Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche overcome sickness and the Canucks to win again

Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche overcome sickness and the Canucks to win again

chat. Thank you so much for your donations already to Big Brothers Big Sisters and congratulations to the avalanche win. This is what you guys wanted, I guess. So, this is what I’m doing. That’s a Shuy. Let’s start the show. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Welcome in to the BMVR Avalanche postgame show live from the Toyota Winners Lounge powered by your front range Toyota dealerships and presented by Bet 365. My shoe is leaking on my head right now, so that’s fun. Uh, if you’re wondering why we did this, it was because of giving day for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Uh, on the watch along, you guys donated $660 to Big Brothers Big Sisters during that. Uh, which got you this award. This is why you ch you guys chose a Shuy. I don’t know. Blame yourselves for that. You can still continue to donate. Uh, depending on how fast you get there. I don’t know if AJ’s going to jump on the show or not, but if AJ can’t come on the show, I’ll I’ll go tarps off for 800. And then if you guys can get to a thousand, which you only need 340 more dollars donated. We’re including the stuff from before. A thousand bucks and I’ll bleach my hair. So you guys have the power to do that if you really want to see it. J Mike joining in for the postgame show. Thank you for jumping on. Uh abs win and make it look reasonably easy again. Yeah, I mean Vancouver weirdly hangs around with the ABS seemingly every single time. Like credit them for not going away, but really similarly to what we said the other night, felt like they came out strong with a kind of opening push there over the first five minutes, didn’t score, and then once that happens, I just feel like it’s it’s got to be so discouraging, you know, if you’re the opposition. like you come out, you you know, I don’t want to, for a lack of a better term, like maybe prematurely blow your wad and then, you know, you’re you’re in a you’re in a position where you’re you’re trying to trying to, you know, get back into the game after that. And I I’ve just been so impressed with the the way the ABS have been able to to cruise at home. I mean, they’re taking home ice advantage to a to a new meaning here this year. Yeah, it I mean, no regulation losses at home is outrageous behavior and only one regulation loss on the season. Even more outrageous, but I mean, a lot to get into in this one. Let’s uh let’s hit the 60-cond rundown before you uh do anything else. Uh like J Mike mentioned, Vancouver came out hot. First five minutes, they really did push quite hard against the ABS. Uh and they get rewarded for that on a on a fast break chance. They get the first goal of the game for Lionus Carlson. The ABS were giving up the cherrypicked play a little bit at least in the early portions of this game and that one cost them. Uh but the ABS do eventually work their way back into the game, get that goal back at the end of the first period. Nathan McKinnon picks up an easy rebound finish. The second period, the ABS pretty much just took over the game and jammed it down Vancouver’s throat until they got rewarded for it. Brock Nelson picks up one off of a quick play that Landisk gets him into the zone on. And then Nathan McKinnon with another last minute goal in a period to make it 3-1 off of another great play from Gabe Landiskog. And that was the final goal of the game. The third period was pretty academic. Vancouver had flashes of pushes but never really put together all that much danger. And the ABS didn’t get an empty netter. So no hat trick for McKinnon. I guess that’s where I was going. But ABS take the win 3-1. Uh I I guess we should get this out of the way first. I don’t think we’re going to have a ton of negatives from tonight, but Scott Wedgwood did leave the game, did not return officially an upper body injury. There is some speculation that it might just be that he’s sick, but we don’t have anything really confirmed at this point. Love the ambiguity of hockey injury reports. Yep. He has some type of ailment potentially. That’s what we know. Yeah. So, not a whole lot there that we know. Not I I can’t imagine we’ll get a whole lot of information on that. You know, if he’s is just sick, maybe Benar will just say so in the post game and I’m sure we’ll have that later in the show. Um yeah, if you guys are donating, click the donate button with Big Brother. Why don’t you explain real quick for those who maybe don’t know how to donate how they should go about that process? So, if you’re watching the show, you should see a donate button somewhere on the page. I don’t really know where to be honest fully, but we should be Yeah, the donate now button’s right there. Look at that. You go below the chat, there’s a donate now button. You can donate there. Any amount of money, we’d gracly appreciate that. Uh, and then you any donated money goes to the rewards on screen that you can see there. As mentioned, we’re already at $660. So, you only need 340 more to get me to get me to bleach my hair. Um, you should also mention for a good cause. We’re not going to give out money. Raising money for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Yeah. Bleaching my hair is not a good cause. In fact, that’s a bad cause. But giving money to the kids and helping them out and getting them with bigs and giving them opportunities to live, you know, normal lives in some cases or just maybe a little bit of help that they need. Uh it’s great stuff. Way cooler than anything I do. So, and look at that. We already got $40 donated from Dookie Shoes. So, thank you so much. That puts us to 700. Uh 800 is a milestone where if AJ’s still awake, he’ll come on the show and if he’s not, I’ll take my shirt off. So, 700 total. Uh, but getting back into this actual hockey game, I don’t know that Vancouver is any good. I don’t want to discredit the ABS. Like obviously they did a good enough job to win, but the way this game played out was when the ABS decided they want to win the game, they kind of just did, which is awesome to see the ABS have the ability to flip that switch, but also Vancouver bad. Yeah, I mean, I think there’s probably some element of human nature. The ABS know who they’re going up against in this matchup. you know, you we laid out all the the stats and you know, all all of the areas where the abs had the advantage in this one and surprise it was every single element of of the game. But I mean, kind of going back to what I said there in the beginning, not very eloquently. Bear with me tonight, guys. I’m I’m on a lot lot of cold medicine and Gatorade. That’s what I’m running on at the moment. But I I do think there is something to be said about just how disheartening it’s got to feel playing against a team like Colorado because they just turn it on in a heartbeat and like you’re hanging around, you’re hanging around, you’re hanging around late period goal, you know, twice in this matchup and it just it’s like a boa