A Beautiful Blowout

It was a rough Eastern road swing for the Colorado Avalanche. A loss in Boston, a close win at MSG, followed by a terrible loss in Long Island. These games were our first following the deal that sent Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes, while the Avs received Jack Drury and Martin Necas, along with a pair of draft picks. So far, the two new players have delivered. Drury has two goals already, while Necas has four assists. Even so, the 1-2-0 record in the East Coast triple dip did not help our case in the standings. We need wins and points ASAP!

Thank goodness the St. Louis Blues exist.

On the final day of January, the Avs faced off against the Blues for the first time this season, and the Blues are still a hot mess ever since we humiliated them (again) in 2022. They are even behind the Utah Hockey Club in the standings. Yeah, this is exactly what the Avs needed.

Mackenzie Blackwood was in net against Joel Hofer, and the Avs absolutely tore it up in the first period. It didn't take long to start this proverbial fire, and it was Jonathan Drouin who got it started nearly five minutes in. Juuso Parssinen and Keaton Middleton with the assists. Two and a half minutes later, Martin Necas picks up his first goal with the Avs, with the helpers coming from Devon Toews and Artturi Lehkonen. So Necas has at least one point in three of the four games with Colorado. The Avs continued to flat out bully Hofer, and then we received the game's first power play, and that cashed in. Drouin struck again, an unassisted goal to make it 3-0. We enjoyed actually scoring on the power play so much that we decided to do it again. This time, it was Cale Makar, with the assists coming from Drouin and Nathan MacKinnon.

So after 20 minutes, the Avalanche led 4-0, and we outshot the Blues 21-6 in the period. Again, we needed this. Second period was quiet. It felt like the Avs already knew that we had this game in the bag. The shots in the second period were pretty much even, the Blues had a few chances, but Blackwood stopped them cold. The 4-0 score held up after two periods, and the third was nearly more of the same. The only real noise came from Joel Kiviranta, whose unassisted goal made it 5-0. So yeah, the countdown was on for the shutout, and Blackwood was able to hold on and stand strong.

An absolutely dominant and amazing win for the Colorado Avalanche! Mackenzie Blackwood with his first shutout win with the Avs. Jonathan Drouin had a three-point period. Martin Necas scored his first Avs goal, giving him five points since the trade. This was a thing a beauty. We still have a long way to go to keep pace with the Central Division's Top 3; we are four points behind the Minnesota Wild for third place. This is a start, and we still have 29 games left in the regular season.

The Avalanche have a symmetrical February schedule. We have eight games; four before the Four Nations break, and four after it. We start the month at home against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, and after that, it's a trip to Western Canada: Vancouver (Tuesday), Calgary (Thursday), and Edmonton (Next Friday).

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