On banner night, Artturi Lehkonen had one himself.
Lehkonen, a Stanley Cup-winning hero acquired by the Avs from Montreal last March, scored two second-period goals and added an assist to help power Colorado to a 5-2 win over Chicago on the opening night of the 2022-23 season late Wednesday night at Ball Arena.
As the Avs’ season-opening road trip extends from Calgary — featuring old friend Nazem Kadri — on Thursday evening and into Minnesota on Monday, here are five takeaways from the team’s lid-lifter and ones to keep an eye on when the next homestand at Chopper Circle starts Oct. 19:
1. See that, Broncos? Now THAT’S how you open a season!: Thirty-five shots. Thirty-two hits. Six power-play opportunities. Four power-play goals. One championship banner. The Avs picked things up pretty much right where they left them in the Stanley Cup playoffs last June. Colorado had been frustrated by Chicago goalie Petr Mrazek early, as the hosts peppered the Czech netminder with seven shot attempts, only to be denied. But once the eighth shot found the back of the net, it opened up the flood gates. Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar skated circles around the outmanned visitors, and the power-play combination of MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Lehkonen was all kinds of fun to watch. To defend? Not so much.
2. Val Nichushkin money money well-spent: Has there been a better hockey marriage than Big Val and this system, given the pieces around him? Nichushkin, who signed an eight-year, $49 million extension with the Avs over the summer, is bringing everything to the table right now. He’s comfortable sniping from the circles or the corners. He’s fast enough to skate with any line. He’s so massive — 6-foot-4, 210 pounds — that if you need to him to play Gabe Landeskog’s role of camping out in front of the crease, very few defenders can move him off the spot without incurring a penalty in the process. He kicked the season off with two goals, and it feels as if health is the only thing standing between the gifted Russian and a Kadri-like breakout campaign.
3. Is Alexandar Georgiev any good? Too early to tell: The Avs’ biggest offseason acquisition had a quiet opening night, relatively speaking — actually, the kind of quiet night his predecessor, Darcy Kuemper, used to have all the time. In his Colorado regular-season debut, Georgiev faced 17 shots, stopped 15 of them, posted an 88.2 save percentage, and watched as most of the action took place on the other side of the ice. Both Chicago goals came while the Avs were short-handed.
4. Are the Blackhawks any good? That would be a no: But veteran mainstays such as Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, holdovers from Chicago’s dynasty of a decade earlier, sure would look good in burgundy and blue at the trade deadline. The 35-year-old Toews and 33-year-old Kane are both slated to become unrestricted free agents after this season.
5. The champs opened with class: The banner-raising ceremony offered something for everybody. Rock stars (Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus). Rock concert pyrotechnics. Lord Stanley himself. But perhaps the coolest moment, and the one that even old cynics appreciated, was when Blackhawks defenseman — and former Av — Jack Johnson joined in for the pictures with, and the raising of, the 2022 Stanley Cup championship banner. A year ago at this time, the 35-year-old d-man was a PTO candidate in Denver whose career was thought to be on its last legs. He not only made the roster but actually went on to notch the Avs’ first goal of the 2021-22 regular season — against the Blackhawks, no less. He also helped to steady the defensive rotation some while Bo Byram was healing. It takes a village to lift a Cup, and it was great to see Johnson recognized one last time for his role in that journey.