constrictor, you know, like you might have moments but eventually they’re going to suffocate you and that’s kind of what they did in this one. like that. Vancouver had a nice couple of first minutes. They get the early goal. Credit to them for for you know getting that on the road, but they didn’t do anything to capitalize with it. And you know, credit credit Wedgewood before he went out had a huge save on that breakaway on he did Sherwood. Um but I just think this this team is inevitable right now and when they’re executing the the way they are like late in the second period, it’s it’s fun to watch. Yeah, it a total blast from a Colorado Avalanche team that no game is perfect. You’re going to you’re going to see stretches where the ABS are either I wouldn’t say floundering is the right word, but maybe passes aren’t connecting, the play isn’t quite where you want it to be, and then when the ABS turn it on, you go, “All right, they’re the best team in the league and they’re it’s almost been too normalized at this point that the ABS can just do this to teams that are lesser.” And it’s not just the elite players that are getting it done either. You’re getting quality play like shift in and shift out from a lot of guys. And I know the production all comes from your top six really today. But you still are able to trust the ABS running their entire lineup. And I can pull up the TOI here and we can get into it a little bit. But in a game where you had some guys who were probably a little bit under the weather, you know, I don’t know what level of sickness they were at, they were obviously good enough to play, but McKinnon led your time on ice with 22 minutes. Nes at 21 and Lucky at 20. And then your second line, 17 for Nelson, 16 for Landisk, 15 for Colton. All the way up and down the lineup, you’re getting that quality distribution there. It’s good on the defensive side, too. Mar up at 24, but Taves played 21. Burns 3 seconds shy of 20 minutes. Your low man was Molinsky at 1630. I know this is probably a little deja vu from previous games, but the ABS are consistently putting out that even spread of minutes in a way that we haven’t seen a ton of from Colorado over the last handful of years. It’s usually been heavy reliance on those top guys. I think the ABS deserve a ton of credit. One, for putting themselves in positions where they can afford to do that, but two, I think it’s some good growth from Jared Bedar. Yeah, 100%. I think he’s I think he’s shown more trust in some of his young guys at times and allowed them to maybe ride the inevitable highs and lows that are going to come when it’s, you know, getting thrown into the lineup here and there. I mean, you know, some of these dudes that are getting, you know, random minutes in in the bottom six, like, it’s it’s going to be a bit of a whirlwind at times, but I’m I’m with you. And I think this game is kind of a a perfect representation of of the difference between these two teams, just the disparity in depth between, you know, Vancouver and then Colorado. It’s really, you look at Hughes on the other side, and I think they talked about it a little bit on the broadcast, he’s got like seven or eight games of almost 30 minutes of ice time. Like that’s that’s a tough way to sustain over the course of an 82 game season. And I just feel like not only are you getting the gametoame benefit of of Bedner being willing to to give some of these guys, you know, v varying shifts on the ice, but you’re going to feel that in the long run as as well. You know, not having to put all that mileage on the tires, you know, in the first half of the season. It’s it should be desperation, right, to use any player that much. It a team like Vancouver who is down bad. You get that. A team in the ABS situation should not have to do that. And they aren’t doing that. And and it’s great to see from that front. Uh we did get two more $5 donations. One from Anonymous and one from Slayer. So, thank you very much. That gets us up to 710. Uh $90 away from the next milestone if you guys want to get us to that. Um, yeah, I really have very few negative notes from this game. I kind of trying to get those out of the way because we’re mostly going to get into positives. I’m going to gush about how good the ABS are and their top guys are ridiculous. There were guys that didn’t have perfect nights. I really didn’t love Brent Burns game very much tonight. I don’t I don’t think you should be very happy with what he did. I think there were some other forwards that at times, not that it was bad, had some critical tweets of Lchin, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I just felt a little bit off with him on the on the puck. I don’t know. But when you’re when you’re having an off night with a Brent Burns, it gets pretty easy to overlook that when the rest of the team is playing so well. when when you’re getting the quality play that you need to from some guys, it’s okay. Not everyone’s going to have the perfect night at the same time. And you know, the of course the abs aren’t like going into morning skate planning out who’s going to have a bad night and who’s going to have a good night. But when you’re a good team and you can get that balance, I I it’s the word you’re use is inevitable, right? That’s what makes the ads inevitable to me. Yeah. I mean, they’re just when you look at the the production, it’s certainly topheavy and that’s going to be the case when you have the star power that the Avalanche have, but they’re not so much so that it’s, you know, messing with the balance, you know, and I just think that when you get the type of consistency that you’re you’re getting across the board out of the lineup right now, it’s just such a major asset. And it’s again like it maybe a little bit maybe we’re getting a little bit spoiled at this point with like what McKinnon’s doing. I mean he’s seems seems like that 70 point or 70 goal season is you know like put the money down at this point but I just I’ve been so impressed with you know some of the guys you’re talking about Jack Drury. We’re seeing Landiskog step up and I know putting Landisogg in that conversation is not necessarily accurate. he’s the captain, but like the hands are back and and you’re just seeing it across the board and I don’t really know what you’re supposed to do. Like I I feel bad for opposing coaches and I imagine there’s a whole lot of deep breaths in the mirror throwing some cold water on the face, you know, in in the minutes leading up to to the puck dropping. You know you’re in for it when you’re going against the Colorado. Just like ah [ __ ] Like I got to imagine it feels like going in like when I knew I would just bomb a test in college just hadn’t gone to class or or whatever and you’re just all right well I just got to eat this one. Yeah. Sometimes that’s uh that’s the life. Uh ridiculous donations coming in. $25 from the stig $300 from an anonymous donor. That’s crazy. It puts us well over a,000. And then 10 more dollars from an anonymous donor, which I think so what all up that would be $1,045. Um that Yeah, that’s ridiculous. That does get us to the the bleached hair, which