Avs vs Wild

[HighStick]

Anybody watching this? Holy cow the Avs are just on another level. Absolute shooting gallery against the Wild and the Wild aren't playing that badly. They are just getting outplayed.

[PregnantNun]

Wallstedt faced 41 shots. Makar alone had 7, and they had 7 other players with at least 3. MacKinnon scored his 30th. They even hit the goalie jackpot with Blackwood and Wedgewood.

I don't know who can stop them. Dallas and Carolina are probably the best bets and even then I don't think they have much of a chance.

[blackinkbiz]

Anybody watching this? Holy cow the Avs are just on another level. Absolute shooting gallery against the Wild and the Wild aren't playing that badly. They are just getting outplayed.

Jesus...

And this is why I rarely ever watch an entire Blues game. Blues have a lot of above-average talent (when healthy), but I can't even imagine what it'd be like to watch Mack, Makar, and Rants on a nightly basis. Just watch the highlights and those guys just move at a pace that's sooo much more entertaining than the Blues.

Only got to see the Gretzky/Hull combo for half a season and to be honest, by that point in their careers, neither of them were speedsters. lol

[TheJackBurton]

The avs better hope MacKinnon doesn't suffer a major injury he is the main driver of that offense.

[Pierre McGuire]

Things will tighten up come playoff time, right about the time that Blackwood and Wedgewood kraaaaap the bed.

[JoshInFenton]

I know some will blast me, but i think the major difference between where the Avs are and where the blues are is really just 1 player and a mentality.

The blues and the Avs in terms of players with high speed ratings in the NHL aren't way far apart. In terms of NHL edge, Edmonton and Colorado are 1 and 2 in most ratings, specifically on that top 1 MPH or so. The blues catch way up once you get down about 1.5 MPH, and are comfortably 7th-12th in most advanced metrics as far as i can tell on free information.

The blues are worse (not the worst though surprisingly) in combined passing ratings. In total giveaways, they are absolutely dead last, but are not even in the top 5 in defensive zone giveaways. They do fumble pucks all over the ice at a high frequency, but they have the most gaffs in the offensive zone. Yet, the blues have a decent chunk of offensive zone time, and a low rate of shot attempts from it.

The Avalanche do two things differently than the blues. They want their players to shoot, or they want them to button up to the trailing defensemen and go to the net and scrum for pucks or block line of sight. They shot the puck at the highest clip in the league. They don't have a good powerplay (it's 3-4% below the blues depending on the day), their PK is decidedly middle of the pack (maybe upper middle, i think it's 10th-15th depending on the day). They give up quite a few pucks in the defensive zone. The only major thing they do differently is they have about 5-6 players that are at our top forwards shots on goal, and they have 1 player who has double the shot totals of any of our players. The Avalanche then chase the puck around in the zone, try to fling it back towards the net at the next opportunity where a player faces the net and has 2-3 feet of separation on the point or a foot of separation in tight. Their approach is if they put 100 pucks on net, 40 will get there, and if they outshoot their opponent by 12-15 and have 2-3 more rebound opportunities a period, they'll win more than they lose.

The blues have the same speed, they have willing defensemen that will shoot when asked (Faulk, Mailloux, Tucker all shoot when the puck gets to them in the offensive zone quite often). The only thing they don't have is a coaching staff that preaches that or players that commit to the gameplan. If it's a coaching philosophy fire them and get someone to go that way. If we had 20-25 more shot attempts a game and had a guy going to the net and fighting for space on each line, i very much believe we'd have 7-8 more points at minimum, and at best we'd be right up near Minnesota.

[TheJackBurton]

Things will tighten up come playoff time, right about the time that Blackwood and Wedgewood kraaaaap the bed.

Yeah, Blackwood and Wedgewood are playing better than the back of their cards and that likely isn't sustainable.

[PPG]

The Avs dont need great goaltending. All they need is average goaltending to win the Cup.
Hell, they went 16-4 in 2022 with Darcy Kemper in goal.
Detroit won with Chris Osgood in 1998.
Great teams with generational talent only need average goaltending to win.
The only way the Avs dont win the Cup this year is if Mackinnon or Makar suffer a major injury or they run into an other worldly goaltender.
This is starting to look more and more like 2022.
They do a great job of acquiring talent that fits their style of play.
Their supporting cast is very underrated-
Lekhonnen, Nikushkin, Nelson, Neces, Landeskog, etc
Along with a very good defense core of Toews, Manson, Girard, Burns & #70 (his name escapes me),
They are hard to play against because they always have the puck and they are always attacking.

[blackinkbiz]

The Avs dont need great goaltending. All they need is average goaltending to win the Cup.
Hell, they went 16-4 in 2022 with Darcy Kemper in goal.
Detroit won with Chris Osgood in 1998.
Great teams with generational talent only need average goaltending to win.
The only way the Avs dont win the Cup this year is if Mackinnon or Makar suffer a major injury or they run into an other worldly goaltender.
This is starting to look more and more like 2022.
They do a great job of acquiring talent that fits their style of play.
Their supporting cast is very underrated-
Lekhonnen, Nikushkin, Nelson, Neces, Landeskog, etc
Along with a very good defense core of Toews, Manson, Girard, Burns & #70 (his name escapes me),
They are hard to play against because they always have the puck and they are always attacking.

Necas is 6th in the NHL in points with 46. I don't know why I confused him with Rantanen but regardless, they're both on a 100-point pace this season. Then they've got 2 goalies in the top 10 to go with McKinnon and Makar who are both generational talents.

They're unreal, but Wild and Stars are good too. Blues have definitely picked a tough time to try and compete. lol