Disciplined Colorado Avalanche Hockey Wins the Game
The Colorado Avalanche played disciplined hockey to secure a 3-0 win over the Nashville Predators in the Pepsi Center.
And that’s kind of funny, because as I was pondering the conundrum of the Avalanche’s season just today, I had an epiphany: It’s not that the Avalanche are immature, it’s that they’re undisciplined.
Next: Are the Colorado Avalanche Immature?
Undisciplined Avalanche Hockey
It takes a lot of discipline to play 60 minutes of hockey. It’s really hard to focus on anything for a full 60 minutes, and 1 hour of hockey actually spans over 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
So, when the Avalanche look like they’re flat in the second period so often? It could be a lack of discipline. It’s the one period when everything is backwards. The bench is a few strides farther away and on the opposite side to the other 2/3 of the time. Perhaps the Avalanche players let that get into their heads a little bit. Maybe it takes just enough of their focus that the lightning-fast game gets away from them.
Desperate Avalanche Hockey
For some reason, Avalanche games have taken on a certain rhythm this season. They may start off a little slow, but they’ll have some good shifts in the first period. Perhaps they’ll even score a goal. The shots differential is rarely in their favor, but it’s not usually too far off that early on.
In the second period, they come out flat — or undisciplined, as I decided today. The get way behind in shots, the play is in their own end, and quite often they start giving up goals. In the third period, they try to regain their equilibrium. Finally, in the last couple minutes, head coach Patrick Roy pulls the goalie and then we see the best of Avalanche hockey.
In that moment of 6-on-5 hockey, the Avalanche perform what they are completely unable to do with a power play. They control the puck. They shoot everything including the kitchen sink at the net. They play with a desperation that 25% of the time gets rewarded — that’s a high percentage for 6-on-5 play. Indeed, four of 16 games have ended in a tie because of the Avs desperate hockey.
Disciplined Avalanche Hockey
Tonight there was no desperate hockey — there was no need. The Colorado Avalanche set themselves concrete goals — run the tired Predators around because they just flew in from a grueling game in St. Louis last night. Get pucks deep, and control the neutral zone.
Now, the Avs set goals like those for themselves all the time. They say they’re going to come out strong, a play goes wrong and the game gets out of hand from the first stanza. Well, they didn’t allow that to happen this time. The Nashville Predators are a very strong team. They are tops in the Central Division and second only to the Anaheim Ducks in the entire NHL.
It didn’t matter. The Colorado Avalanche played the game they set out to play. Forward Max Talbot — whom I had just written was running “cold” — started the scoring off at 13:49 of the first on a line change. Nathan MacKinnon and Ryan O’Reilly, who are not Talbot’s linemates at this time, assisted.
The Avalanche ground out the second period. It was not pretty hockey. But it was effective. They didn’t get any goals, but they didn’t allow the Predators to get back into the game either.
The third period was where they really showed their discipline. They continued to grind away at the Predators while not allowing them to get back into the game. Varlamov was very sharp, and he made some key saves. Whenever the Avalanche made a mistake, they just regrouped and got back at it.
And the reward came with a Jarome Iginla goal, his 16th of the season and a legendary 1,200th point. In the end, captain Gabriel Landeskog put the final nail in the coffin with an empty netter with just over a minute left in the game.
This is the kind of hockey the Avalanche need to play down the stretch. They have the skill to match any team, and the talent as well. They have the leadership and the coaching. It all comes down to individual and team discipline. If they keep grinding away, they could very well go on the run that will put them back in the playoffs.
This game, Game 50, was a must-win for the Avalanche. They won. Now anything feels possible.