Colorado Avalanche: Memorable Moments from 2017
Tyson Jost Firsts
The Colorado Avalanche drafted center Tyson Jost with their #10 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. That move was unexpected by me — and a little unpopular. I didn’t think he was the right pick, and I didn’t think he’d add much to the team.
I was wrong. And now, he’s one of my favorite players. I love to point out that he’s a bulldog on the forecheck and a puppy dog of a person. He’s the new Matt Duchene in my fandom, and I’m looking forward to watching Jost grow from a kid to a man like I did with Dutchy.
As with Duchene, I was at Tyson Jost’s first NHL game. He started late in the season because he spent a year playing for the University of North Dakota. After UND’s season ended, he spent a week or two deciding if he wanted to go pro or play another season of collegiate hockey. But when your draft team comes calling to let you know they need you in the NHL…
Tyson Jost made his NHL debut on March 31 against the St. Louis Blues. It was a relatively uneventful hockey game for him — he played 13:26 of ice time and recorded a couple shots on goal. Of course, what was more memorable about that game was his crying grandpa:
According to Tyson, Grandpa Jost is a big softy. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, eh? However, that was the game that made me label Jost as a bulldog on the forecheck. I was watching the rookie play, and I asked myself, “Why is he getting up in that Blues player’s face in the offensive zone…. oh, it’s forechecking.” I’d forgotten what forechecking looked like in burgundy and blue.
That was a great moment. You know what else was a great moment? Tyson Jost’s first NHL goal. Not only is that a hallmark for any NHL player, and not only did it bring Grandpa Jost to tears again, but Tyson scored it against my most hated of teams, the Minnesota Wild:
Confession: One of my worries when Colorado drafted Jost was the fact that he’s red-green color blind. I was worried that when they played the Wild in Minnesota that Tyson would just see gray on gray jerseys on one team and gray on white jerseys on the other team. Well, Jost decided to address that by just scoring goals on the Wild. His first-ever NHL goal came against Minnesota in the Pepsi Center.
As if I needed a reason to like Josty more, he seems to be making a habit of scoring on the Wild — he just did it again a couple days ago during the Milan Hejduk jersey retirement game.
Next: Avs Future Defined by 2017 Moves
For being a tough year for the Colorado Avalanche, 2017 had a lot of memorable moments. Besides the ones above, there was the signing of Harvard graduate Alexander Kerfoot in lieu of that DU guy (a move I obviously support), Semyon Varlamov’s 57-save game against the Carolina Hurricanes, and Nathan MacKinnon’s being named First Star of the NHL for November. Indeed, it would be easy to write a post just about memorable MacK moments.
Which Avs moments would you include as most memorable from 2017?