The Colorado Avalanche began the season with three wins on the road, including two victories against potential playoff teams, but several of them spoke of another level left to reach.
Their collective effort Thursday night in the home opener against Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks might not have been exactly what they were alluding to, but it was a step in that direction.
“We’re still fine-tuning our game, no question, but I think the guys are getting to know each other and like each other and that goes a long way for our culture and everyone understands the high expectations,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We’re getting there. It’s a lot of fun to play that way, when you’re on the attack for most of the night and you do the right things on the checking side so you can get back on the attack.”
The Avs shook off a sluggish few minutes in the first half of the first period and then crushed the rebuilding Blackhawks in a game that often didn’t look as close as the final 4-0 margin indicated. Colorado shut down Bedard, continued to be perfect on the penalty kill and found scoring chances in all three phases of the game.
Alexander Georgiev made 18 saves but wasn’t tested nearly as much as he had been in Seattle, Los Angeles or even in San Jose, when the Avs also held a lopsided advantage on the shot clock. The Avalanche is 4-0 to start the season, with a showdown against fellow Stanley Cup contender Carolina looming Saturday night at Ball Arena.
“I think it’s only four games,” Georgiev said. “It’s been a really good start and I feel sharp. I just want to keep building on that and make the saves that I can.
It was a bit of a slow start for the Avalanche in the first period. At one point Chicago had a 13-5 advantage in shot attempts. Then Colorado authored one of the most dominant 10-minute stretches any team is going to have in an NHL game to complete the period.
Chicago did not have a shot attempt, let alone one on goal, for the final 10:35 of the opening period. Colorado peppered Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek with 24 shot attempts in that span, including 19 in the final five minutes of the period.
The first of those was a shorthanded goal from Logan O’Connor at 11:46. Andrew Cogliano and Josh Manson essentially trapped the Chicago puck carrier along the left wall just inside the Colorado zone, forcing a turnover and springing O’Connor for his second shorthanded breakaway goal in as many games.
The Avalanche penalty kill continues to be a prominent storyline to the start of the season. Colorado has negated all 17 power-play opportunities it has faced.
“Really great — especially today,” Georgiev said of the penalty killers in front of him. “They’ve been awesome, just playing the structure well. Didn’t give them much of anything today.”
After O’Connor’s goal, the Avs’ PK was outscoring its opponents 2-0 despite being down a man. It was also outscoring the team’s power play, but Ryan Johansen’s first goal even the season ledger at two apiece.
Johansen’s goal came after a flurry of chances. Colorado was credited with five scoring chances in 66 seconds during the man advantage, and by the time Johansen had knocked the loose puck out of the air and behind Mrazek, all the exasperated goaltender could do was sit crouched on his hind legs and watch the replay.
The second period wasn’t far off the second half of the first from a defensive perspective. Bednar had praised Chicago’s offensive output in its first four games, and his players got the message.
Bedard entered the day fifth in the NHL with 20 shots on goal and 36 shot attempts in his first four games. He had little impact on this contest, finishing with zero shot attempts in nearly 20 minutes of ice time.
Devon Toews scored the prettiest team goal of the season to date at 13:18 of the second. A Chicago player had the puck on his stick with a chance to get it out of the defensive zone, but Valeri Nichushkin took it from him.
That started a quick, precise passing sequence that ended with Nichushkin feeding Toews in the right circle for an easy one-timer because Mrazek had been pulled out of position.
Tomas Tatar moved up to the top line in the middle of this game, and set up Nathan MacKinnon for the fourth goal in the third period. Tatar corralled the rebound of a Toews shot at the top of the crease, and with his back to the goaltender slipped a pass to a cutting MacKinnon for his second of the season.
“I thought (Tatar) was really good,” Bednar said. “I thought he made a lot of nice plays with Mac and Mikko (Rantanen). I thought he got more involved, started using his skating. You can see what he can do playing with top players. And I thought (Jonathan) Drouin got much better too.”
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