DENVER — A Colorado Avalanche optimist can point to their bizarre, high-octane 9-6 Game 1 victory over the Minnesota Wild and say it’s evidence they can win in different ways. Colorado was stingy defensively in the first round against the Los Angeles Kings and won a pair of 2-1 games.
An Avalanche detractor can say Sunday is not the recipe for playoff success. When you play like that consistently, you’re going to get burned, even with offensive giants on your roster.
Both viewpoints are at least a little correct.
“It wasn’t necessarily a coach’s dream — or a player’s dream, for that matter,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “It’s good to win this one, but we’ve got things to clean up and areas to be better in.”
Asked how to characterize the game, Colorado coach Jared Bednar simply said, “I can’t explain it.”
With the Game 1 triumph, the Avalanche have the early edge in their second-round series. For now, that’s the most important thing. It’s infinitely more enjoyable for teams to learn these lessons when winning. As Landeskog said, though, there will be plenty to clean up before Game 2 on Tuesday.
Colorado scored the most goals it ever has in a playoff game. The 15 combined goals were also the most ever in an Avalanche playoff game, passing Game 1 of the 2022 Edmonton Oilers series (14 goals). After a defensive-minded series versus the Kings, Colorado had plenty of open ice to work with on Sunday. Its star players took advantage, just as Minnesota’s did on the Avalanche’s uncharacteristic defensive miscues. Ten of the Wild’s 12 forwards had points in Game 1.
Neither Bednar nor Colorado’s players seemed overly worried about whether they’ll be able to pull off the necessary defensive tweaks. “It’s not a concern,” the coach said. The Avalanche have good reason to be confident: They allowed the fewest goals in the league this season and had strong underlying defensive metrics.
“We did it for 82 games and four games in the L.A. series — have been a really stingy defensive team,” said Devon Toews, who was a stabilizing presence for Colorado on Sunday and had four points. “Tonight it got a little bit loose, and we were able to score enough goals to win the game. But we pride ourselves too much on being a really hard team to play against in our own zone, and tonight that wasn’t necessarily the case.”
Added Cale Makar: “I don’t think we’re going to see that again. Just was probably a one-off. I like that we were able to stick with it and find a way to win in obviously a unique way.”
The Avalanche didn’t make many defensive mistakes in the Kings series, but when they did, goalie Scott Wedgewood was there to bail them out. He had his first tough game of the playoffs Sunday, giving up six goals on 36 shots faced, and allowed 2.77 goals below expected in all situations, per Natural Stat Trick. The Wild were particularly punishing in the second period, during which they outscored Colorado 3-2 and led 16-14 in shots.
“Today it just felt a little bit more open (than the Kings series),” said Makar, who is starting to show the tracings of a playoff beard. “Sometimes that can be a tendency to lack a little bit on the defensive side. (For) both teams, it happened a little bit tonight.”
The Avalanche are coming off a week-long layoff between series. If they had any rust, Bednar thought it was on the defensive side. He said his players just had to commit more to that element and ramp up on-ice communication. The Avalanche hopped out to a 3-0 lead, then allowed Minnesota to come back and even briefly take a 5-4 lead late in the second period.
“We were giving up scoring chances on things that we’ve been doing the same way for three, four, five, six years, and then just making mistakes on it,” Bednar said. “Like we didn’t know what the coverage was on the faceoffs and in all three zones.”
“I think we were a little loose, a little rusty defensively, but that’ll get tightened up,” Nazem Kadri said.
Josh Manson, whom Colorado turns to for difficult defensive matchups, missed his second consecutive game with an upper-body injury. Nick Blankenburg, his replacement, scored Sunday, but was also on the ice for three goals against. So was Brent Burns, Manson’s normal defensive partner.
The game carried some resemblance to the Avalanche’s previous most goal-filled playoff contest. They beat the Oilers 8-6, but allowed Edmonton to pull within a goal after taking a 7-3 lead.
“During a playoff run — as we learned that year — there’s going to be lots of chaotic stuff that happens,” Kadri said.
Landeskog believes players can take lessons from that game, which was win No. 9 en route to a championship.
“But we’re also a different team,” he said. “We’re a different team this year, different guys, different experiences. We have to learn from this, and we have to study it tomorrow, and we have to see where we can be better.”
Two days after that Game 1 against the Oilers, the Avalanche put together about as complete of an effort as they did in their entire championship run. They were defensively sound, protecting goalie Pavel Francouz from dangerous chances, and allowed only 24 shots in a 4-0 win.
Landeskog is correct that this team is different. But Colorado would be happy for the second game of the Edmonton series — especially the team’s response and commitment to defense — to serve as a blueprint for Tuesday. Given the defense Colorado has played over the course of the season, there’s reason to believe Bednar’s team make that happen.