The Colorado Avalanche’s power play finally delivered this season. Heading into Tuesday night’s mayhem, the Avs had just four goals with the man advantage.
That changed against the New Jersey Devils. The Avalanche exploded for four power play goals courtesy of Martin Necas, Victor Olofsson, and two from Nathan MacKinnon. The outburst seems to signal that the vaunted Avalanche power play has finally awakened.
The four power play tallies were the difference in an 8-4 slugfest against the Devils. Without those goals, the game would have been 4-4. As such, the game would have gone into overtime again, as it did in the two teams’ previous meeting.
The resurgence of Colorado’s power play is the result of assistant coach Dave Hakstol’s tutelage finally paying off. The Avalanche moved the puck well enough to include everyone on the ice with the puck. It wasn’t just the Nathan MacKinnon-Cale Makar show. That predictability went out the window.
The proof is the touches we saw by Necas and, of course, Olofsson. Olofsson picked up two power play assists to go with his goal, while Valeri Nichushkin also picked up a helper. While the Avalanche won’t be scoring four power play tallies every game, Wednesday night’s outburst is certainly an encouraging sign moving forward.
Avalanche power play explosion should be taken with grain of salt
It’s worth pointing out that the Colorado Avalanche’s explosion with the man advantage should be taken with a grain of salt.
The outburst came against the Devils, a team not exactly known for its tight defensive game. As such, Tuesday night’s game became a shootout between two gunslinging clubs. So, you would have to think that the Avalanche would face a much stiffer challenge from a tighter defensive club.
Teams like the Dallas Stars or Carolina Hurricanes are known for their strong defensive play. Case in point, the October 23 game against the Hurricanes/Whalers. The Avalanche had eight power play opportunities and barely managed to convert on one. That’s the sort of difficulty the Avalanche stand to face against a defense-first club.
Moving forward, the Avalanche's power play will hopefully get better. The sheer amount of talent on the ice is far too much to struggle for the entire season. The challenge will be, however, to get around strong defensive teams looking to take the Avalanche’s most powerful weapon away from them.
Colorado’s success could ultimately boil down to beating teams 5v5 even when the power play continues to click. There’s plenty of time for the team to coalesce into the Stanley Cup contender most pundits picked them to be at the outset of this season.