I will do. Obviously, I’m not going to do that on the show right now. Uh cuz I have to go home and do that. But I I did just throw it out there like $1,000 is just bleached hair. If y’all want Frosted Tips, you got to get us to 2,000. That’s the That’s the mark I said. So, we can do it. It’s for the kids. Y’all remember this is is for a good cause, right? On top of it also just being a lot of fun to embarrass Rudolph. Yeah. As as much as I love getting made fun of, do it to help children because that’s actually a good reason instead of me being an idiot. Uh we we do also need to take our first break of the show and shout out a few of our partners though. So let’s make sure we’re doing that as we are brought to you by one of our new sponsors in New Built Restoration and Construction. New Built available 24/7 and they truly care about being there for their customers. Uh they have over 600 reviews to prove this to be true. They’ll work with your insurance to make sure a stressful process is as smooth as possible. So, whenever an emergency hits, make sure you’re getting with New Built. They use licensed general contractors who can help with any project, big or small. They’re repairing services for fire damage, water damage, mold removal, repair, and more. Uh, and they’re a true to NVR fans, too. They’re part of the family. So, when that home emergency hits, Newbuilt Restoration, and Construction will be there at newbuilt.com. That’s nubilt.com or call 72093-4254. I got all the numbers in there. let them know DNVR sent you over there when you hit up New Built Restoration and Construction. Uh and then, you know, uh instead of betting on your hair color, maybe go bet with Bet365. You can jump in with Bet365 today and use code DNVR365. Uh put $10 in your account, bet $5 on anything. They will get $150 in bonus bets. They’re also a proud partner of the Colorado Avalanche. So, make sure you’re going out there and uh getting your money to win. $150 in bonus bets is essentially free money that you can bet with on whatever. They’ve got a bunch of great parlay boosts and bonus bets and all sorts of cool stuff. You pick an NHL team to win and they get up by three at any point, you get paid out immediately, so you don’t have to wait around for that win. Uh jump in with Bet 365, get that $150 in bonus bets by betting $5, win or lose. You don’t even have to hit the bet. Use the DNVR365 code at signup. Uh of course, you must be 21 or older physically located in Colorado. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call or text 1800 gambler today. Second period, the DNVR Avalanche podcast. We’ll get into our three stars. I’m assuming AJ’s not coming. I’m going to take my shirt off. Take it off. Take it off. Never thought I’d be able to say that to a to a coworker without, you know, fear of HR meeting. Nope. No HR here. If anything, I’m going to get HR called on me for this. So, is the lighting good? Am I blinding you? Is my palenness working out great, chat? Is this what isn’t this what you wanted? Uh, instead of focusing on me, let’s get into the three stars of the game. And star number three is going to McKenzie Blackwood. Jumping into a hockey game cold as a backup goalie is never an easy thing to do. and Blackwood went out there and it’s not, you know, sometimes when you’re the backup or or you come in in relief, you get shelled quickly and you get a bunch of shots to get warm and get ready to go. Blackwood came in and faced like virtually nothing for half a period and still managed to make the saves he needed to and not let Vancouver come back into this game. So, I do think he deserves a ton of credit for making the ABS life easier tonight. Yeah, I don’t even know if there’s a accurate comparable for trying to go into a hockey game cold and and then face NHL shots, but for him to to do what he did in this one, and as you mentioned, you know, not the not the biggest volume, but I think it’s almost more impressive in in some ways that he already was in a wonky position, then he gets thrown into the into the fire, but doesn’t get a chance to, you know, like immediately get his feet underneath him, get in a rhythm there, get a feel for the game uh to then, you know, close out the game strong when you did face a little bit of pressure. Not a ton, but a little bit in that third period. Vancouver had some some zone time there. I I just I’ve been really really impressed with what we’ve seen from him of late. And this has been the McKenzie Blackwood that was, you know, envisioned at the beginning of the year when he was the guy that we were talking about being a potential option for Team Canada. I mean, they can always have a late addition. It’s always possible. So, I don’t know if I’m counting him out from Team Canada just yet. It’s Blackwood also kind of the champion of the defense in this game. I I don’t want to discredit that. It’s not like Blackwood came in and and balled out like you said. The Cavs gave up 21 shots total in this game. This was not a oh, the ABS are just surviving Vancouver’s onslaught. No, Vancouver really didn’t do much for not for lack of effort. We’re back. We’re back. We’re back. Hello. I’m back. Uh technical difficulties, but you know, we’re back. As I was saying, ABS defense ridiculously effective at limiting inzone offense. the one thing that was really beating the ABS um was the the stretch passes and the the cherry-picking type stuff in the first period and then the ABS did a great job adjusting to stop that from happening and they didn’t give up a whole lot more of that through the second and third periods of this game. So, credit to the ABS defense on that front as well and not just McKenzie Blackwood. Uh, as we get things back up and running here, uh, for YouTube, yeah, I you’re not banned, DigDug. I don’t know. I can see your chats, so I don’t think you’re banned. uh second star as uh we can continue moving on here and getting back on track, Gabe Landiskog. Now, I know he didn’t score any of the goals tonight and and they are good finishes by McKinnon and Nelson on the plays that he set up, but he just seems like a man possessed right now. I think over the last, let’s call it 10 games to be safe, the the version of Gabe Landiskog started to come back into the version that we all know and love as the best version of himself. And he’s just become a man possessed to dominate hockey games. And I don’t even mean the great plays. It’s a great play to get a puck to Nelson to spring him to get across the blue line in time. It’s a great play to earn a puck and get it to McKinnon on the goal. But some of his best plays are the ones that aren’t leading to the goals. Watching him just go full beast mode. One hand on the stick handling a puck somehow that I couldn’t do in a million years while also holding off a guy taller and bigger than him. It’s like watching a a Swedish god. He’s just doing stuff almost as ridiculous as what I’m doing on camera right now. It’s it’s crazy. I don’t know what to tell you on that one. Uh, yeah, good times. J Mike, any thoughts on Gabe Landiskog being the best? I just think if he can even scratch the surface of the Gabe