NEW YORK — Prepare for two days of afternoon hockey if you’re watching the NHL Global Series from Denver.
The Avalanche and Blue Jackets meet in Finland for a pair of noon MT games Friday and Saturday. Until then, there’s almost a full week to stew on Colorado’s start.
Here are three key reflections on the Avalanche’s October.
Are close games affecting Avs’ third-period aggression?
Colorado (4-4-1) has been outshot in the second and third periods this season. Both are narrow enough margins — minus-five total shots in the second period, minus-13 in the third — but moreover, the problem is that almost every game has featured one period or long stretch in which the Avs were on their heels, generating barely any attack.
Context matters, of course. Getting outshot 14-3 by Calgary in the first period can be chalked up to borderline reckless scheduling by the NHL. For the Flames, it was a season opener. Colorado had raised a championship banner and played a game in a different country 24 hours earlier.
But the Avalanche’s recent trend has been allowing opponents to become the aggressor deeper into games.
In seven games since the opening back-to-back against Chicago and Calgary, opponents outshot Colorado a combined 96-68 in the third period and overtime.
Seattle demolished the Avalanche in the third (14-5 in shots) once Colorado tied it. After the Islanders totaled 23 shots in the first two periods Saturday in Long Island, they nearly doubled their total with 21 shots in the third, overcoming a 3-0 deficit. Even in big wins, the Avalanche stepped on the brakes. At Las Vegas: 11-5 Avalanche in the first, 14-4 Golden Knights in the third. At the New York Rangers: 20-11 Avalanche in the first, 15-7 Rangers in the second.
“Same as Vegas, really similar stories,” Jared Bednar said Wednesday. “I really liked our first period. … And then we didn’t manage the puck very well in the second period. We had multiple sort of unforced turnovers that got us playing in our D-zone.”
Final scores are important to this topic. The Avs have played six consecutive one-goal games, all of which had the game-winner scored in the third period or later. In close games late, Bednar leans more heavily on his top forward line. Colorado doesn’t fully trust its depth yet, which can have a domino effect by forcing more ice time and fatigue on the star players when every game is a nail-biter. Nathan MacKinnon’s minutes have been bloated; the fourth line is barely on the ice.
Regardless, the next step for the Avalanche right now is playing a more complete game.
Bednar seems comfortable with long leash for Newhook
The Avalanche’s elephant in the room has been Alex Newhook’s lack of points.
The 21-year-old is essentially receiving an extended tryout for Colorado’s second-line center position. Bednar emphasized from the start that Newhook doesn’t need to be Nazem Kadri. But as the games started to pile up and Newhook continued searching for his first point of the season, there was a sense of mounting pressure.
What is Bednar telling him right?
“Relax,” the coach said Wednesday. “No need to start squeezing the stick after seven games.”
The Avalanche’s 1-0 loss in New Jersey was an illuminating test for Newhook’s line without its best player, Valeri Nichushkin, who supplied 12 points in seven games. The line featuring Newhook, Evan Rodrigues and Martin Kaut produced one scoring chance in 4:18 of ice time. Newhook finally scored Saturday to ease the tension, but it was a garbage-time goal with the Avalanche trailing the Islanders by two.
Bednar thinks that will help Newhook’s confidence even if it didn’t affect the result. Overall, the slow start doesn’t seem to be changing Bednar’s approach to the Newhook experiment.
Disclaimer on all early Avalanche scrutiny
The Avalanche will be in the playoffs. There is close to zero doubt. That doesn’t mean Colorado is going to be flawless in October, four months after a championship, or that criticism shouldn’t be warranted. (Names were engraved on the Stanley Cup this week, by the way.) Nobody is above fair scrutiny for, say, blowing a 3-0 lead.
But it means the Avs can afford patience. It means they have most of the regular season to evaluate players, diagnose problems, then search for solutions around the trade deadline. That’s a rare position to be in. And it’s important context when scrutinizing individual games that won’t be all that consequential by April (unless you ask Cale Makar, who astutely points out the possibility that “these are the games we’re going to look back on.”) The Avalanche started 4-5-1 last year. Captain Gabriel Landeskog is expected to return mid-season, too.
This is not a team desperately clawing to be a contender. It remains a Stanley Cup favorite.
