Avalanche Game 32 Recap: Shenanigans

The Central Division race has been crazy in the last week or so. The top three in the division has changed a lot, and after the win over the San Jose Sharks, the Colorado Avalanche took the division's top spot and held it...for 24 hours. The Dallas Stars surpassed Colorado when they defeated the Seattle Kraken, leaving the Avs to try to get back on top once again. The Avs went on the road for Game #32; the Windy City, to be exact. It's always interesting when the Avs and the Chicago Blackhawks get together, and this season is no different, mainly because of Connor Bedard. The first meeting was the Avs' home opener, and it was a shutout win for Colorado.

I was really excited to see us take Bedard to the proverbial woodshed again. Alexandar Georgiev was in net against Petr Mrazek, and it was a good start for the Avs, as Colorado had a good shot advantage to start the game. However, Chicago's second shot would go in past Georgiev, and it was 1-0 for the Hawks. Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Bedard with the helpers, so Bedard's off the schnide against us. Nuts. Avs would strike back on the Power Play, and it was Valeri Nichushkin tying it up. The assists came from Jonathan Drouin and Nathan MacKinnon, and for the latter, the points streak continues! Nichushkin liked scoring on the PP so much that he decided to do it again just over two minutes later to make it 2-1. However, Lukas Reichel tied it up shortly afterwards, and it was another helper for Bedard. Oh boy.

2-2 was score after the first period, and right off the bat, I was expecting a lot of goals. When a game sees a total of four goals in the opening frame, it's safe to say that the game will be high-scoring. This would not be the case; the 2-2 score actually remained after the 2nd period, but the 3rd would be...oh boy. So the Avs ended up shorthanded during the period, and Tyler Johnson would capitalize and give the Blackhawks the lead. For some reason, a penalty was called on Nathan MacKinnon, and it was right there that I realized that the refs decided to not actually call a fair game and focus on babysitting Bedard and change his diaper. It was even more evident after a scuffle at the last moments of the period, after the Avs pulled Georgiev for the extra attacker. Despite multiple players being involved, as well as one of the Blackhawks committing an obvious crosscheck, only Ryan Johansen ended up penalized. So the Hawks got a power play that pretty much iced the game.

Because the refs were too busy giving Connor Bedard his baby bottle, the Avs lost, 3-2, to the Chicago Blackhawks. But enough about the refs (AKA the NHL's Babysitters Club). Let's talk about Valeri Nichushkin. Who here had Nichushkin leading the team in goals at this point? Granted, he shares the lead with Mikko Rantanen, but even so, Big Val has 15 goals this season, already matching his season high. Amazing. When Nichushkin was in Dallas, he was a total non-factor. Funny how the right team can get a player going. Look what he's done for us since we got him. All he did was score four goals in the 2o22 Cup Final! Mind you, this was against one of the best goalies in the NHL in Andrei Vasilevskiy.

So the Avs remain in second place due to Dallas having two games in hand, and next up for the Avs is a home game against the struggling Ottawa Senators. After that, the Avs will be involved in a home-and-home set against the Arizona Coyotes.

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