
- In the 10 games since Hlinka was scratched for 2 games, he is +7 (2nd to Stastny’s +8) and he has 6 points (2 g, 4 a).
Next Up
The Avalanche host the Predators on Saturday before taking another 2-game West Coast road trip next week.
Despite the score, I thought the defense looked a bit suspect. Especially with all the turnovers and failed clears. Leoprone looked pretty darn solid in his limited time but he did fail to make an easy clear once, which was a killer earlier in the year. Hannan got shifted back to left side again for a bunch of shifts and he’s simply not very good at clearing the puck from that side, I like his game much better on the right side. Skrastins did what he always does, gets out of position, chases and drives his defensive partner crazy trying to figure out where he’s supposed to be. One thing positive I can say about Skrastins is that he usually will clear the puck from his zone reliably once it gets on his stick.
Cumiskey is really interesting to me. He’s obviously got crazy skating and puck moving skills and he’s actually pretty good positionally although he will take some liberties because he knows his speed can get him out of trouble. The thing you don’t know about a smaller guy is how durable he is and so far he’s taken some big shots with little effect. He’s also not gun shy from being run either. Liles on the other hand, seems to be one big hit from going on the IR every game and he’s gun shy on forecheckers. He can easily be faked out on a forecheck to where he won’t get a good clear on the puck. I’m not sure the Avs don’t let him sit on the RFA market instead of protecting him early. On the other hand, Cumiskey isn’t shooting the puck from the point like Liles and Cumiskey doesn’t have any spectacular play making abilities even though he can go end to end and make the other team pay for a bad line change. If Cumiskey could finish or hone some passing skills he could really be something.
I still think defense is the biggest focus for this team right now, or it should be. The mix and match for defensemen is just as detrimental as rotating goalies in my opinion. Sometimes, there’s not help for it because of injuries, double-shifted power play/penalty kills or just serving a penalty. However, great defenses usually have solid pairings that play together on each shift. Hartley never rotated through Bourque, Foote, Blake, Devries, and Miller. They had partners and they stuck with them.
If you look at DD’s great season to date numbers versus last year, our goals against is still higher and we had a really poor defense last year. The offense will have it’s big nights and slow nights but defenses and goaltending can provide that consistency to the win column.
Where did this Hlinka guy come from? How come we didn’t know he could play better at center than Arnason? Who knew a fourth-liner could come so far. Why didn’t we see this in the preseason….oh, right.
I just absolutely love the line of Lappy, McCormick and Guite. That my friends, is a line no one wants to play against. All three have a great defensive mind set. All three finish checks. All three have moderate scoring abilities. In the “old NHL”, this would be your prototypical third line. Now, they are somehow fourth liners in the “new NHL”. I say we go back in time, these guys are miles better than an Arnason, Hensiik, Svatos shift. No, there isn’t as much sexy talent but they are a better hockey line.
Speaking of “old NHL”, I think the refs thought it was the 2003 season again. There was a lot of stuff let go. You know what? I like that style of hockey much better. I didn’t like the first period all that much but there was some emotion in this game and it was very physical. I would rather have some calls missed than have the refs “having zero tolerance” for infractions and creating phantom trips, hooks etc… I don’t like the scoreboard calls though. I think Finger got one last night. The score is 1-0 and it’s getting late in the third. A play goes in to the corner that wasn’t called the entire game and all of a sudden, now it’s a penalty on the team in the lead.
Budaj will surely start the next game, we’ve been through this before. However, I hope we lose in a shootout or something because I want to see if coach Q will start a goalie back to back games after a loss. It’s the only way to truly know if he’s turned the corner. He hasn’t done it all year.
I agree that the defense wasn’t great last night. But they were better in front of the net. When Budaj made a save that stayed in the crease area it was our defense getting their stick down and clearing it out. The Preds didn’t get those second or third attempts that could have killed the team. Boods is by far a better goalie this year and hopefully he’ll get to string some games together to prove it. I wouldn’t mind seeing Cuminsky play a little bit at forward (like Klee last season) just to see what happens. He is wicked carrying the puck out of the zone and has some great skating and stick handling skills. I don’t cringe when he has the puck on his stick, unlike some defense-man, old and new. He does need to learn to not give up the puck when taking hits though (IE be “tougher” on the puck). Despite my previous critiques of Hannan he has been better. And I think Dario’s right…he’s better on the right side.
and the thing with the D is that, even when they are pretty good (as they’ve been lately), it’s still not going to earn us a rep as a defensive powerhouse. Our best D performance will keep us in some games, even win a few games…but we’re still 2nd rate compared to a number of NHL teams.
this is nice…but it’s not our bread and butter, and shouldn’t be.