Big Val Nichushkin wasn’t the only one who vanished. According to Moneypuck.com, the Colorado Avalanche last spring trotted out six different forward combos that logged at least 10 minutes of postseason ice time without stars Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.
In seven games, those six lines gave up (checks notes) three goals and scored (checks notes again) … once.
Good night, Irene. And hello, Cancun.
“Nate and Mikko are very elite,” new Avs left winger Jonathan Drouin told me earlier this week in advance of Colorado’s season-opening puck drop at Los Angeles on Wednesday night. “And on a lot of those nights, they’re going to be players to make the difference.
“There’s going to be nights where somebody has to step up. And I think that’s that we have and the new guys we brought in … we’re going to have to make sure that secondary scoring is there, and we’re helping these two top guys not have to carry the whole team all year.”
Godspeed, oh Captain, our Captain.
We learned last year that the Avs, cursed with the mother of all Lord Stanley Hangovers and beat up like an ’86 Cutlass, were still good enough to win a division without Gabe Landeskog.
Are they good enough to win a playoff series without him, though … if it comes to that?
“It’s a mindset thing,” offered Avs center Ross Colton, a fresh import from the Tampa Bay Lightning. “I think teams that want to win, will win.
“I think it’s the mindset we always had (in Tampa). We never looked at the other team’s lineup or opposing team. I think we were always comfortable with the team that we were throwing out there. We trusted all four lines.
“And I think obviously, guys are going to get more minutes than others, but I think at any point in any single game, if we were chucking a different line out there, we knew they were going to do their job. It wasn’t about points or anything like that. It was (about) being physical, faceoffs, penalty killing, stuff like that. So it goes a long way.”
Colton sees that same mindset here. Alas, mindset won’t solve dead legs come April.
The Avs looked physically spent in last year’s first-round exit, fried from a parade of injuries, slowed by the scars of taking everybody’s best shot for months at a time. Fumes weren’t going to beat a plucky bunch of Kraken, yet fumes were all they had left.
Landeskog’s season-long absence and the free-agent loss of Nazem Kadri left Colorado top-heavy. The Avs were a division champion with enough wheels for one marathon but minus the shock absorbers to withstand the grind of a second, when the savvy coaches can chuck some gimmicks — or a cortege of goons — onto the ice to take stars out and dare someone else to step up.
The ’22 Avs could kill you in about 14 different ways. By the time the ’23 postseason rolled around, they were down to roughly five or six. And Seattle knew it.
Which brings us back to depth. To guys not named Nate or Mikko being able to pick up the flag and carry it past the likes of Vegas, L.A., Dallas and Edmonton.
“When you go down to those last couple of weeks of playoffs, where it’s that grind, you’re going to need all four lines to be going,” Drouin stressed. “I know some lines play less than others, but … every line has a job to do. Every line has something to do.”
Especially in the playoffs. What’s the old adage? Your top two lines can carry you through the regular season, but your bottom two will determine how far you run through the postseason meat-grinder.
Per Moneypuck, the ’22 Cup champs featured nine offensive lines that played at least 10 minutes with either MacKinnon or Rantanen. Those lines outscored the opposition 25-21. The Avs’ other 11 forward combinations won their shifts by a score of 15-4. The Burgundy and Blue came at you in cruel, relentless waves, crashing across the blue line.
“Good teams have a good four lines and they’re each chipping in at a different time,” new Avs winger Tomas Tatar, a veteran of Vegas’ Cup Final run in 2018, told me. “It’s hard to put all that pressure on one line — there might be an injury, there might be something, so you need the depth through the season as well. And it’s a tough job to get to the playoffs, but that’s the time you want to play.”
That’s the time you want Landy, although it’s an awfully big ask for a 30-year-old coming off three knee procedures in 19 months. Still, Avs GM Chris MacFarland is keeping the postseason door open, if only by a crack. For good reason.
The Avs’ five postseason lines in ’22 that skated at least 10 minutes with the captain outscored foes by a whopping count of 21-9. That’s a margin of 12 goals, just begging for a hero. Or three.
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