Colorado Avalanche on a 13 Game Lossless Streak

[Nihiliste]

They’re peaking too early. They’ll run into a rash of injuries soon enough.

Guaranteed whole team will either get hurt or slump before the playoffs and they’ll get swept in the first round by AZ

 

[Summer Rose]

Where is Damien Darhk now? The guy who argued over multiple threads the Sabres had some ties instead of OT losses.

Probably off yelling at some prairie dogs.

 

[NOTENOUGHJTCGOALS]

Donskoi has been a revelation this season in this stretch. Someone explain to me what did Donskoi do to get ready for this season?

Donskoi swapped places with Laine. No one has noticed yet

 

[GirardSpinorama]

It should be 13 game point streak.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Is there a trophy for this

The President's Trophy, probably.

 

[Jarey Curry]

this mackinnon guy sounds decent

 

[Mac Attack]

Guaranteed whole team will either get hurt or slump before the playoffs and they’ll get swept in the first round by AZ

They will all get hurt. But they will still beat Arizona because they only need half the team to do that.

 

[winnipegger]

13 games without losing. Come on man. Grammer lives matter.

 

[FLpanthers16]

Great team, we had the 1 spot for 24 hours was fun while it lasted

 

[rmthomson21]

13 games without losing. Come on man. Grammer lives matter.

ambulanches wonnered 11 games out of 13 in a row! !1

 

[BiolaRunner]

Where is Damien Darhk now? The guy who argued over multiple threads the Sabres had some ties instead of OT losses.

He changed his name and avatar

 

[Jumptheshark]

Am I doing this right?

Ot loss is still a loss

 

[klozge]

I don't even care much about points this year as long as there's no danger of missing the playoffs. These minutes when everything's clicking, though. Beautiful hockey to say the least.

 

[The Abusement Park]

18 points in the last 10 games after a slow start.

“Slow”

 

[AvsFan29]

Avs are a f***in wagon

 

[Steerpike]

What do the Avs do that makes them such a dominating possession team? These numbers are ridiculous.

5v5 score/venue adjusted:
CF% 60.33
FF% 59.98
SF% 60.10
xGF% 60.76

While the divisional format this year is certainly a big change, the teams in the West weren't bad possession teams last year. Vegas was the best possession team last year with CF% 54.84.

Vegas 1st
(Colorado 5th)
Kings 6th
Blues 10th
Sharks 14th
Wild 17th
Yotes 21st
Ducks 26th

So what is it that gives them so much possession? It doesn't feel like they are a super stifling neutral zone team, at least not like I remember the Kings being when they were possession gods. It also doesn't seem like the forecheck is particularly effective. I remember Blues teams a few years ago just dominating at chipping the puck in and then devastating the Avs with their forecheck.

Is it the breakout? Makar, Girard and Toews are all great with the puck, but it also seems like the Avs forwards are especially good at being open for passes as soon as there is a turnover. Are the Avs much more open and spread out in the defensive zone compared to a collapsing, shot blocking team?

Is it controlled zone entries? I would guess this is where MacKinnon really makes his impact as he has been very intelligent on the zone entry. He very rarely tries to force a ridiculous play when outnumbered and instead just cements possession in the zone.

Is it puck/board battles? I can't see this being right, as the Avs aren't really all that big. However maybe it's just that because the Avs are extremely fast they frequently preempt battles by just getting to neutral pucks faster than the opposition.

I'm really interested in the perspective of fans of other teams in the West. What does it feel like to play the Avs compared to an average opponent?

 

[missionAvs]

What do the Avs do that makes them such a dominating possession team? These numbers are ridiculous.

5v5 score/venue adjusted:
CF% 60.33
FF% 59.98
SF% 60.10
xGF% 60.76

While the divisional format this year is certainly a big change, the teams in the West weren't bad possession teams last year. Vegas was the best possession team last year with CF% 54.84.

Vegas 1st
(Colorado 5th)
Kings 6th
Blues 10th
Sharks 14th
Wild 17th
Yotes 21st
Ducks 26th

So what is it that gives them so much possession? It doesn't feel like they are a super stifling neutral zone team, at least not like I remember the Kings being when they were possession gods. It also doesn't seem like the forecheck is particularly effective. I remember Blues teams a few years ago just dominating at chipping the puck in and then devastating the Avs with their forecheck.

Is it the breakout? Makar, Girard and Toews are all great with the puck, but it also seems like the Avs forwards are especially good at being open for passes as soon as there is a turnover. Are the Avs much more open and spread out in the defensive zone compared to a collapsing, shot blocking team?

Is it controlled zone entries? I would guess this is where MacKinnon really makes his impact as he has been very intelligent on the zone entry. He very rarely tries to force a ridiculous play when outnumbered and instead just cements possession in the zone.

