The Colorado Avalanche faced the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night and won by a final score of 6-4. One of the guys who made a big impact in the game was Logan O’Connor. Through five games of the 2023-24 season, O’Connor has three shorthanded goals. Not only that, but he tied Avalanche legend Joe Sakic by having three straight games with a shorthanded goal.
Typically, teams want to just clear the puck out of their zone so that the opposing team does not have a guy wide open for a reliable shot on goal. The Colorado Avalanche now have three shorthanded goals as they are facing a Carolina Hurricanes team that currently leads the league.
O’Connor has a shorthanded goal in three straight games.
It feels like Colorado continues to be called for penalties a lot this early season. It’s not something that one should consider sustainable, but this Avalanche team is just so good that it usually should not matter. Of course, there will be times in which the opposing team will score on a power play.
The main point here is that O’Connor is doing his job very, very well.
Just check out this backhander by him:
That's back-to-back-to-BACK games with a shorthanded goal for Logan O'Connor! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/f6ZQh9zeLg
— NHL (@NHL) October 22, 2023
It helps that it was basically a breakaway goal, but to be able to get past defenders and shoot a backhander like he did, and it is amazing to witness!
Alexandar Georgiev started the game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, and while he did allow three goals through two periods, the Colorado Avalanche still found a way to record six goals through two periods. It has been the most goals Georgiev and the Avalanche have allowed so far this season.
During the second intermission, the Avalanche broadcast said “ is the David Copperfield of shorthanded goals.” That’s even better than just saying that he’s a magician! We love to hear something like that as we waited for the third period to start.
Head coach Jared Bednar switched up the lines for Saturday’s game, dropping Jonathan Drouin down to the third line and bumping Tomas Tatar up to the first line. Nathan MacKinnon had a couple of points and O’Connor had two.
Taking penalties is not an ideal way of getting through hockey games, but having O’Connor on the penalty kill unit just makes it so comfortable. It’s like having Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar on the ice: You hardly have to worry. The Avalanche have the best penalty kill unit in the NHL.