Colorado Avalanche: Anatomy of Colin Wilson’s First Avs Goal
Colorado Avalanche forward Colin Wilson scored his first Avs goal against the Washington Capitals on a rebound.
Colorado Avalanche forward Colin Wilson didn’t have the season we were all expecting from him. The 28-year-old put up just 18 points in 56 games.
Colorado didn’t give up much to acquire Wilson from the Nashville Predators — just a fourth-round draft pick in 2019. Historically, though, Wilson has put up half a point or better per game, so .32 per game was disappointing.Wilson’s lackluster season was further exacerbated by injuries, including a concussion in March.
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Colin is going into the last year of a contract containing a $3.93 million cap hit. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent after that. So, he’s going to want to put up some better numbers in the 2018-19 season.
That said, six of Wilson’s 18 points were goals. His first goal as a Colorado Avalanche came in his 11th game with the team. The game was Colorado’s first back from the Sweden trip.
The Avalanche were hosting the Washington Capitals. Interestingly, the future Stanley Cup winners were playing just about .500 hockey, having a 10-9-1 record at the time. Colorado was a bit better at 9-7-1. Colorado went on to win the game 6-2 — largely on the back of captain Gabriel Landeskog‘s first NHL hat trick.
Wilson’s goal came in the middle of all that, about midway through the second period. Colorado was already up 2-0 on one of Landeskog’s goals and another by Nathan MacKinnon.
The play is already in Washington’s zone. Mikko Rantanen drives behind the net. He circles around and passes to MacKinnon on the backhand. Meanwhile, Colin Wilson positions himself right in front of Capitals’s goalie Philipp Grubauer — who of course, is now Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer, and whom we’re all hoping accounts himself a little better when he’s wearing burgundy and blue.
In any case, Wilson is in the crease, and MacKinnon has the puck. Other Wilson — Washington’s Tom Wilson — tries to bear hug MacKinnon off the puck, but Nate gets the shot off. Grubauer makes the initial save, but the puck bounces off of his pad — and right in front of original Wilson, Colin. All Colin Wilson has to do is scoop the puck up and backhand it over a sprawling Grubauer:
It’s not the prettiest goal ever scored. However, I like it. Not just because it’s an Avalanche goal, and not just because it was Colin Wilson’s first for the Avs. I like it because Wilson works to position himself perfectly for the rebound. And when said rebound happens, he’s ready to capitalize. That’s what you want to see journeymen players do.
You can tell the lack of scoring had been weighing on Colin Wilson in how he celebrates. He does throw his arms up in the air. But the look on his face is one of pure relief.
Like I mentioned above, this is a contract year for Colin Wilson. It’s doubtful the Colorado Avalanche will deviate from their youth movement to sign a player who turns 29 this year — that’s not even veteran status, but the Avs have better coming up the prospect pipeline.
That said, the Avalanche can still benefit from Wilson putting on a show to impress potential teams. His best season was 2014-15 when he recorded 42 points (20 goals, 22 assists) in 77 games. Colorado certainly would like to see that kind of production from Colin this season.