Blandisog of old. I mean, we’ve already talked about how overwhelming the depth is of this team from top to bottom. And now it seems like the chemistry with Nate is there, the timing is there, the hands are there. It wasn’t necessarily earlier in the season. He’s always going to be a little bit slower than he once was, but the savviness, the the timeliness, the skill, that’s what was always what made him so special on top of, you know, the grittiness and everything else he brings to the table from a physicality standpoint. I just think it’s been fun to see him and Nate looking like some school kids out there. I mean, like the only time we ever see McKinnon show legitimate positive emotion, like crack a smile, is when him and and Landy, you know, combined to produce a goal. And it’s just been it’s been cool to see him kind of take his game to another level here over the last, I don’t know, 10 games or so. Yeah, it everything about the ABS is just super fun right now. Like watching Landy take that next step. Watching the even the like misplays at times. Marty Nes doesn’t connect on a pass, but he tries to do something crazy where you’re like, “Oh, that would have been fun.” Even when Brent Burns is making a mistake, he’s like spinning out and doing a 360, and you’re like, “Oh, that was kind of silly.” It it just feels like the ABS are certainly the funnest they’ve been in a in a long long time. And maybe some of that is distance from the Stanley Cup win and and and a team that feels like they’re back to being truly the best team in the league, but it’s a team everyone wants to tune into every night. Yeah. I I just think that the the variety of of contribution you’re getting right now and and the amount of guys who are capable of, you know, producing a highlight goal or or just like a play that makes you turn your head is is kind of unfair at this point. And then kind of just going back to what we were saying earlier, like you really have to to poke holes and and you know, nitpick if you’re if you’re looking for things to be upset about because the the vibes are pretty high at the moment with this squad. Yep. And our number one star who is pretty high on everybody’s list and everything is Nathan McKinnon. Now that’s pretty good. I don’t know how sick Nathan McKinnon actually was for this game. game. I know Benar said he was sick for last game. So hopefully he was feeling a good bit better. Uh but dude just shows up and scores two goals it feels like every other game for the ABS. He’s on a 22 goals already this season. That’s someone said that was a 69 goal pace. So nice. Um nice. There’s a couple specific things I want to talk about with McKinnon, but I’ll give you the floor first on him. J Mike, I think the timeliness of his goals kind of speak to how special of a player he is because even on the nights where he’s maybe he he never really disappears. But I mean, I think there was one point in the first period where on the broadcast you’re like five, six minutes in and one of them said something along the lines of, “I don’t know if we’ve even seen McKinnon touch the puck yet.” and then you know you you get the the goal at the end of the period and you’re just like oh yeah that’s what he does. He’s in the right place at the right time and he capitalizes and his his finishing this year has just been on another level. I don’t think he’s necessarily been revered for that throughout his career. Nope. I think it’s time to start shifting that that conversation when talking about Nate. I mean, at at this point, it’s it’s really a large sample size going back to how hot he was at the end of last season and and what he’s carried into this year. I mean, that the guy’s a goal scorer. It’s So, here’s the thing. I I believe that Nathan McKinnon has changed about his game or or improved or whatever you want to call it. McKinnon has always been unbelievably elite at playing with the puck on his stick. It’s never been a hard thing for him to do. Obviously, his feet do a lot of the work there, but he has that in those extremely quick hands. He knows how to beat a player. He knows how to finish when he’s playing with speed. But where Nathan McKinnon’s goal scoring has taken that next step is not even necessarily with his shooting ability, but with his ability to play off the puck. He’s understanding better how to play off the puck by putting himself in the right places at the right times. And the second goal he scores is not that hard, right? You put yourself in the middle of the ice, make Landisk makes a great play. Puts a really good finish on it. Fair enough. But when you look at that first goal, it feels a little bit like a freebie because it’s a rebound tap in essentially for McKinnon. But he’s had a handful of those this year that he used to never get because he would not position himself correctly and not put himself in the right spots driving the net to get those off the puck. And you know, we’ve talked a lot about the the frustrating version of Nathan McKinnon is a guy with cement in his boots and does not move his feet when he could be doing so. And he’s doing such a better job of that at times this year that yes, you could say he’s getting some easy goals, but he’s earning those by doing the right things to be in the right places to get them. He’s putting himself in advantageous opportunities, which is what good players should do, you know. I think again, yeah. Back in the day, maybe there were some times where lazy is probably never the right term for a player of of Nathan McKinnon’s, you know, effort and caliber, but he’s doing the little things and and you you reap the rewards of that, you know, like I I cover basketball. Obviously, rebounding is positioning more than anything. And if you put yourself in the right position, you understand the angles, you’re going to benefit from that. We’re seeing them really feast. It’s it’s fun to watch. I don’t maybe a grownup version of McKinnon isn’t the right word. He’s 30 years old. He’s been grown up for a while. But it seems like that the part of the hockey brain that we see start to switch on for veterans in the NHL is starting to switch on for Nathan McKinnon. Uh we did it over 100. You know, the legs aren’t always going to be there. So, yep. And yeah, you got to find other ways to be effective. I mean, they’re both there for McKinnon right now, so that’s fun. We did hit over 100 likes, chat. Thank you very much for that as well. We got our winner shots here. Shout out to Dr. Dubs. Uh, we appreciate all of y’all very much. Get the emojis in the chat if you’re a supporters club member. J Mike hitting on that Gatorade. That’s the good stuff. You guys got to get me back on the Jagger. I can’t do this other stuff. It’s killing me. Uh, all right. I think it’s time to take our second break probably. So, let’s jump over. Make sure we’re doing that. Yeah, full screen on my half naked body. That’s Yeah, I’m sure they love that. Uh we are brought to you by one of our fantastic sponsors in Game Time. If you want to stop looking at my face, get to an Avalanche game and do it through Game Time. When you sign up with code DNVR with Game Time, you’ll get $20 off your first purchase in the app. Of course, terms apply, but Game Time has a bunch of different ways uh to just save money. Whether it’s their last minute ticket deals, their section selector, or just use the Game Time Pick feature. Jump in with Game Time and get yourself to whatever sporting event you want. Doesn’t have to be the ABS. Maybe you’re a Nuggets fan and you want to go to one of their games or a Broncos fan. Whatever it might be, even if it’s concert in theaters, Game Time has you covered. So download the Game Time app today. