The Colorado Avalanche have already had a Jekyll & Hyde start to the season. After losing their first four games, they suddenly came into last night’s game against the Utah Hockey Club having won their last three, including a tight 3-2 win over the Seattle Kraken.
That streak is now up to four games after an impressive, dominant 5-1 win over the Utah Hockey Club. The Avalanche suddenly look like a whole new team as they head back to Denver to begin a three-game homestand, starting with the Ottawa Senators on Sunday. Let’s get into the takeaways from this most recent victory.
Goaltending Has Been Solved?
Three starts, three victories for Justus Annunen. He turned aside 25 of 26 shots en route to the victory and the early returns are promising. His numbers were ugly in spot duty after Alex Georgiev was pulled twice early to begin the season.
As it turns out, he just needed more reps and being the starter for the past three games has shown what he can do. Annunen has stopped 75 of 79 shots in that span, bringing him to 3-0 with a 2.08 goals-against average and .917 save percentage for the season.
Obviously, this is a small sample size. Utah and Seattle seem like solid teams, but they aren’t the cream of the crop. It will be interesting to see how head coach Jared Bednar handles the goaltending situation moving forward, but it seems pretty clear that Annunen should be getting the lion’s share of the action from here on out.
Mittelstadt Quietly Having Great Start
Cale Makar is rightfully getting the majority of the attention laid on the Avalanche right now, and rightfully so. He scored again, bringing his NHL-best point total up to 15. Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen are tied for second in the league with 13 points each as well.
Related: Avalanche’s Mittelstadt in for Career Year Offensively
Having said all that, Casey Mittelstadt deserves his flowers for his early-season performance. The trade that brought him to Denver late last season came with the hope that he could finally fill the void that was left by the departure of Nazem Kadri.
He has been excellent so far, registering five goals and nine points through the first nine games of the season. He picked up a goal and two assists in the win over Utah, the third game in his last four in which he registered a point. Getting that kind of offensive production out of their second-line center would go a long way for the Avalanche.
Secondary Scoring Dominates
Gabriel Landskog denied retirement rumors, claiming he will be back at some point this season. The good news for the Avalanche is that the secondary scoring has come to life in the last couple of games, reducing the pressure to return for Landeskog.
Ross Colton scored yet again, putting him one behind Nikita Kucherov’s eight goals for the NHL lead. Joel Kiviranta scored for the third straight game as well, showing that the Avalanche can win even when MacKinnon, Makar, and Rantanen aren’t their usual ridiculously dominant selves.
Good teams find scoring throughout the lineup and that’s what is happening for the Avalanche right now. The Central Division is stacked, and the Avalanche still have a lot of work to do, but this recent string of performances bodes well for when the schedule starts to become more difficult.
The Tides Have Turned
The Winnipeg Jets are apparently incapable of losing, the Minnesota Wild haven’t lost in regulation, and the Dallas Stars have won six of their first eight games. It’s going to be tough sledding no matter how well the Avalanche play, but streaks like this are nice to see regardless of context.
If anything, this stretch is extremely promising. The goaltending issues that were so overwhelmingly bad have swung totally in the other direction. Secondary scoring has shown up in a big way and there will be help coming later in the season. Winning the division may be a bit ambitious given the level of competition, but the Avalanche are far from done.
