Dater is recovering from a weekend with his buddies and I’m recovering from Easter with two small kids… that Easter Bunny and his damn candy had them WIRED today. Can’t Daddy just watch the Masters and nap?? That’s the dream on a Spring Sunday afternoon.
Enough of that, let’s get ready to watch the Avs take on the Ducks in the final meeting of the season with my game diary. You’ll notice that I used the alternate Ducks logo in the above graphic. That’s because the primary mark stinks and I refuse to admit the team moved away from an ALL-TIME logo to that duck foot D. Woof.
QUICK RECAP
Avs go up 2-0, then fall behind 4-2, then Nathan MacKinnon, Devon Toews and Mikko Rantanen remembered they’re awesome at hockey and help Colorado come back for 5-4 OT win. Dater will have a deeper look into the game tomorrow in his recap, but for now, you can read my in-game ramblings.
Oh and Mikko tied Joe Sakic’s single-season goals record for an Avalanche player (NOT A QUEBEC NORDIQUE!) and went over 100 points for the first time in his career. Colorado now has two 100-point players in the same season for the first time since Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg (ever heard of them?!) did it in 1995-96 (that season was okay, I guess).
Oh and the Avs won their 10th straight road game… which is good.
Oh and Nathan MacKinnon (who scored the OT goal) now has game winners in five-of-the-last-seven games… which is stupid good.
PRE-GAME
Let’s start with the struggle I will battle through for this game diary: I ate too many jellybeans today (all week really…).
Excited to see Franky back between the pipes tonight. He’s been out of the lineup since Feb. 7. I thought it was interesting that he didn’t even dress last night in LA, but was always the planned starter for this one. I guess he really needed that extra rest.
No Gabe Landeskog for the remainder of the regular season. Let’s hope for the first round… but maybe the second round.
Let’s also hope for a better showing (effort, not result) than last night in Hollywood. Woof. Thank goodness for Alexander Georgiev… those were his two points.
How about those Quinnipiac Bobcats last night? It’s gotta be tough to be a Minnesota sports fan… Sorry Ben Meyers and Erik Johnson.
Interesting timing for Anaheim to give Drew Helleson his first career NHL game against the team that drafted him… and traded him for Josh Manson and a run at the 2022 Stanley Cup.
Congrats to the Bruins on an NHL-record 63 wins. I’m sure all the Bruins fans I work with with be level-headed about this very meaningful accomplishment…
FIRST PERIOD
Jared Bender breaking out the purple sport coat for this one. Well-dressed man.
No Cale Makar again as he is still out with a lower-body injury. But don’t worry, people… we still have Brad Hunt and his CANNON shot.
Seeing comments about the game not being on TNT for them… I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t have to deal with local blackouts for Avs games. This is what I’m getting:
1-0 | J.T. Compher, 17th (Val Nichushkin, Erik Johnson) (10:15/1st): “WHY IS JACK JOHNSON CARRYING THE PUCK INTO THE ZONE?… Oh… nice goal!” J.T. Compher gets two shots at the wide-open net, burying the second bid from he 1-0 lead. After the TNT crew spends the previous five minutes talking about Trevor Zegras, he puts on a solid display of defensive indifference in front of the net that allowed JTC all the time in the world to make it 1-0. Jack doesn’t get the helper, but EJ and Nuke do.
PING. PING. Nathan MacKinnon and Devon Toews with a couple of posts on this looooooong Avalanche power play that has featured two 5-on-3’s and a double minor. Weird sequence.
Update: another ping off the post by Toews. So, to sum up: two crossbars and a far post. Not ideal.
End of the 1st: Avalanche 1, Ducks 0
SOG: 9-7, ANA
PP: COL (0/4), ANA (0/2)
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