Yikes! The Colorado Avalanche have had a trying first two months of the season, mainly because none of their goaltenders want to block any shots. So, how are they even faring remotely well through early December?
Well, when you have someone like Nathan MacKinnon, it’s tough to count a team out, regardless of who he’s playing for. MacKinnon is one of the league’s premier players, even when his team isn’t faring so hotly. But he’s not the only one heating up through the first week of December.
I also don’t want to talk much about Mikko Rantanan or Cale Makar, as all three of the above players are guaranteed to play lights-out hockey. Instead, let’s shift our focus to Artturi Lehkonen, who has seen time in just 15 games this season and is just now starting to heat up.
For a team that’s struggling to prevent anyone from scoring on them, having a player of Lehkonen’s caliber is a godsend this time of the year. To win games this season, or at least until they resolve their goaltending woes, the Avs need as many healthy players in the lineup who can make life tough for opposing netminders, and Lehkonen is one of them.
Artturi Lehkonen is heating up when the Colorado Avalanche need him to
So, just how much has Lehkonen been heating up lately? Overall, he’s got six goals and 11 points total, good for a stellar 17.6 shooting percentage, plus 22:17 of average total ice time. He’s also had four points in as many games between November 29th and December 5th, with three of those points finding twine.
Currently, the Avalanche rank eighth in the league with 89 goals prior to Saturday’s game slate. And given how bad they’ve had it with their goaltending, they’ll need players like Lehkonen to take it up another notch.
Fortunately for them, it looks like Lehkonen is more than able to heed the call, which will play in the Avs favor even if their netminders continue to be historically bad. Hey, let’s be brutally honest about it: The Avs need to do something to fix this if they ever want to claw their way back into another deep playoff run.
Yeah, injuries have also played into this, but with Lehkonen playing at full force, imagine what this team might do if he can keep up this kind of play when the rest of the team is healthy and firing on all cylinders. For sure, they’ll be one fun group to watch and not the migraine-inducers they’ve been half the time.