So! That game against Vegas went pretty badly until it didn’t!
Boston is coming to Colorado’s barn to face a team that is quite interesting for the already high standards of Avs fans; some might even call them impossible. They are effectively undefeated in regulation, they routinely drop three or four goals on the competition and only surrender one in return, and are sitting pretty atop the NHL in this early part of the season, with very little indication that they will slow down. Unlike Florida, they haven’t suffered catastrophic injury to their most important players, and unlike Winnipeg, their play isn’t entirely tied to a goaltender remaining the best modern example of his position in the regular season, and instead in an organizational desire to attack the middle of the ice in the offensive zone like it’s their last charge. They’re even up in the top 5 of relevant possession metrics! Most people would refer to this as being in a “good position”.
But the Avs right now are a weird beast. At 5v5, they’re a juggernaut. On both sides of special teams on the other hand? They’ve been pretty ugly. Routinely boxed out of dangerous scoring chances on the man advantage to the point their power play has a worse success rate than Boston’s, and hoping that they can block shots in volume from the high slot on the man-disadvantage which has landed them down in the bottom third of the league in PK success, the Avs seem to be a squad of extremes. It is in those extremes that you can hope to beat them, but it will be a grind just to get there; Dallas is the sole team to beat them this year, and it required surviving a comeback, overtime, and then going the distance to the shootout to finally best them. This is still an extremely good team by all metrics, just a bit of a lopsided one.
If there’s anywhere Boston can take advantage, it’s through those special teams hiccups. Otherwise, they must skate like they’re being chased in order to keep up with the torrid pace of the Avalanche. Anything less and we could have another ugly start like we saw in Vegas.
How will they handle it? Let’s find out together!
The Avs also may wear their Nordiques gear tonight. I’m sure Jacques Perizeau’s half-frozen form in Cocytus has been turned to watch the game on behalf of all Quebecois who voted “remain”.
Sorry about this not going up on time, but it’s here now!