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time and use code DNVR for $20 off your first purchase. Again, that’s code DNVR for $20 off, $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go download the Game Time app today and get that great deal. Once you’re all set up with Game Time, uh you’re also going to want to get with Dicks Sporting Goods. You can jump in with Dicks. Oh no, my shoe. I’ll get I got my other one. It’s fine. It’s all good. Uh, Dix has all of the equipment you need. So, you know, you can go exercise and play sports and not look like me and actually be in shape. Uh, whether it be footwear that you can wear on your head like originals, FP movement, Nike, Adidas, VRST, Calia, and more. Or, you know, actual sporting equipment for any number of sports, B, baseball, basketball, football, soccer, hockey, whatever. If you found a lower price, they will price match guarantee it. So, Dicks has you covered no matter what. They’ve even got DNBR merch. So, if you want to buy shirts and look cool and not like me, I mean, I wear DNVR shirts. I look cool when they’re on, at least, uh, go get yourself some DNVR shirts at your local Front Range Dick stores. Or you can get your gear fast with free curbside pickup at your nearest store or easy shipping from dicks.com because every season starts at Dicks. Third period of the DMV Avalanche podcast. So, I want to stay with Dicks so we can do our filling the stat she seat, checking the stat she seat, whatever you want to call it with Dick’s sporting goods. And I wanted to go back to Gabe Landiskog for our our stat sheet check because obviously we’ve talked up Landy about how good he’s played and how good it looks. Uh the stat sheet absolutely reflects that with him, too. In his last five games, he’s put up seven points. So that alone just an insanely good five games. But you expand that out, you go back to November 11th, which is not quite a month, I guess, but in the last three weeks, scored five goals and uh picked up five assists as well. So that’s a well balanced attack from Gabe Landiskog. That is, and I think that’s the key. Landy is never going to be the super flashy guy, the guy who’s scoring highlight reel goals. And while he can be a power forward, he’s not going to really be making the highlight plays all that often. But he is a guy that puts it all together. You put him on a third line and he’ll be effective. You put him with your second line guys and he’s feeding Brock Nelson. You put him with your first line and he can play with a a McKinnon or a Leki or a Nas. It does not matter who you put Landisk with. he’s producing. Yeah. You know, I think the the malleability that he’s shown has been encouraging. And I think the flexibility that Bner’s been able to have kind of interchanging some of these guys and still getting still getting that consistent production has been one of the most encouraging elements of this first half of the season. And I mean, if you can continue to get this uptick in production out of Landy, Brock Nelson as well, I mean, look out because you know what you’re going to get out of Nate. You know what you’re going to get out of Marty. Like, those guys are are going to put up a couple hundred points together close to it, you know? Like, it’s it’s pretty crazy. But to be getting this type of of consistent point production game to game out of Landy, I mean, at that point, like that’s just that’s just getting greedy. That’s just bonus, Jonas, on top of everything that this team’s already doing. Yeah, it it’s those types of players, those type of additional things that make you feel like the ABS should be favorites to win a cup and and and do some special stuff. And obviously, you got Nachushkin back today, too, which was awesome. Had some flashes. I don’t think it was the best game ever, but I don’t think it was bad by any stretch, either. and you sit with this good problem to have of like the ABS have seven top six guys so one of them has to play on the third line like that’s such a luxury in the NHL to be that deep just an embarrassment of riches like what a what a wonderful problem to have oh oh no I’ve got too many delicious side dishes to choose from with my meal you know my my beverages are too cold Yep. Like just to drive that home, the ABS best possession lines in this game were their third and fourth lines. Your top line did the producing and your second your your third and fourth lines did the the dominating of of the puck and not giving Vancouver a way back into the game. I mean, there was a stretch there in the third period where the the bottom six maintained possession for what felt like five straight minutes in that Vancouver zone and they had a couple of good scoring chances and if nothing else like you just you killed the period like you know like you didn’t allow Vancouver to get to get a rush the other way. It sounds like we have the courtesy call ready to go. All right, maybe in a minute. She’s in for a She’s in for a fun one. jumping. Yeah, there we go. Bailey Curtis live from Ball Arena joining us after another fun win. I’m sure the hockey was a lot more fun to look at than what’s happening on this podcast right now. I’m wondering what I just called into. Charity, baby. Raising money for the kids. Yeah, it’s for Big Brothers, Big Sisters. It’s for a good cause. Woohoo. No, this this game had got off to, you know, a pretty slow start, but when you when you get two late period goals the way you did from a Nathan McKinnon, it really brings the the vibe up and and that that’s kind of what happened. You you get a really cool uh performance from a McKenzie Blackwood who unfortunately had to step into the game. Um, but overall I I mean it’s another check on a now 17game point streak. So I don’t know what really there is to complain about. Virtually nothing I imagine is the complaint section at this point. Uh I know the answer is no update, but I do have to ask Scott Wedgewood leaves the game, doesn’t return upper body. Is there anything else there? So Jared Bedar mentioned that he it seemed more preventative than anything. He had some tightness in his back that he was dealing with and they didn’t want to push it if it was anything more serious than what it seemed. They wanted to be a little cautious. He will go on the trip coming up here. So that to me seems like a good sign, but um they’ll they’ll kind of reassess over the next couple days of practice and morning skates and things like that just to see where he’s at. But all seems good and Scott Wedgewood land as of right now. Good news for once. That’s