Takeaways From Avalanche Win In San Jose

It just wasn't their night - until it was

This was what I had written when just a couple of minutes were left in the game tonight:

Just one of those nights. Goalie stood on his head. No puck luck. Snakebit. Couldn’t buy a break.

Add any other hard-luck cliche you want, and it would be appropriate to describe the night for the Colorado Avalanche hockey club tonight in San Jose. Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood was the No. 1, 2 and 3 star of the hockey game, with an amazing debut as a Shark.

The Avs had the puck all night long and got innumerable quality chances, but Blackwood stopped them all. It was one of the best goaltending performances I’ve ever seen against the Avalanche in a regular-season game.

So, this isn’t going to be a rip job on the Avs. As another old hockey saying goes, “if we play like that, we’re going to win most of our games.”

Coach Jared Bednar can’t be unhappy at a team that had 48 shots on net….

And then Cale Makar scored, and then Mikko Rantanen won it in the shootout and that all went out the window. But, at least you can see how the sausage is made when it comes to writing late game stories. You need to write in advance a lot. Back in my print newspaper days, there were many times when I had two separate game stories - one in which the Avs lost, one in which the Avs won - all set to be sent to the editors, whichever way the game turned out.

You should have seen me on the night of Game 4, 1996 Stanley Cup Finals at Miami Arena against the Panthers, in triple overtime. I must have had about 14 different stories written.

What a win! The Avs absolutely dominated in all facets of the game, but were 1:26 away from getting whitewashed by the estimable Blackwood. Makar got the goal, with a great screen from Val Nichushkin.

In the shootout, Rantanen picked the top right corner on the Avs’ second shootout attempt, and that was all Alexandar Georgiev needed. Georgiev was just rock solid in the shootout, not giving Sharks shooters an inch.

The final shot total: Avs 52, San Jose 21.

MORE TAKEAWAYS

Here is your Avs event summary:

• As you can see, Andrew Cogliano played his first game since the first round of the playoffs last year.

• Bednar seemed to shorten his bench a bit toward the end, which is normal in a game in which you’re down a goal. But guys such as Jonathan Drouin and Tomas Tatar noticeably didn’t play as much in that time.

• You’ve got to keep loving the faceoff numbers Ryan Johansen keeps putting up. A 61% win percentage in this one gets the job done nicely. I thought he played a good game overall, even though he was held off the score sheet again.

• The over-under for shots on goal before the game, for Nathan MacKinnon, was 4.5. He finished with 14 shots on goal.

• MacK won only one of nine faceoffs though.

• Avs caught a break when San Jose’s best defenseman, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, left the game in the second period and didn’t return.

• Thanks for the live chat, those of you who stayed up to play along.

• Here are your video highlights