The Colorado Avalanche fended off the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night by a massive final score of 7-4. While it was a close one throughout, the Avalanche pulled away with the lead with a couple of empty net goals.
One of the major things that stood out to me for both sides was the physical aspect of the game.
Hit after hit, trip after trip (unfortunately the Leafs were the trippers, without some calls by the refs), players were thrown around pretty much the entire game. There was even a play where Parker Kelly hit a Leafs player against Toronto’s bench area, almost knocking him into it.
In all, each team had 23 total hits. For the Avalanche, it was Kelly leading the way with four total hits in the game. For Toronto, Simon Benoit led with four, too, while Brock Nelson had two. I absolutely love the physicality from the Avalanche at this point in the season. I’m glad that nobody (noticeably) got injured.
When the Colorado Avalanche head into the postseason in a couple of weeks, hopefully all of their players are healthy and ready to make a run at a Stanley Cup. I think that general manager Chris MacFarland’s focus—or one of them—was to acquire guys who can and have shown that they have experience in being physically sound. We really don’t want Nathan MacKinnon or Valeri Nichushkin—or several other of their big stars—to be the enforcers of the team.
Certain players are built and molded into a physical presence, while others are mainly play makers.
Colorado Avalanche hit leader so far in the 2024-25 season
I’m very impressed by the showing of the Avalanche against the Leafs on Saturday night. Although their defense fell short a few times, their physical presence and goal scoring came up clutch.
It won’t surprise me if Jared Bednar mentions that he really liked how physical they were, though he will point out where they need to improve.
The team’s leading hitter for the 2024-25 season so far is none other than Parker Kelly. Though he has just five goals and 10 assists in 54 games, each player has a role on the team and we shouldn’t expect Kelly to score 30 goals in a season. That’s an unfair ask, though it would certainly be welcome.
According to StatMuse, he leads the team with 120 hits. That equates to 1.875 hits per game. When comparing those totals to the entire league, it’s nowhere near the top of the list. The leading hitter in the entire league is former Avalanche Kiefer Sherwood, with 338 in 58 games.
Also according to StatMuse, the Avalanche are 20th in the league in total hits with 1,186. To put that into perspective, the team that leads the league is the Montreal Canadiens, with 1,540.
Saturday night’s game was a breath of fresh air in terms of the team being physical. Obviously, they have some work to do from here on out, and hopefully they are able to climb within the top-10 in total hits when the postseason arrives. They can’t allow teams to outplay them physically. That won’t help their case for being a Stanley Cup contender for the 2024-25 season.