a that’s a nice change. Uh it McKinnon obviously with the two goals is great. Does he get extra bonus bonus points for being sick or is was he basically back to 100% for this game? He seemed I I guess you could call them bonus bonus points cuz even Jared Bedar was like I mean it it wasn’t great. He he didn’t love tonight from Nathan McKinnon, which is a crazy thing for me to kind of conceptualize because again, two two goals, but yeah, it it seems like everybody was kind of down and Nathan McKinnon I I wouldn’t exclude from that. So, he’s just But that’s what you’re expected to do when you are Nathan McKinnon. and you were the first star of the month of November and and do what he does. And you’re you’re currently leading the league in goals and and points and all of the fun things. That’s what you’re supposed to do night in and night out. It is. And he’s doing that. So, and not the whole team is doing that. Let’s be honest about it. Yeah. Uh thank you to Jean or Gianne. I’m sorry if I ruined your name for becoming a member. Uh you can become a supporters club member today, too. Uh, it gives you access to all our behind the-scenes content as well as a bunch of emojis in chat that you can throw down. Uh, for a night like tonight, like the the Mad Mac, which we got a little bit of Bailey, the ABS seemed to be I don’t know if I’d say extraordinarily physical, but there was some extra edge to their game against against Vancouver tonight. Do we do we know why or is that just how things played out? I think that’s just kind of how things played out. Um I I think if anything there was a little bit of frustration coming in from some of these guys cuz a lot of the calls like Nathan McKinnon said in his presser that there were a lot of calls that they drew that they didn’t necessarily get and so there’s a little bit of frustration coming out from that aspect of things and I think that contributed a lot just because it I mean it’s frustration at that point and so that’s that that’s kind of where I see it is thing things are maybe just not rolling like they’re already playing, you know, not great hockey through the first period. You’re starting to kind of push at everything that comes your way and and that that’s really all it seemed to me. So, you can’t not score on the power play if you don’t have a power play, though. That’s This is true. Is would we consider this, you know, a decent performance from what we saw so far? So yeah, that that’s that’s kind of the way that I look at it. It’s calls aren’t going their way. And I feel like despite all of that, I feel like they played decent hockey. They pushed through it and their game I feel like got better through and through the game, which is all you can really ask. Like there it only gets better from what they allowed during the first period, I’m not upset. Who was your sleeper star or unsung hero from this game? because obviously McKinnon, Lannisog, those guys are getting the points. Who else performed quietly good? I feel like I’ve got to give that to a Ross Colton. Ross Colton had did made some really sneaky good contributions that didn’t show up on the score sheet. And it’s one of the things I kind of talked about with Gabe Landiskog after the game is what you’ve got a Nelson who’s performing. You’ve got a Gabe Landiskog who picked up two points on the night. Ross Colton produced a lot of chances. He had a couple high dangers there. Uh, a lot of really good pushes and nothing to show for it on the score sheet. And that’s just something to be said about, you know, what he’s creating off of the score sheet and how he’s kind of creating a lot of these helpers and putting his teammates in good situations to go and produce on the score sheet. Um, just it it just goes to show the kind of player Ross Colton is. And I I’d love to see that production show out more on the score sheet, but if that’s what he’s producing and if that’s how his linemates are producing, I I’m I’m not exactly mad at it. I I love the way that Ross Colton is playing right now. I feel like mechanically everything off the score sheet play-wise has been insane from what I’m seeing for number 20. So the easy next question then is Valentin back in the lineup. He plays on the third line tonight, but it’s hard to believe the ABS are gonna leave him there. Has Colton done enough to stay in the top six? I feel like you and I talk about this all the time, too. I mean, all of this stuff, doing all of these things off the score sheet is great, but that doesn’t win you games a lot of times. You got to score. Uh it’s it’s goals and producing points that’s going to eventually like you have to score more than the other team. And until Ross kind of starts getting over that hump a little bit and starts a little bit more of that production as a second line winger, Val Nachushkin could easily play him out of the spot. And I I say that with all the love in the world for a guy like Ross Colton and what he is doing on the second line. It’s just the the reality of the situation. You’ve got a Val Nachushkin who I think looked okay in today’s game. I think he created enough for what you can do on the third line. There’s there’s definitely more in the tank there and I’m not my expectations are not high with his first game back. So I I think there’s a lot more that we’re going to see from Val Nachushkin kind of getting back to the form that he was in when he got injured. If I can see more production from Aras Colton, I’d love to see him stay there. If that’s the argument we’re having, that is a stacked top three lines. Yep. For the Colorado Avalanche. So, I’m not necessarily mad if Bal Nutrushkin stays down there. For me, it’ll come down to chemistry and can he work well enough with a Jack Drury who’s really doing well in, you know, distributing for that third line to produce well enough? And can Ross Colton is Ross Colton a better fit chemically down there? Maybe. It’s certainly a good problem to have, like you said. So, the ABS set up in a great spot. I I what do we even call the ABS at this point? It’s a 17 game point streak. I I feel like wagon seems like not a good enough term at this point anymore. I I don’t I don’t even know at this point. Like it’s Yeah, I I have no idea what to make of this. It’s been an incredible run so far. I if that it’s hard to not be happy with what how things are rolling through the first third. We’re at the third point of the season and the ABS are still only at one regulation loss. It’s it just I I don’t have words for that. Literally the second best start to a season ever. Like Yeah. Like what do you make of that? Like again, it wagon doesn’t seem sufficient enough for what this ABS team is doing currently. They’re that good. I I got nothing else. Yeah, go win a cup. Bang. Yeah, do that. Long way to go still for that. Bailey, any final thoughts here before we let you go? Not many. I I’m hoping that this road trip turns out to be a good one for the ABS. They haven’t shown that they’re I mean they’re they’re a dominant team on the road just like they’re a dominant team at home. So, let’s go and make it 20. Make it make it 21. Whatever it might