Avalanche Game 5 Notebook: Alex Newhook, It's Time To Step Up

Plus, other stuff I'll be looking for tonight

Alex Newhook is only 22. A kid. He’s got a lot of runway left in his career, and it’s not the time to give up on him by any means. But, it’s time for the former first-round pick to step it up, because the Avs sorely need some depth scoring right now and he’s got the talent to give it.

With Valeri Nichushkin (personal reasons) not available to the Avs for tonight’s critical Game 5 against the Seattle Kraken at Ball Arena and with Darren Helm a question mark, Newhook might have an opportunity for increased ice time and thus a chance to re-establish himself as a valued guy in Jared Bednar’s lineup.

Bednar clearly has lost some trust with Newhook of late. It’s evident in the ice-time numbers. He played just six minutes, 46 seconds in Game 4 and 6:39 in Game 3. He has played more than 10 minutes in only one game in this series (Game 1). In 82 regular season games, he played 10 or more minutes in 78 of them. Many times he played 17 minutes or more. Now, he’s been getting about a third of that in the biggest games of all.

I thought Newhook would be more of a big-game playoff performer than he’s been, but so far in 24 career postseason games he has one goal.

Yet, I still think this kid will do some great things for this team. I don’t think there’s any issue with his effort, or lack thereof. If anything, he might put a little too much pressure on himself. I think he just needs to put one in the net and start breathing a little easier, get some confidence back.

For Bednar to play him more, he’s got to keep working on his defensive and checking game. If you’re not getting it done in those departments, Bednar isn’t going to play you as much. Being responsible defensively and as a checker is paramount to Bednar.

Newhook scored 14 regular-season goals. He has real offensive talent. It’s a Catch-22 at times, because it’s hard to put up numbers when you don’t get a lot of ice time. But Newhook has to find a way in the time he gets.

Game 5 tonight would be a great place to start.

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