Colorado Avalanche: Anatomy of Tyson Jost’s Amazing Hat Trick

Colorado Avalanche center Tyson Jost scored his first career hat trick in Tampa Bay against a talented and experienced Lightning team.

Colorado Avalanche forward Tyson Jost scored his first career hat trick tonight.

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That’s right. Everyone’s favorite whipping boy, Tyson “First Round Bust” Jost earned a hat trick. And it was a beauty. All three goals were a testimony to the chemistry that third line has found — something I’ve said was necessary all along. And they were testimony to the kind of shot Jost has.

Why, even his biggest detractor, Jared Bednar, remarked in his post-practice presser that Jost shot the right way in the right area. That’s high praise from the stolid Bednar.

So, let’s look at those incredible goals that led to Jost’s amazing hat trick.

The first goal came early in the first period, and it was a relief to me. Just today, as I was thinking about the upcoming game, I was thinking, “Come on, kid. You’ve got to get it going.” And that’s what he did just three minutes into the first period.

As I said — and the kid himself said — the hard work started with his teammates. In the first goal, Sam Girard collected the puck at the blueline. He drove to the net but dished a pass to Jost at the last minute. And Jost just scooped it up top shelf where Mamma keeps the Landescotch.

One thing that’s exemplified in this goal is how Jost drives the net. That’s how he dished a pass to Matt Nieto a couple games ago to feed him the impossible goal. But credit to our tiny, unemotional defenseman for faking out the Tampa Bay defenders.

And shout out to Colin Wilson for setting up Girard to begin with. He had three assists on the night with under 10 minutes of ice time to his name.

The second goal came at almost the exact same point in the second period. It also looked somewhat similar to the first in that Wilson dished the puck to JT Compher just as he entered the zone. He spun around to get the puck right in front of Jost.

And Tyson dished it top shelf again. No, really, they essentially replicated the first goal:

That was some nice ice vision from Compher to know where Jost was about to be and to get him the puck.

Tyson Jost didn’t bother waiting to the three-minute mark of the third period to score his final goal of the night. Instead, he got it as they were nearing the mid-game mark.

Once again, Colin Wilson found JT Compher. This time, Compher streaked into the offensive zone alone. He had the shot, but goalie Andrei Vasilevsky was set up to make the save.

So, instead, Compher caught sight of Jost with his peripheral vision and passed the puck to him. Tyson was driving the net, as he always does, and he… did not shoot it top shelf this time. He went five-hole:

And he appeared to break Vasilevsky’s spirit.

Now, I’m not going to quibble with any hat trick a Colorado Avalanche player scores. However, what I love about this hattie is that the third goal isn’t an empty netter. Arguably Compher was getting the puck to Jost in the hopes of his scoring a hat trick, but Jost still had to beat the goalie.

It’s a little unfortunate that Jost scored his hattie on the road because no actual hats were thrown onto the ice. However, according to Altitude Radio’s Conor McGahey, fans were throwing hats all over.

Naturally, Jost gave all the credit to his linemates:

He went into more detail during his post-game presser, remarking that he might have to buy Compher a couple dinners as thanks, but finally settling on setting him up in the next game.

Needless to say, the Avs Twitter had plenty of love for the young man they affectionately call Roasty Toasty Josty:

You all thought I was a big Jost fan. Avs Twitter says, “Hold my beer.”

Even the NHL official account got in on the action:

And the NHL Gifs account didn’t want to be left out.

Of course, captain Gabriel Landeskog had to christen him with the water bottle:

And, finally, Jost with the pucks:

Two side notes: One, yes, Philip Grubauer does the disco. And, two, yes, I will bet everything that Grandpa Jost was crying.

Now, I’m going to be cautiously optimistic… No, no I’m not. I know Jost isn’t going to get a hat trick every night or even a point every night.

However, as I said in a previous post, Jost scores best when he’s coming from a place of confidence. That’s why the team’s erosion of his confidence last year, though he eventually built it back up, was so discouraging.

Jost knows enough to be even-keel about tonight’s success. But now he has no question that he can score in this NHL and have a dominant night while playing just over 10 minutes. He knows he’s in the right place, and he’ll feed off that confidence.

And that’s nothing but good for the Colorado Avalanche.