The 1996 Stanley Cup champion Avalanche were in the house and were served a treat by the NHL’s current No. 1 team on Thursday. Colorado defeated the Florida Panthers 6-2 at Ball Arena.
Sam Malinski, Brock Nelson, Gavin Brindley, Nathan MacKinnon, Artturi Lehkonen, and Gabe Landeskog all scored for the Avs, who improved to 12-0-2 at home. Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves in goal, as the Avalanche outshot Florida 42-25.
“It’s always more comfortable being at home than playing in someone else’s rink and sleeping in your own bed and being with your family,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s all just the way it is. So you try to make sure that you’re taking care of your home ice, and we’ve been pretty good at doing that.”
The Avs got the scoring started with a weak goal from Malinski at 1:14. The blueliner skated in and fired a wrist shot that goalie Daniil Tarasov had a good look at. But it hit the goalie and went in. Florida got the game-tying goal from Noah Gregor just over six minutes later.
Before the break, Nelson whacked home a rebound after winning a battle in the crease. The Avs carried that 2-1 lead into the second, and then the floodgates were opened.
First, Brindley scored, putting in a rebound after Brent Burns put the puck on net. Then, MacKinnon scored from the point after Samuel Girard’s fake shot put Eetu Luostarinen out of position. Finally, Lehkonen was sprung in on a breakaway and beat the goalie off a set up from Brindley.
The Avs thought they had a power-play goal from Martin Necas but an offside review called it back. Landeskog’s tally in the third increased the lead.
Positive: Home Cookin’
The Avs are an all-around great team. Any game, on any given night, could be a show. And it usually is.
But they’re insanely dominant at home. It’s hard to make sense of it.
It’s not just their record at home, compared to the 10-2-5 record they have on the road. But it’s how they carry play, how they move the puck, and how they truly never feel like they’re in jeopardy of losing. The defensive game has been strong pretty much every night.
But the goal-scoring at home is on a different level.
“I feel like we just have good mojo here,” Blackwood said. “Maybe it’s we get our matchups on the line changes I don’t know, but it’s fun. We buzz here.”
Negative: Panthers Were Gassed
This negative goes to the other team. The Panthers were gassed. They played the previous night in Utah, and it showed.
But it can’t excuse this type of game. Colorado has played a lot of hockey over the past 10 days. It’s been every other night with a back-to-back sandwiched in the middle of it. They haven’t had proper practice time in a long while, and they’ve barely had morning skates, given all the early starts. They could easily be gassed, too. And they probably are.
That first game back after a road trip is usually a tough one. Colorado could’ve used that as an excuse to have a bad night.
Florida looked outmatched and outclassed. They’re missing Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov. There’s no denying they’d look far better with them in the lineup. But this was not great.
