Colorado Avalanche: Andreas Martinsen’s Role Right Now
Colorado Avalanche winger Andreas Martinsen is skating on Gabriel Landeskog’s line during the captain’s suspension. He has his role to play to fill in for the talented left wing.
Head coach Patrick Roy plugged in big winger Andreas Martinsen on the third line for Gabriel Landeskog while the latter serves a three-game suspension for checking Anaheim Ducks defenseman Simon Depres.
Now, the Colorado Avalanche captain is by no means a third liner. Right now coach Roy is running his scoring duos strategy. He’s got two skill players matched up with a role player, such as Nathan MacKinnon and Mikkel Boedker with Blake Comeau. (The Matt Duchene line — with Mikhail Grigorenko and Jarome Iginla — is either a true first line or a weird hybrid that takes into account both Grigorenko’s and Iginla’s ages and relative experience.) For the third line, it’s Gabriel Landeskog and Carl Soderberg with Shawn Matthias.
Except right now it’s Soderberg centering Matthias and Martinsen. That’s one big checking line. (We’re talking 650 pounds of hockey player!) So, essentially, the addition of Martinsen makes that line a true third.
Andreas Martinsen’s role right now certainly isn’t to replace captain Gabriel Landeskog — the finer points of Landy’s play and leadership belong to other players. However, let’s see what Andreas Martinsen should be doing in Gabriel’s absence.
Related Story: The Complexity of Captain Landeskog
Play Physical
Andreas Martinsen is a big player — 6-foot-3, 220 pounds. He’s a bit more hockey player than Gabriel Landeskog.
However, Landeskog is a classic power forward. Gabe finishes all his checks. (Sometimes too much, but let’s no focus on that right now.) That’s what Martinesen needs to bring to the ice in Landeskog’s absence — that physicality.
The Colorado Avalanche play the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames in Landeskog’s absence. Neither of those teams is particularly big or gritty. Martinsen knows his way to stay on the team is to finish his checks — and that’s what needs to happen during Landy’s absence for Andreas to stay in the lineup when the captain returns.
More avalanche: Eric Gelinas' Benefit to the Avs
Drive the Net
The other big role Andreas Martinsen needs to fill for Gabriel Landeskog is net presence. Landeskog scores his best goals in front of the net, and he likes to lurk there besides.
Martinsen needs to take up residence in front of the opponent nets, too. As the word of Roy goes, good things happen in front of the net. Andreas can make room for scorers and maybe even pot in a rebound.
What’s more, he should display some of that physicality, especially if Ryan Miller is in net. Miller doesn’t like being touched. To be clear, I’m not suggesting Martinsen play dirty — but there’s no reason he can’t make a pest out of himself in front of the net. Landeskog does.
More avalanche: What to Like About Shawn Matthias
Make Way for the Scorers
Gabriel Landeskog isn’t exactly having a career year, though his 17 goals and 46 points are good for fourth and third on the team respectively. Players such as Duchene and MacKinnon — who are first and second on the team for both goals and points — will need to pick up the offensive slack a little. It would be a good time for Jarome Iginla to warm up, and we’d all like to see what Boedker and Grigorenko can really do as scorers.
While it might be nice to see Martinsen chip one in like he did against the Anaheim Ducks, he’s not going to replace Landeskog as a playmaker. Instead, he needs to make space for Soderberg to score if possible. If not, he should work on getting an offensive zone faceoff to let the Duchene or MacKinnon line take over.
The Colorado Avalanche face the Vancouver Canucks next. For some reason that bad team has been kryptonite for Colorado. Yet the Avalanche need that two points desperately — they already blew the one game they were allowed to lose on the Winnipeg Jets.
Next: Cam Newton and the Stanley Cup Attitude
So, let’s hope the big Andreas Martinsen can play his role against Vancouver and make way for Colorado’s scorers to rack some goals up. They’re due.