be, get us some more points back in that column. I if they get a point streak that’s old enough to drink, I don’t even know what I’ll do at that point. Uh did I hear we’re already getting did I hear we’re getting the blonde hair? Yeah. Is that Yeah. Yeah. tonight. Shout out to the community. You guys, you went above. That’s awesome, you guys. Ridiculously awesome stuff. It’s just bleach, though. No tips unless you guys give like a lot more money. So, maybe if the the point streak can get old enough, we’ll we’ll we’ll consider it. We’ll see. We’ll see how it goes. Bailey, thank you for joining us. We appreciate you and uh all of your insights. Make sure you’re going and checking out all of the stuff she writes and AJ writes over at the dnvr.com. We do need to take our final break of the show here as uh let’s be honest, do I look like a guy who uh likes to stare into the sun? No. Clearly, I don’t get much sun at all. And that’s why I use Shady Rays when I drive. So, make sure you go get your Shady Rays so you don’t go blind. You can get 35% off any of their polarized sunglasses. Hundreds of different styles to choose from when you use code dnvr at shadyrays.com. The coolest part is though, look, I’m criminally do this all the time. Forget my sunglasses somewhere, whether it’s like at the gas station or at the beach or whatever. Uh, Shady Race has you covered for the first 30 days. If you don’t like them, you lose them, or you break them, they’ll replace your sunglasses entirely for free. No guilt trip, nothing. It’s that easy. So, make sure you’re getting over to shady.com. Use that DNVR code for 35% off any pair of polarized sunglasses and try it for yourself with the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. And then if you got your rays and you’re ready to drive into the sun, make sure you’re doing it in a Toyota, the official vehicle of DMVr and the official vehicle of the Colorado Avalanche. Uh jump in with Toyota. There’s a bunch of local stores in your front range area that you can go check out. Vehicle for everybody. Whatever type of vehicle you like, trucks, SUVs, crossovers, sedans, anything in between, they’ve got them all. And they offer 17 different models with all-wheeler, four-wheel drive available, like the Epic 4Runner. Has it started snowing out yet? I I can’t tell. I Anyway, it’s supposed to snow like half a foot today in Colorado, so you’re going to need that all-wheel drive. Uh, and if you’re trying to save money on your daily commute, 16 different hybrid vehicles to choose from, even hybrid trucks like the Tundra I Force Max. So visit your front range Toyota stores including Autoation Toyota Rapon Centennial Corwin Toyota in Boulder Groove Ton Littleton Mountain States in Denver Stevens and Toyota Aurora and Stevens and Toyota West in Lakewood. Uh again the official vehicle of DMVr Toyota let’s go places. Uh final period of the DMV Avalanche podcast. You don’t need to look at me anymore. Jared Bedar talked postgame. didn’t have a ton to say, but let’s hear from coach a little bit like is back so thought we’d take him out. Better safe than sorry, but we’ll just see how he de how it like his injury develops here over the next couple days and take it from there. Nothing too serious at this point. Yeah, I liked it. I mean, I think we made some mistakes early in the game. They were jumping and we gave up three breakaways, partial breakaways, um, some decision making, couple puck decisions, and then one in coverage. And so, not really good enough. And then we started to come around. I liked the rest of our night. I thought it was pretty good. committed to the checking side of it and got a little bit more dangerous on the offensive side of it, especially in the second period. Which line? Nelly’s. Yeah, it was great again. Yeah, I thought they were great again. It’s why I didn’t put Val on it because they’ve been really good here in the recent past. Productions coming dangerous every night. They seem to have some good chemistry. So, yeah, they keep playing like that. It’ll stay like that. Eric and Ryan Brock Nelson had another great performance tonight. If I have my stats right, I believe he has nine or 10 points last couple games, but how would you assess his performance? It’s been good. I really like that line. Like, like I said, they’re starting to find some chemistry. It’s I think all those guys have been good. um you don’t produce just off one guy, but I think like Landy’s game is really like taken a step in the last little bit. Colts the same way, Nelly same way. And and like I said, I think they found some chemistry there and they’re getting on the score sheet every night. Bailey Sean, what can you say about what he’s Colton? Yeah. No, he’s been good. I mean, he’s been good. I I like way he’s playing. I touched on it this morning on his identity and what he provides to that line. I think he’s been consistent with it. I know it’s kind of a high bar just kind of slow. So, obviously Nate was one of the guys that was sick. I don’t think he was at his best tonight on the checking side of it. Um, and that because that takes a lot of energy and a lot of hard work. But here’s the thing, you don’t got to make every play, but you got to make some big plays. So, that’s what what Nate can do. Even when he’s not at his best, um, you know, he still obviously has the ability and he stays focused enough um on doing the right things and to make a play or two that can be difference making plays for you. And that’s what he did tonight. Jesse said that’s a really easy switch and play for so long. Is that a nice Yes. Yeah. And we’ve used it, you know, at times and and now they’re seeing power play time together, so you see a little bit more of those flashes. But yes, absolutely. last two especially defensively. How much of an impact has just play? Yeah, I mean lots. Yeah, all not just Hack but Pder as well. I think all all of our coaches all chip in in different areas. Um, but yeah, like lots of small group meetings, one-on-one meetings with some of our guys. Um, you know, like that’s special teams is the start of it and then they all dig in on the five on five stuff as well. But he’s he’s had a huge impact. No question. Yes. Don’t know yet. Yeah. Yep. Thanks, Short and sweet. Yeah, short and pretty like harsh. Nathan McKinnon’s sick. He scores two goals for you and Ben’s like, I didn’t love his checking tonight. Tough night for him. The ABS are that no rest, man. Gota gota got to keep the standard high. We all know that uh complacency is is the devil, right? Sure. I I don’t know, man. You got to you got to find something to like raw yourself up at this point, you know? Like Bedser’s like I don’t I’m the coach. I don’t know. I got to I got to I got to be critical of something. Can’t tell them they’re perfect. Then they’ll get lazy for sure. It It’s really tough though. Like like genuinely our job is to analyze and and talk about the abs. And it it’s usually never hard to find negative things to talk about. If you want to, you can be critical pretty much all the time. And there just isn’t a lot to be critical of from the ABS right now. They’re