Colorado Avalanche: Matters Get Chippy and Weird in Game 4

The Colorado Avalanche and Nashville Predators put on a highly entertaining game full of physicality and weird plays.

The Colorado Avalanche were unable to prevail in their Game 4 against the Nashville Predators. They started out a little flat and then tried the resurgence of the Cardiac Kids, but, alas, they lost.

Nonetheless, the two teams provided fans with an exciting playoff game — and by exciting, I mean chippy and weird. According to knowledgeable Predators fans, who saw their team make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals last year, that’s how playoff hockey is played.

I was around for the Brawl of 1997, which wasn’t even the playoffs — in my world, that’s just hockey in general. Nonetheless, let’s look at some of the physicality and downright peculiarity of last night’s game.

Once more, shout out to Nathan Rudolph of Burgundy Rainbow for making the best Avs gifs.

Physical Hockey

Defenseman Nikita Zadorov is not known for being a dirty player, but he’s certainly known for being a big hitter — he led the NHL in hits all season. He currently has 15 in the post-season. Here’s a doozy he laid on P.K. Subban, every Avs fan’s new Public Enemy #1:

Captain Gabriel Landeskog also got in on the hitting. He creamed Ryan Johansen, he of the head-shot-to-Tyson-Barrie fame:

That’s a rough hit. Johansen was falling to his knee after missing the puck. Landeskog already had him in his sightline for a hit and just barely avoids getting him in the head with his shoulder — the way he twists away makes it clear he was trying to avoid the head. The twist does send Landeskog’s knee slamming into Johansen’s chest, which apparently knocks the wind out of him.

As usual, the Predators started going after Avalanche players’ heads. In the third period, with Colorado scrambling to overcome a 3-0 deficit going into the period, rookie Tyson Jost skates into the zone with the puck like he’s supposed to. He takes the shot, which goalie Pekka Rinne saves. Jost gets close in case of a rebound, and this happens:

That’s right, the 6-foot-5, 217-pound (without goalie equipment) goalie chopped at 5-foot-11, 190-pound Jost’s face with his big goalie paddle. Tyson’s head snaps back because it’s suddenly changing momentum from speeding forward to falling back.

It doesn’t help that Preds captain Roman Josi is partially crosschecking Jost into Rinne. However, in the direct aftermath, even Josi looks a little stunned by what Rinne did.

The worst head shot was Ryan Hartman‘s on Carl Soderberg:

You can see he actually lifts his shoulder to target Soderberg’s head. That play earned him a one-game suspension from the Department of Player Safety.

Midway through the second period, matters got especially feisty between the two teams. We’ll go over the entire sequence in a separate post because it was quite involved. However, suffice it to say, the sequence involved a shot to an Avs player’s head.

Well, Gabriel Landeskog answered that call:

I’m not a huge fan of Landeskog’s pushing Mattias Eckholm’s face into the ice. However, the 6-foot-4, 214-pound Eckholm had tried to start a fight with 5-foot-10, 175-pound Alexander Kerfoot earlier in the game. (Kerfoot stood up to the behemoth — I was sure he was going to get creamed.)

Anyway, speaking of our Harvard grad rookie…

Strange Occurances

Again, in an attempt to cut the Colorado Avalanche’s deficit, Kerfoot goes in to make a play against Pekka Rinne. He grazes Rinne’s elbow pad with his stick. As he comes back in trying to follow Subban’s moves, he gives a light tap to the middle the goalie’s chest. Our 175-pound rookie must not know his strength because Pekka weeble wobbles like a drunk man:

And so, Kerfoot gets a penalty for touching Rinne. Then again, I guess Harvard is lucky Pekka didn’t try to chop his face off like he did to Jost.

Everyone’s favorite Colorado Avalanche serial killer, Duncan Siemens, didn’t have too active of a night. However, he did get into a little… conversation with Austin Watson:

Can we celebrate how Watson tries to bare his teeth at Siemens only, you know, he doesn’t have any. And Duncan just answers with his dead-eyed stare.

I’m going to end this post with the most ridiculous image of all:

I mean, that’s one hell of a tantrum to throw over your, well… like I said above, we’re going to look at this entire exchange on its own. Needless to say, though, this will always be Ryan Hartman’s quintessential gif. His grandkids will see this gif.

Next: MacKinnon Ready to Take on Subban

The theatrics continue tomorrow when the Colorado Avalanche take on the Predators in Nashville. The Avs are down in the series 3-1, and tomorrow could spell their elimination from the playoffs. I hope not. After all, how are we going to entertain ourselves without our favorite players being part of the above dramas and comedies?