SAN JOSE — Ross Colton is spending the early days of his first season with the Colorado Avalanche trying to build some chemistry with his new linemates, Miles Wood and Tomas Tatar.
The level of familiarity they’re looking for can be cultivated in a variety of ways — working together in practices, accumulating as many game reps as possible … and also on the golf course. It’s probably not a coincidence that Colorado’s new-look third line was part of a foursome with goalie Alexandar Georgiev during the team’s group outing Sunday at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
“We’re just trying to find some chemistry out there,” Colton said Monday after practice. “There’s going to be some adjustments. We’re all coming from different teams with different systems, so 5-on-5 structure-wise, offensively, defensively, we’re just trying to watch some extra video and read off other guys at practice. As these games go on, we’re going to get more and more comfortable. I thought our third period (Saturday) was the best we’ve played together through the six so far.”
The Avalanche has six new forwards among the top-12 this season. Jonathan Drouin has looked like a pretty natural fit next to old friend Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen on the top unit.
Colorado’s middle two lines have not looked quite as fluid and natural together at times, but both the second and third units have also flashed the ability to control play at both ends of the ice.
“We felt good,” second-line center Ryan Johansen said after a 2-0 start. “Being so early, there are some things we still want to keep cleaning up. But the compete and the effort, throughout the whole lineup really, was fantastic. That’s our first job, the first objective. We’ll just keep leading with our work and playing smarter and hopefully get our game to a spot where we really like it.”
Everything after two games comes with a caveat about small sample sizes, but Johansen’s line with Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen had a decent game in Los Angeles to open the season. But that trio was a destructive force of nature Saturday night in San Jose.
The Avs had 15 scoring chances in 6:25 of game action at 5-on-5 with that trio on the ice, per Natural Stat Trick. The Sharks had one.
That line created chances at a per-minute rate that would outrank every power play in the league. The line hasn’t created a goal yet, but anything close to level will eventually lead to bushels of them.
“Just high-level hockey sense and IQ. I just noticed right away how they both do the little things better than a lot of players in this league,” Johansen said of his new linemates. “That’s what made our first two games feel like we didn’t spend more than 30 seconds in our zone. Now we’ve just got to get that offensive chemistry going, but that defensive structure and attention to detail is impressive. It’s fun to play with them, knowing that we’re taking care of both ends of the rink and playing that 200-foot game that we need.”
The results for the third line haven’t been as strong. They are going to be placed in a lot of defensive situations — see eight defensive-zone faceoffs versus one in the offensive end against Los Angeles — but the Kings had a 10-1 advantage in scoring chances when they were on the ice at 5-on-5.
It was better against the Sharks, but the third line didn’t dominate territorially as much as the other lines and they were on the ice for San Jose’s goal. They did create a hard-working empty-net goal to seal the victory against the Kings.
“I think we all bring different things,” Colton said. “Miles is really fast, so when we do a good job of chipping pucks behind the ‘D’ getting on the forecheck, that’s probably where we’re going to be the most effective. Tuna has a ton of skill. I just like to play the game hard and get to work down low. I think as the games go on, you’re going to see us playing fast and playing behind the ‘D’ more and that’s how we’ll have success.”
The Avs’ new-look lines were the same at practice Monday and should be play a third straight game together Tuesday night in Seattle. Coach Jared Bednar has said on multiple occasions that he will start tinkering with them, eventually.
It might not even be because one or two of them isn’t going as well — he just wants to make sure everyone find some familiarity together.
“I think it can help, depending on your matchups, who you are playing, what their lines are. I also don’t mind it for our group to be able to familiarize themselves with one another,” Bednar said. “You never know what’s going to work perfectly. I’m not looking to build one really strong and some mediocre lines. I’m looking for three strong lines, so I think you have play with it a little bit.
“So far after two games, I wouldn’t say we are where we need to be, but also we’re playing pretty good and we’re playing with the right intentions.”
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