Colorado Avalanche: All About JT Compher’s First Goal

Colorado Avalanche JT Compher scored the game-winning goal against the Detroit Red Wings. It was his first NHL goal.

Colorado Avalanche prospect J.T. Compher scored his first NHL goal in dramatic style. Not only was it the game-winner, but it was against the team’s once most bitter rival, the Detroit Red Wings.

Also, it was a pretty sweet goal:

To my mind, this goal shows a young player with good hands and great ice vision. He skates his way into the offensive zone with the puck in perfect control. There’s a screen developing between him and the goalie, Jimmy Howard.

Yet somehow Compher was able to thread the needle and get the puck through a cluster of players and past a prepared Howard. That’s vision and skill working together.

Here’s also a young player who was willing to take the chance on a shot. He had options. He could have tried passing the puck to either Joe Colborne or Mikhail Grigorenko. Both are occupied with Red Wings players, but there are plenty of Avalanche who would have dished it off to one of those guys because then it becomes their problem.

Compher also could have tried the infamous drop pass to a player not even in the zone yet. Again, then it becomes his problem instead of JT’s.

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Instead, JT Compher tries to score, and he scores. No fear of failure, just a desire to get that puck into the back of the net. Boy, is that something the Colorado Avalanche need right now.

Well, turns out it was a close call. Compher said during a post-game presser that he was watching Grigorenko drive to the net, and he intended to slide it to Grigo. However, “Once the D-man slid back, I walked into the slot and had a little opening there.”

Phew, almost another missed opportunity.

In fact, JT Compher had been building toward this. In the previous seven games, he had eight shots on goal. With that came two prime chances against the Arizona Coyotes. Unfortunately he hit the post on a short-handed breakaway (ahem, but at least he didn’t try to drop pass the puck) and then just missed on a tip-in attempt.

Compher said of those two attempts that they made him feel like he was getting closer to his first goal in the NHL.

The actual goal, of course, was the go-ahead and eventual game winner. It came early in the third period, and Avs players had to be feeling a sense of relief that they weren’t going to be falling behind.

They also were clearly happy about their teammate scoring his first NHL goal. Indeed, Compher said during the presser:

"“The guys were really excited for me, which makes me feel a little better.”"

Of course, the celebration on the ice was joyous. However, there’s a new tradition in Avs Nation:

Captain Gabriel Landeskog wasn’t on the ice for Compher’s first goal (as he was for Mikko Rantanen‘s), so he was able to douse young JT with water from the bench. (Landeskog first doused Joey Hishon after that prospect scored his first goal.)

A not-new tradition is awarding a player the puck after a momentous occasion such as scoring his first NHL goal:

JT Compher plans to give that puck to his parents. He added, “It will be a pretty fun moment to get that puck to them.”

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Compher now has eight games of NHL experience under his belt. Of course, he was one of the pieces in the Ryan O’Reilly trade. He turned pro last spring after finishing three years at the University of Michigan. He was part of the prestigious US National Development Team Program.

JT Compher, with his fealessness and scoring acumen, looks like he can become an integral part of the Colorado Avalanche rebuild.