3 Takeaways from Avalanche’s 5-1 Win Over Utah – The Hockey Writers – Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche has already started the season with Jekyll & Hyde. After losing their first four games, they suddenly came into last night’s game. Utah Hockey Club They won their last three, including a tight match We beat Seattle Kraken 3-2.

After an impressive and dominant performance, this winning streak has now extended to four matches Defeated Utah Hockey Club 5-1. The Avalanche suddenly look like a whole new team as they return to Denver to begin a three-game homestand, starting with the Ottawa Senators on Sunday. Let’s move on to the takeaways from this latest victory.

Is Goalkeeping Solved?

Three starts, three victories Justus Annunen. He turned away 25 of 26 shots en route to victory and the early returns are promising. Afterwards, their numbers were ugly in the spot mission. Alex Georgiev He was withdrawn twice early to start the season.

As it turned out, he just needed more reps, and being a starter in the last three games showed what he could do. Annunen stopped 75 of 79 shots in that span, taking him to 3-0 with a 2.08 goals-against average and .917 save percentage this season.

Obviously this is a small sample size. Utah and Seattle look like solid teams, but they’re not the best teams. It will be interesting to see how head coach Jared Bednar handles the goaltending situation going forward, but it seems pretty clear that Annunen will have to take the lion’s share of the game going forward.

Mittelstadt Quietly Gets Off to a Great Start

Cale Makar It’s getting most of the attention on the Avalanche right now, and rightly so. He scored again, bringing his NHL-best point total to 15. Nathan MacKinnon And Mikko Rantanen They are in second place in the league with 13 points each.

Relating to: Avalanche’s Mittelstadt in Career Year on Offense

Having said all this, Casey Mittelstadt He deserves his flowers for his performance at the beginning of the season. The trade that brought him to Denver late last season came with the hope that he could finally fill the void left by Nazem Kadri’s departure.

He has been excellent so far, scoring five goals and nine points in the first nine games of the season. He recorded a goal and two assists in the win over Utah, the third game in his last four games in which he has recorded a point. Getting that type of offensive production out of their second-line centers would go a long way for the Avalanche.

Secondary Scoring Judge

Gabriel Landskog denies retirement rumorsHe claims he will return at some point this season. The good news for the Avalanche is that the secondary scoring has come to life over the last few games, reducing the pressure on Landeskog to return.

Ross Colton He scored another goal, placing him one behind Nikita Kucherov’s NHL-leading eight goals. Joel Kiviranta He scored for the third straight game, showing that the Avalanche can win even without MacKinnon, Makar and Rantanen being their usual ridiculously dominant personalities.

Good teams score throughout the lineup, and that’s what’s happening for the Avalanche right now. The Central Division is packed and the Avalanche still have a lot of work to do, but this latest string of performances bodes well for when the schedule starts to get tough.

The tides have turned

The Winnipeg Jets don’t seem capable of losing, the Minnesota Wild haven’t lost in regulation, and the Dallas Stars have won six of their first eight games. It’s going to be hard to sleigh no matter how well the Avalanche play, but it’s nice to see series like this out of context.

On the contrary, this expansion is extremely promising. The extremely bad goaltending problems have gone completely the other way. Secondary scoring has emerged in a big way, and help will come later in the season. Winning the division might be a bit ambitious given the level of competition, but the Avalanche aren’t done yet.