Life is good if you’re a fan of the Colorado Avalanche. When your team has lost just two games in regulation through its first 40, it is hard to find much to complain about. Coming off a 10th straight win, an electric 5-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, things couldn’t get much better.
Unfortunately, not everything can remain great for too long. The Avalanche came back to earth in a tough game on Sunday afternoon, losing 2-1 to the Florida Panthers. There are a few important takeaways from this one, so let’s get right to it.
Injured Captain
The biggest takeaway from this one is the injury to captain Gabriel Landeskog. Head coach Jared Bednar commented on the injury, saying that Landeskog is expected to miss “some time.” Injuries are going to happen but it is especially tough to have it happen to Landeskog.
The one silver lining is that it is an upper-body injury, not more damage to his knee. After missing three years to that knee injury, it would have been an absolute nightmare to have Landeskog go down to yet another knee issue.
Hopefully, Landeskog misses a couple of weeks and returns to the lineup in full health. The last thing he needs is to go through another prolonged injury that keeps him out and keeps us all guessing when he will return.
Sometimes You Run Into a Hot Goaltender
It might be one thing if the Avalanche came out and laid an egg as all teams do from time to time. Though they felt flat for a good chunk of the game, especially in the third period, the Avalanche also ran into a hot goaltender in Florida’s Daniil Tarasov.
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Though there is a lot to look ahead to this week, the Avalanche didn’t get caught looking ahead of the Panthers. They peppered 28 shots on net, including several point-blank opportunities, only to have Tarasov turn aside nearly all of them.
Even the best teams in the league run into a hot goaltender from time to time. The Avalanche were in position to potentially tie the game late when Nathan MacKinnon cut through the defense and nearly put home a bouncing puck. Nothing to be done but tip your cap to Tarasov and hope to make the next goaltender’s life as difficult as possible.
Scott Wedgewood Deserves Vezina Consideration
As it stands, the Vezina Trophy conversation for the league’s best goaltender has a few names at the top of most projections. Logan Thompson of the Washington Capitals, Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers, and Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders seem to garner the most attention, but it is time to consider Scott Wedgewood.
Wedgewood continues his dominant run, stopping 23 of 25 shots against the Panthers on Sunday. He leads the NHL with 18 wins, is fifth among goalies with at least 10 starts in terms of save percentage (.918) and third in goals against average (2.17 GAA).
The advanced statistics tend to favor Shesterkin and Thompson, but there is no quantifiable stat to show just how far this career backup has come, and how dominant he has been. Playing for such a great team is the only thing that really hurts his argument, but he has been a major part of how great they have been.
All Streaks Come to an End
Winning streaks can’t go on forever and 10 in a row is about as good as you could ever hope for. It’s time for the Avalanche to brush themselves off and take care of the other half of the Florida swing when they battle the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Avalanche have a few tough games to start the New Year, and they are too good to go on a long losing streak. They’ll have to work a little harder with Landeskog out of the lineup but the Avalanche are one of the deepest teams in the league.
