Colorado Avalanche: 3 Players who Must Step up in Game 4

The Colorado Avalanche have a real chance at beating the San Jose Sharks in Game 4 as long as the following players step up just a little more.

The Colorado Avalanche lost their first home playoff game of this year’s postseason on Tuesday night. General consensus, at least among Avs writers and fans, is that they didn’t show enough effort. Indeed, even Jared Bednar remarked on their lack of work for the puck.

Well, that’s a whole-team issue. We’d better see the players come out of the chute flying tonight, that’s all I can say.

With that said, though, there are certain players who can definitely elevate their games. These are key players who can lead the Avs to success. Now, I already compared two, well, let’s call them secondary players in my practice rundown:

However, the three players I’m going to talk about now are core players on the team who just need to squeeze out a little better from their play.

Gabriel Landeskog

I’m not going to suggest that left wing Gabriel Landeskog is playing poorly. Indeed, he has two goals and four assists in the playoffs so far. He even had a goal and an assist in the Game 2 victory over the Sharks in San Jose.

I’ve often quoted Altitude color analyst Peter McNab in saying that our captain was built for the playoffs. However, he’s just that — our captain. And I sometimes feel like the intensity hasn’t been as strong in him this postseason as it was last year against the Nashville Predators.

Landeskog is the Colorado Avalanche captain for a reason — he’s a natural leader. While the team might go as star Nathan MacKinnon goes, they’ll get their energy from Gabe.

Erik Johnson

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Everyone on social media seems to be decrying defenseman Erik Johnson. Indeed, many are suggesting he should be scratched in favor of the usual favorite whipping boy, Patrik Nemeth.

What? Really? People think Bednar is going to scratch the alternate captain? I mean, it’s true that the Calgary Flames scratched high-end forward James Neal for the fifth game against the Avs, but that scratch is on a much lower level. Plus, it didn’t exactly work out for them, did it?

Ok, let’s look at some fancy stats. It’s true that Johnson doesn’t have any points in the playoffs so far. However, he’s second only to Tyson Barrie in shot attempts, unblocked shot attempts, scoring chances, and high danger scoring chances. He’s second only to Ian Cole in amount of hits taken and second only to Nikita Zadorov in amount of hits given.

That’s the thing about Johnson — he’s not a flashy player until he makes a huge mistake like the giveaway that led to Timo Meier’s goal in Game 3. He’s just quietly really good and loudly bad.

Well, I guess he’d better be a little louder in how good he is. No more flashy mistakes, and more of the flashy good stuff.

Philipp Grubauer

Like the previous two players on this list, goalie Philipp Grubauer has been far from bad. And, like the previous two players on this list, he has the ability to influence how this team goes.

In fact, I daresay how Grubauer plays has more influence on the Colorado Avalanche’s success than even superstar Nathan MacKinnon. After all, a hot goalie can take you far in the playoffs. And leading into the playoffs and the first round, Grubauer was the hottest goalie around.

I remember thinking in all three Sharks games that Philipp is looking human. That’s not good for a goalie.

In the Sharks series, Grubauer has recorded a .886 save percentage and a 3.33 goals against average. That’s not hot. We need hot like in the Calgary series — .938 save percentage and 2.00 GAA.

If the above three players bring their A++++ game into Game 4, the Colorado Avalanche have a very real chance of winning.