Back In Blackwood | Avalanche Review Game 21

Back In Blackwood | Avalanche Review Game 21

W. Did the ABS look good in this game? No. Did they win? Yes. Do I care about the underlying stuff? Yes, but actually no. ABS win over the Nashville Predators 3 to nothing. Final score does say three to nothing, but let’s be honest, this was actually a one to nothing game. Two empty netters at the end there to make it look a little bit less close. And the only goal to actually beat a goalender comes 15 seconds into this game. Just off the opening faceoff, the ABS get possession. Manson pushes it through the neutral zone and it’s tipped in by Landiskog in one of the very few puck battles the AS won tonight. Colton and Nelson both converge deep in the zone to muck it up and create chaos. And eventually Nelson is able to get it up the wall. Or maybe it came off of a PR. I’m not going to overthink it. It’s unassisted. But it comes up the wall to Brent Burns. And Burns no thoughts, only shots. He does not look up. He does not look to make a cute play or do something fancy. He just collects the puck and shoots it and it goes in the net. That’s a W. Brent Burns might have been the best skater in this game. He was certainly the best skater in the game for the Avalanche by my opinion, which I find particularly funny because he’s 41 years old, the oldest player in this game. And Nashville has a bunch of old players, old players that you expect to be quality, but somehow Brent Burns was better than all of those old guys. And apparently a better goal scorer than them, too. So that’s a W for Brent Burns. But the biggest W of the night very obviously goes to Mackenzie Blackwood. This is going to be a short review because the only storyline that actually matters in this game is Blackwood gave Nashville nothing. And this is not your typical easy night for an ABS goalender because they don’t give up very many shots and it’s a really low event night for your goalie. No, Blackwood had to make 35 saves and 16 of those were against high danger chances. Okay, technically it was like 13 cuz Nashville is bad at shooting and missed the net some. But this was a true A++ performance from Mackenzie Blackwood. Great to see him get back in the saddle and really play up to his ability that we know he can. It’s just his fourth game back this season and I think it’s safe to say he probably earned some more starts with that one. If we’re honest about it, this was really not a very good game from Colorado at five on five. Just 26 shots on goal is their third lowest this season. And defensively, I think it was pretty clear-cut one of their worst games. Nashville was outworking them, out moving the puck, just doing everything better. The ABS were struggling to even get pucks out of their own zone at times in this game. They survived that, especially through the first period because of Blackwood. And while I do think the ABS improved throughout the game, at very least limiting the opportunities that Nashville got as the game got later and later into it, it’s safe to say the ABS stole this one, or more correctly, Blackwood stole this one. And that’s fine. You’re going to steal some games every single year. Big picture, there are really no worries for me in this game. It was an off game that the ABS probably don’t win very often, but they managed to win it this time. They keep their winning streak alive. Everything feels great. Not every W has to be a goodlooking, perfect game. Yes, the ABS are going to have to improve. You need a better effort on puck battles. You’re going to need more effective passing and clearing of the puck. And you’re going to need to finish better on your opportunities if they want to pick up a W in, I don’t know, when this video goes live at 6 a.m. So, less than 12 hours when they play Chicago. They’re going to need to put together a more complete game to win. You’d love to see them score on the power play. It did not score again tonight, but there were good things from this game, too. Obviously, beyond the W itself, you saw a great penalty kill. You saw some good hard work out of some guys like your fourth line, the only line tonight to have zero high danger chances against. You get some cheap empty netter points, but that includes a five-game point streak for Brock Nelson. Nathan McKinnon picks up another point. And all of your hard workers get rewarded, too. Lanniskog, Drury, Lechin, Kelly all end up with points on these empty netters. Deservedly so. On a night where the ABS were struggling to win puck battles and earn pucks, those are most of the guys that were doing the hard work and actually getting the ABS going the right direction. The ABS have been goalied enough this season. It was time they goalied somebody else. And they’ve had a couple of those from Wedgwood so far, but this is the first time Blackwood has really shown up and done it. And all of a sudden, you feel over the moon with the ABS goalie tandem. That was it. This one’s short and sweet. That’s what happens when you essentially win a game one nothing. I will leave it at that. Thank you for watching this game video review. I am Rudo. And did you find all eight W’s in this

MacKenzie Blackwood records the first shutout of the season for the Colorado Avalanche as Brent Burns scores the only non-ENG goal of the game. Colorado makes it eight straight wins.

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