The loss of Artturi Lehkonen will hurt. But there were quite a few positives to take away from the Avalanche\u2019s 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.<\/p>\n
For example, the top line had its handprints all over the game. It gave Colorado its third win in four games and an opportunity to have a highly successful five-game stretch in seven days in Anaheim on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
10 Takeaways<\/p>\n
1. Jared Bednar has always mixed and matched the wingers in the top six. He\u2019s been doing it for years. But the performance in L.A. from the top line told us everything we need to know about why Gabe Landeskog and Martin Necas are the ones playing with Nathan MacKinnon.<\/p>\n
For most of the year, it was Artturi Lehkonen in that spot. Since October, I\u2019ve argued that Valeri Nichushkin should get a longer look with MacKinnon. But if Landeskog is going to play like this, and Necas is going to keep upping his game, then that\u2019s the top line, and it should remain that way.<\/p>\n
2. MacKinnon has multiple points in each of his last four games, one of which was before the Olympic break. He\u2019s now up to 99 points in 59 games. It\u2019s a shame that the goal in the second period was waved off. If it wasn\u2019t, he\u2019d have hit the 100-point mark in less than 60 games. What an unbelievable season he\u2019s having.<\/p>\n
3. This was MacKinnon\u2019s best game in a long time. He led the way. The top line was excellent, but he was the driver. <\/p>\n
4. Necas has been dominating since his incredible performance at the Olympics. Before the break, he was in a bit of a lull, but that\u2019s all but gone now. He\u2019s got nine points in four games coming out of the break and a four-game multi-point streak.<\/p>\n
5. His second assist got him to the 70-point mark, becoming the 10th player to reach that this season. He\u2019s at 71 now after the empty netter, which slots him in eighth among all skaters. Not bad for your second-highest scorer on the team. <\/p>\n
Necas is well on his way to blowing past his career-high of 83 points last year. <\/p>\n
6. The third piece of the top line is in the middle of an impressive stretch, too. With three points against the Kings, Landeskog has five in the four games since the break. If anything, the Olympics were a great way for the captain to get warmed up before returning to action with the Avs. These are technically his first four games in more than six weeks, but he didn\u2019t come back cold because of the Olympic experience. <\/p>\n
7. Remember when Landeskog had four assists in 16 games to start the season? Since then: Eight goals, 15 assists, and 23 points in 29 games. That\u2019s a 65-point pace since that sluggish start. He\u2019s so back.<\/p>\n
8. I feel like I need to update these stats every game for as long as the strong play continues. Mackenzie Blackwood is 5-3-0 in his last eight starts. More impressively, he\u2019s given up just 13 goals in that time.<\/p>\n
9. Just the second goal of the season for Devon Toews. The offense hasn\u2019t been easy for him this year, but that was as great a play as I\u2019ve seen in quite some time. The setup from MacKinnon, the finish from Toews. Pure skill. <\/p>\n
10. The Avalanche became the first team to reach 40 wins. They reached the mark in 59 games, going 40-10-9, which is surprisingly not a franchise record. They were 40-10-4 in 2021-22, accomplishing the feat in five fewer games. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The loss of Artturi Lehkonen will hurt. But there were quite a few positives to take away from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,1116,192,144,5277,7,5,513,517,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-482786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-avalanche","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-cale-makar","10":"tag-colorado","11":"tag-colorado-avalanche","12":"tag-coloradoavalanche","13":"tag-gabriel-landeskog","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-martin-necas","16":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","17":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116165593513459360","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}