Game Analysis: MacDermid and Malgin Shine in Rout of Hapless Hawks

Do the Avs have too many star players with the emergence of MacDermid and Malgin as superstars?

The game started with a Kurtis MacDermid goal and ended with MacDermid shoo’ing members of the Chicago Blackhawks off the ice as the horn sounded.

It was a great night for the Colorado Avalanche where the star players showed up and delivered the scoring needed, while also getting contributions from depth guys that all came together in a 5-0 home win.

For the Avs, the stars were on full display as they were paced by the four combined goals from MacDermid, Logan O’Connor and Denis Malgin (2). It was also good to see depth guys like Mikko Rantanen get on the scoreboard. But when Malgin and MacDermid are hot, you just feed them the puck and get out of the way.

Joking aside, it’s good to see a player of Dermy’s skill set making contributions to his team in ways other than what we’re used to. Rather than pummeling faces with his fists, he pummeled the knees of Chicago defenseman with long, wide wrist shots from the blueline that somehow found their way into the back of the net.

They don’t ask how, they ask how many. And tonight, that one goal was all that mattered. 

BUT: There was another injury. Evan Rodrigues left the game in the period with an upper-body injury. Could it be a head injury? Might be. No update ‘til tomorrow.

Alexandar Georgiev made that first tally stand up as the game winner, the first for MacDermid in his career. Georgie stopped all 27 shots he faced as Colorado pushed its win streak to six games and once again moved back into the second-place tie in the Central with Minnesota and just a point back of the first-place Stars.

Win winnable games. It’s what I’ve been saying for a month and it’s coming to fruition down the stretch despite continued adversity.

But where there is hardship, there is also opportunity. 

For Malgin, his opportunity comes thanks to the unfortunate injury of Artturi Lehkonen. The finger surgery that will likely sideline Lehkonen for the remainder of the regular season also allows Malgin to move up into the top six and a chance to play with high-end talent. He has taken that opportunity and seized it as displayed tonight by a two-goal, three-point effort in nearly 16 minutes of ice time.

Logan O’Connor also got on the scoresheet for just the eighth time this season, blasting home a one-timer in the circle. That play was started and kept alive by a pair of ‘la tornades’ from Sam Girard, a player who got more high-level ice time in the game with Cale Makar sitting due to a minor injury (we hope!) sustained Sunday in Detroit. 

Makar goes out for a game, MacDermid comes into the lineup and scores. Girard and Bo Byram both step up in increased ice time and contribute with a helper each. The next-man-up mentality only works if players seize their opportunities and run with them. That happened tonight.

Granted, this Blackhawks team might just have been the worst team the Avs have played all year, which is an impressive feat considering how much Colorado throttled San Jose a few weeks back. But the Sharks at least have players with name recognition. This ‘Hawks team is a who's who of who’s that? With Patrick Kane gone and the front office’s full-on rebuild plan to land Connor Bedard, the only real NHLer on that roster is Denver’s own Seth Jones.

You can only play the opponents in front of you and that’s what the Avs did Monday by beating a hapless Chicago team. Hopefully it’s what they can do the rest of the week with a pair of contests against Arizona and a mid-week game against a Penguins team on the outside looking in and in danger of missing the postseason for the first time in 17 years.

It’s not all rainbows, unicorns and Matt Nieto mustaches, though. Not everything tonight was magical. You look at what happened to Rodrigues and how his game seemingly ended abruptly and start to worry about more injuries. Wait… what exactly did happen to him? No one seems to know exactly what happened in that hit along the boards, but was confirmed to be an ‘an upper body injury’ by head coach Jared Bednar afterward. 

Seems like more opportunity for someone to step up.

You know what is better than six wins in a row? Seven.

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