In yet another matchup between former teammates turned rivals, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, it was Martin Necas who once again stepped up to have a big game.<\/p>\n
Necas has been a driving force of the Avalanche\u2019s offense against Dallas this season. In four games between the two clubs, the goals were 11-9 in Colorado\u2019s favor. This doesn\u2019t include the three shootout-deciding goals, as players don\u2019t get credited for those. Ultimately, it was 9-9 entering Saturday, and Necas\u2019 go-ahead goal was the only goal not scored on an empty-netter that separated the teams. <\/p>\n
Of those 11 Avalanche goals, Necas had points on nine of them. That\u2019s more of what the Avs need from No. 88, who is just six points away from hitting 100 for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n
The Avalanche needed Necas to take that step this year if they were going to offset the loss of Rantanen. But they\u2019ll need it to continue into the postseason, whether against Dallas or otherwise. <\/p>\n
This is one part of Necas\u2019 game that hasn\u2019t evolved yet. And one that he is well set up for this year.<\/p>\n
When the Avalanche were ousted by the Dallas Stars in seven games last spring, it was largely because Rantanen got hot near the end of the series and scored a historic third-period hat trick to sink his former club. Necas was obviously the big piece Colorado had acquired in the initial trade with Carolina. He was a non-factor in Game 7 and for most of the series.<\/p>\n
If his regular season success against the Stars is a preview of what\u2019s to come, then the Avs might have their own weapon to help neutralize the lethal Stars offense. But the game often changes in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s up to Necas to change with it.<\/p>\n
10 Takeaways<\/p>\n
1. In October, Necas had a goal and two assists when the Avs lost 5-4 in the shootout to the Stars. When Colorado made that crazy late comeback on trade deadline day, Necas had a goal and three assists, meaning he was involved in all four Avalanche goals in a 5-4 shootout triumph. He was held off the scoresheet in a 2-1 loss shortly after that before recording one and one in this game. <\/p>\n
2. I\u2019m not sure what happened with his wrist in that Vancouver game, but there was a time during the game at Ball Arena on Wednesday when I thought that Necas wouldn\u2019t get to play against Dallas. Thankfully, that wasn\u2019t the case. <\/p>\n
3. The Avs flexed their depth in this game, as none of their forwards hit 22 minutes. Brock Nelson played a team-high 21:38, Necas played 21:19, and MacKinnon 20:47. Nobody else hit 19 minutes.<\/p>\n
4. On the other side of the time on ice scale, Ross Colton played a team-low 7:49. His season has really taken a turn for the worst lately and you have to wonder if the rumors around the trade deadline about the Avs trying to offload him were true. I asked Bednar on Friday if it\u2019s been a challenge finding a spot for Colton, and he denied it. <\/p>\n
5. Scott Wedgewood made a statement. And it was the type of statement that further proved that he\u2019s likely the starter for this team. The Avs might still need Mackenzie Blackwood in the postseason, but if the playoffs started today, Wedgewood is the starter. He\u2019s at least earned that role.<\/p>\n
6. Wedgewood has a league-leading .918 save percentage after earning his third shutout of the season. It only took 17 saves to get the win, but he made some pretty big ones along the way. He\u2019s now just two wins away from hitting 30 for the first time in his career. <\/p>\n
7. It\u2019s been an oddly unproductive season for Devon Toews from an offensive standpoint. But with another helper in this game, he has five assists in his last seven games, which is far and away his best stretch of the season. Not that he\u2019s having a bad season, but if his offense gets going to the standard the team is used to, it\u2019ll only help them make a longer playoff run.<\/p>\n
8. Although they didn\u2019t get much of a chance in this game, I have enjoyed watching Toews run the top power play in Cale Makar\u2019s absence. That role was initially handed to Sam Malinski given the season he\u2019s had, but Toews is a smart choice. He knows how these guys play and he\u2019s a good fit. <\/p>\n
Again, the more offense the better from the defensively sound No. 7. <\/p>\n
9. Congratulations are in order for Brent Burns. Playing 1,000 games in a row is an insane accomplishmentand one that\u2019s even more impressive when you realize this run began after he had already played 572 games. The portion of games he played before this Ironman streak is an NHL career in itself. I wrote about it earlier. Click here to read it<\/a> if you haven\u2019t had a chance yet.<\/p>\n 10. I\u2019m really impressed by Erik Johnson\u2019s ability to be this good this quickly as an ESPN analyst. After years of being in the fight, he\u2019s also really quickly become a neutral observer \u2014 something that matters on a national broadcast. It was nice to see him call this thing right down the middle. <\/p>\n There was one play, particularly, where Nazem Kadri was tripped up. Johnson was quick to point out that he liked the non-call from the official because \u201cKadri went down a touch too easily.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not easy to be neutral so quickly after being involved in the fight. Kudos to EJ for being a true professional in every sense of the word. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In yet another matchup between former teammates turned rivals, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, it was Martin Necas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,192,144,5277,147,5,513,4,2565],"class_list":{"0":"post-541134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-avalanche","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche","11":"tag-coloradoavalanche","12":"tag-dallas-stars","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-martin-necas","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-scott-wedgewood"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116349119348503874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541134","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=541134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}