Barrie Does Dallas: Colorado Avalanche Beat Dallas Stars
Remember last season when the Colorado Avalanche were called the Cardiac Kids? They had a tendency to make late comebacks work for them.
Well, as the Avs Nation has noticed this season, practically nothing has worked for the team. They got such a slow start that put them in a bad position. They’ve gotten steadily better, but it just seemed as if they couldn’t get the momentum rolling in their direction for the tail end of 2014.
Well, this is 2015, and the Colorado Avalanche are going retro. They’re occasionally playing the same kind of sloppy hockey they played in the Joe Sacco years. And they’re coming on like gangbusters at the last minute — or seconds in many cases — to steal hockey games they didn’t deserve.
And it’s working for them.
Case in point, the game against the Dallas Stars. The Stars dominated the Avalanche through two full periods of hockey. They won faceoffs. They dominated puck possession. The outshot the Avs two to one. They scored a power play goal, and they were disciplined in not taking penalties. And, at the end of two periods, they were up 2-0.
Well, about halfway through the third period the Cardiac Kids took over. The ice started tilting toward the Dallas Stars goal. The Avalanche were getting shots on goal. They blew a power play, but center Ryan O’Reilly finally got them on the scoreboard. It was just their 10th shot of the game, but it didn’t matter. The Avs had cut the lead in half.
That looked to be the best they were going to do, especially when defenseman Zach Redmond took his second penalty of the night late in the third period. However, the Avs penalty kill has been excellent all season, and they survived the Stars’ attack long enough to get to Colorado Avalanche hockey.
Colorado Avalanche hockey is that last two minutes in a game when head coach Patrick Roy pulls the goalie and the players come on like gangbusters. It’s two minutes, same as a power play. Yet the Avalanche manage the 6-on-5 so much better than the 5-on-4. No one knows why, except that it’s probably the desperation.
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In that last two minutes, a calm takes over, yet the team plays hockey that cannot be beat. They control the puck. They take shots, and they are perfectly placed for rebounds. Everything that didn’t work in the previous 58 minutes suddenly works like it’s practice.
Before the game against the Nashville Predators, I called center Max Talbot “not hot,” and he went and scored the first — and game winning — goal. Well, before the Dallas game I called defenseman Tyson Barrie “not hot.” Guess who got the game-tying goal — Tyson Barrie, of course. This is retro hockey, and Barrie did it all last season.
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The Avalanche were sharp in overtime, but Kari Lehtonen was sharper, and he turned away all their shots. The game went to the shootout.
The Avalanche started the season weak on the shootout. That was another reality Avalanche fans couldn’t understand. With the elite firepower the Avalanche have, how could they not win in the shootout. (Of course, the same argument could be made about the power play.)
Well, that finally started changing. The Avalanche have won four of their last six shootouts.
Make that five of their last seven, because they beat the Dallas Stars, too. It took 11 rounds, but Talbot finally got the game-winner.
This retro hockey is working for the Avalanche. Let’s hope it can carry them into a playoff spot.
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