Is it puck/board battles? I can't see this being right, as the Avs aren't really all that big. However maybe it's just that because the Avs are extremely fast they frequently preempt battles by just getting to neutral pucks faster than the opposition.

I'm really interested in the perspective of fans of other teams in the West. What does it feel like to play the Avs compared to an average opponent?

It's all because the shot counter in Denver awards extra shots on goal to the Avs.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

I think it’s largely built on the zone exit and entry wizardry of Makar, Girard, and MacKinnon.

That’s probably oversimplifying it because systems and depth play a part too, but the Avs are exceptional at transitioning the puck and those three guys drive that the most.

 

[dwkdnvr]

Is it the breakout? Makar, Girard and Toews are all great with the puck, but it also seems like the Avs forwards are especially good at being open for passes as soon as there is a turnover. Are the Avs much more open and spread out in the defensive zone compared to a collapsing, shot blocking team?

In my view, it's this. The Avs system really found another gear with an improved commitment by the F to backchecking. IMHO this gets them back in the zone earlier, and provides a quick opportunity for the great puck-moving D to make a quick exit. This iteration of the Avs has always been fast and high-tempo, but before this year they've been vulnerable to a heavy forecheck and getting trapped and ground down by the cycle. This year's version seems to have figured that out to a large degree, and I think a huge part of the shot suppression showing up in the metrics is just due to spending so much less time in their zone.

Nobody pays me for my analysis, though, so I may be wrong.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Sorry to say I just traded for Grubauer in my pool. Colorado will start losing in regulation now. I apologize to Avs fans.

 

[Spilot23]

Sorry to say I just traded for Grubauer in my pool. Colorado will start losing in regulation now. I apologize to Avs fans.

Clearly Bolts fans will do anything to be 1st again I see.

 

[Nihiliste]

Addition of Toews, Byram, Mcdonald who are above average for zone exits and transition relative to their lineup spot (2/3, 4/5, 6/7) respectively.

Growth of Makar and Girard

Top 3 lines each have a guy that is a zone entry machine (Mackinnon, Burakovsky, Nichushkin) and then each line has at least one other person that’s above average at zone entries.

Good system from Bednar able to utilize those resources, and buy in from the whole group.

Regression of the Blues helps too. Wild look good in our division but I can’t tell if they’re actually good. There’s no good center depth in our division to play against either and not a lot of game breaking forwards to defend against.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Clearly Bolts fans will do anything to be 1st again I see.

Our superstitions know no bounds!

 

[Cousin Eddie]

What do the Avs do that makes them such a dominating possession team? These numbers are ridiculous.

5v5 score/venue adjusted:
CF% 60.33
FF% 59.98
SF% 60.10
xGF% 60.76

While the divisional format this year is certainly a big change, the teams in the West weren't bad possession teams last year. Vegas was the best possession team last year with CF% 54.84.

Vegas 1st
(Colorado 5th)
Kings 6th
Blues 10th
Sharks 14th
Wild 17th
Yotes 21st
Ducks 26th

So what is it that gives them so much possession? It doesn't feel like they are a super stifling neutral zone team, at least not like I remember the Kings being when they were possession gods. It also doesn't seem like the forecheck is particularly effective. I remember Blues teams a few years ago just dominating at chipping the puck in and then devastating the Avs with their forecheck.

Is it the breakout? Makar, Girard and Toews are all great with the puck, but it also seems like the Avs forwards are especially good at being open for passes as soon as there is a turnover. Are the Avs much more open and spread out in the defensive zone compared to a collapsing, shot blocking team?

Is it controlled zone entries? I would guess this is where MacKinnon really makes his impact as he has been very intelligent on the zone entry. He very rarely tries to force a ridiculous play when outnumbered and instead just cements possession in the zone.

Is it puck/board battles? I can't see this being right, as the Avs aren't really all that big. However maybe it's just that because the Avs are extremely fast they frequently preempt battles by just getting to neutral pucks faster than the opposition.

I'm really interested in the perspective of fans of other teams in the West. What does it feel like to play the Avs compared to an average opponent?

They have the three of the NHL’s 10 best defenseman this season on their team and at least one of them is always on the ice aside from 1-2 shifts to start each period.
On top of that they have high end talent up front and high end depth. They score more than any team in the league.

Then there’s the defensive side of things. As of a few days ago they lead the NHL in preventing shots off the rush, preventing shots off the cycle, preventing shots from the slot and preventing shots in general. To top it off if some team happens to get through all that they then face Grubauer who leads the league in high danger save percentage. Not sure if those stats are still all 1st in the NHL but it was as Mike Kelly pointed out over the weekend.

 

[rynryn]

tonight the streak ends muahahaahahhaahaaaaa