they’re not playing perfect hockey, but they’re playing hockey that wins pretty much every night. I saw people in the chat. I mean, you’re plus 51 now in goal differential. Yeah. What that what even the hell is that? That’s like those stats you see from the Pton Manning Broncos years, you know, in 20 the second season where he’s like, “Wait, he threw how many touchdowns?” Like a million in one game. Wow. Uh it is worth noting AB’s not just plus 50. Dallas lost in overtime tonight, so the ABS actually did pick up a point in the standings. It is possible. That is good y’all. Thank you. Hallelujah. Uh the ABS also have a game in hand on Dallas. They have 44 points. Dallas has 39. So if the ABS convert that game in hand, they are in theory seven points ahead of Dallas in the standings. And there’s no one else in the West even in the ballpark. It’s not realistically no one else could chase the ABS down. So they’ve set themselves up indefinitely going forward. Um, yeah. The just listen. I mean, the ABS are the the smart kid, right? Like you every friend group you got like the guy who’s dumb with money, just gets paid, doesn’t make enough money to to spend the way he does anyways, but it’s it’s Friday night, he’s going out. And then there’s the the guy who’s preparing for his future. You know, he’s got a 401k putting money away, stacking, setting himself up for success. the ABS right now are going to feel the work that they’re putting in now down the line. And I just think that’s what’s going to be the biggest win here is is not having to play those those high stress matchups hopefully, you know, come late March. Yeah, I honestly nothing feels all that high stress for the ABS right now. it. I mean, you’re shirtless with a shoe on your head. So, yeah, we’re we’re definitely in the the less tense of of times. I hope that’s not the like measuring stick there. That’s tough. If we learned anything here tonight, it’s exactly how much money it costs to to get Rido to show a little bit of skin. Yeah. 800 bucks. That’s not that much. I guess I should have made my bleach more expensive, but you know, we Yeah, $1,000 seemed like a pretty unreachable goal when we said it today and then we shredded it 10 minutes into the show. 100%. Did not think we were going to make it to a,000 bucks. So, thank you again, Chad, and the whole community. Y’all are awesome. And Big B is a great cause. Like, I know we’ve been joking around, but super awesome. and they deserve it all. Hopefully, we can get them even more money. Um, I don’t have a ton else to say. I guess we did have one super chat from the shik that we lost because the show exploded cuz I’m too pale. Throw out some throw out some more suggestions in the chat for the next time we do this. And I’ll I’ll do I’m not taking my shirt off on camera. It’s just not happening. But I’ll I’ll do something. Yeah, we’ll give us some good ideas for next time. for sure. U I I don’t I know we’ve ended a bunch of shows with this lately, but like have fun with this. The ABS are not going to do this forever this year, and you you may genuinely never see this again from the Colorado Avalanche. These types of streaks, this type of play is extraordinarily rare, and we get to enjoy it by doing silly stuff like this. Do make do something memorable. Have fun. If you can’t appreciate these times, man, I just I Why even be a hockey fan? Why be a sports fan at that point? Because this is about as good as it gets. Yep. And I was sitting there in the third period and I just kept thinking to myself how how calm I felt. Like a twogoal lead in hockey is not like the game’s over, you know, but it just it just feels that way. Yeah, the ABS have been lockown dominant with their leads for the most part this year and they’ve been really good at getting leads. So, good combination. You don’t give up a ton of high I mean, they actually did give up some high danger chances early in this one. Some of those they did breakaways that Bedsy mentioned. You want to clean that up? Talk about something you could nitpick. Got a couple of good saves on them, though. So, you still end up, you know, feeling pretty good coming away from the the play. But yeah, I mean they just I think this team’s ability to strike and then also once once momentum starts to to flip, they really seize control of it. Like they don’t they don’t give you a chance to breathe once they decide, no, we’re taking this one. Yeah. But it never really felt like Vancouver threatened to get back in this game. Right. like you said, yeah, they gave up some of those breakaways early. There was maybe one play in the second period, the the Wedgwood save right before he left the game, but beyond that, Vancouver was just non-threatening for the most part until the AS had a multi-goal lead with three minutes left and they pulled the goalie. And at that point, Vancouver’s hoping for a miracle and the ABS didn’t give it to them. So, yeah, they get the early they get the early goal and it was like they didn’t capitalize on the breakaway and and you just kind of felt I maybe that I I would say it would be wrong to say the life went away because it wasn’t like they just laid down. But when I when I keep going back to that term of inevitability, I just think there’s human nature that sets in like Yep. you get the early goal, you lead the entire period and then Nathan McKinnon just ties it, you know, under a minute left in the first period and you’re going to the break. Like how how is this game tied right now? And then you still kind of hang around. you’re only down one and then they get the insurance goal late in the second period. And I I think the ABS have done that a lot this season of like maybe it hasn’t been the banner period. It’s not the one we’re going to be bragging about for weeks on end. But then they just score in like the last 90 seconds and you look up and it’s tied or they’re up one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 or whatever it is and then you’re just left shaking your head like this team is so stupidly good right now. Yeah, it I’m at a loss for words for it. But thankfully, we’re at the end of our show, so you guys can stop looking at my body and uh we can move on with our lives. Uh it’s been a fun one. I had a blast. Thank you for participating again, chat. But we do have to wrap this one up. We’re back tomorrow for an off day show. Tune in for that one with me clothed. And I’m not going to promise blonde hair tomorrow’s show because I don’t know when I’ll be able to go get it. But certainly by Thursday game day, I will have blonde hair. So, uh, look forward to that. We appreciate all y’all. We got to wrap this up. This has been the DNVR Avalanche podcast presented by Bet 365 and we will talk to you on the next one. [Music] [Applause] We all silly like the mayor.

The Colorado Avalanche get another multi goal night out of Nathan MacKinnon to win again and extend their point streak to 17 games. But is Scott Wedgewood ok?

Intro – 0:00
Rundown – 3:28
Negatives? – 4:37
Three Stars – 18:50
Curtis-y call – 36:40
Bednar – 49:15
Wrapping up – 53:31

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