Colorado Avalanche Tame Florida Panthers — Takeaways

1. Creepin’ on up

With the victory, the Avalanche picked up two more points in the standings, and evened out their record to 1-1-1 on the road trip. The Avalanche now sit 3 points behind the LA Kings for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

The Avalanche are critically ahead of division rivals Dallas and Minnesota. In fact, the only team ahead ahead of the Avalanche, and out of the playoffs right now, is Calgary, who picked up a 4-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes last night.

The bad news for the Avalanche is the fact that their schedule has been a bit dense of late, and they are tied for the conference lead with 45 games played. Almost all of their direct competition for they playoffs has games in hand on the Avs, in some cases as many as 3.

It is a tough finish to the road trip, with stops in Tampa Bay and St. Louis, but the Avalanche can’t use that as an excuse. They need points to buffer their position over teams with games in hand.

2. Jar-Oh-My-Goodness

Jar-ome-Iginla. Iginla scored an empty net goal to seal up the win, and it happened to be his 573rd career NHL lamp-lighter. Iggy is now tied with Mike Bossy for 20th on the all-time NHL scoring list.

It also moved him into a tie with Alex Tanguay for the team lead with 13 goals on the season.

3. Landeskog Delivers

I called out Gabriel Landeskog in my game-preview yesterday, and said this team needs more from its captain. I also prescribed him a recipe for success.

"I think Landy needs to look to drive the net, and camp his butt in front of the opposing goaltender more often to boost his production."

*Clap-clap-clap*. Well done Gabe. I expect to receive my consulting position with the Avalanche shortly.

Jokes aside, these are the types of goals Landeskog should be scoring wayyy more often than he has been. He has the speed, agility, and most importantly strength to get to the scoring areas. It’s fun to dance around the perimeter, and isn’t nearly as fun to pay the price going to the front of the net. It’s also fun to play in the postseason. Landy has to decide which is more fun.

4. Cody Mac on the power play

On the one hand I absolutely despite that Patrick Roy is playing Cody McLeod on the power play. We have a bevy of talented forwards, and yet we are playing Cody freaking McLeod on critical power plays, this time during the third period of a tie game.

On the other hand, I love what McLeod does when he’s out there. McLeod goes and parks right in front of the enemy goaltender, similar to what Tomas Holmstrom used to do for the Detroit Red Wings for all those years.

The beauty of this style, is it occupies two opposing players, the goalie and a defenseman. This allows the rest of your guys a 4-on-3 on the perimeter, and also is likely to create discomfort for the other team’s goalie. This is exactly what happened on Nick Holden’s game-winner last night. McLeod was doing his thing in front of the net, the puck took a deflection, and Roberto Luongo could only tweet his despair as the puck sailed past him.

I hope this is a lesson for the other forwards on the Avalanche. If a power play is like baking cookies, the sugar and chocolate chips are exciting ingredients. The Avalanche have a lot of guys like this. Getting shots to the net, and having people in front of the net to occupy defenders, screen the goalie, and create havoc – that’s the flour, and the Avalanche have often forgotten that key ingredient this season. You can’t bake cookies without flour, and while Cody Mac isn’t pretty like a flower, he brought the magic white dust last night. Other forwards of the Avalanche, take note. Did I lose everyone yet? Great, let’s move on.

5. Matt Duchene

First off, on behalf of Mile High Sticking, I’d like to wish Matt a Happy Birthday.

More from Mile High Sticking

• Could Colorado Avalanche move on from Pavel Francouz next offseason?
• 4 goalies to replace Pavel Francouz if he has to miss time
• Colorado Avalanche make sneaky signing with Tatar
• Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog could return in 2023-24 playoffs
• Colorado Avalanche rookie face-off tournament roster

Duchene led the Avalanche forwards in ice-time last night with 20:51. In fact, only Erik Johnson’s 24+ minute night topped Duchene’s time-on-ice.

Duchene has picked up a lot of defensive responsibility as a forward this season, which is why I believe his scoring output isn’t quite as high as we are used to seeing. Last night, Dutchy led the team in blocked shots, with 4, which is a bit of an odd stat. However, this is an example of why Duchene is getting a lot of ice-time. He may not be tearing up the scoresheet, but he is doing a lot of little things on a nightly basis, that are earning the trust and respect of Patrick Roy. Here’s to a great rest of the season for No. 9!