Boston Fight Party
The Colorado Avalanche's visit to Boston sees some close calls and a number of scuffles
Hard to believe that the month of October is slowly ending, but even so, it'll still be early in the NHL season. The upcoming month of November is only important when it comes to American Thanksgiving, as teams who are above the playoff line by then usually stay up there and end up in the NHL's Sweet 16 by the time the season ends in April. But that's November. The focus is on the last Saturday in October, and the Colorado Avalanche were in Beantown facing the Boston Bruins.
The trip comes a week after the first meeting between the clubs, which saw the Avs victorious, 4-1, in a game where Scott Wedgewood didn't face a lot of shots in the 2nd and 3rd period. Wedgewood started this game against Jeremy Swayman, and he was coming off his worst outing this season--giving up four goals against the Hurricanes in the first period and being pulled for Trent Miner, who shut the door the rest of the way. The Avs struck first, and it was Artturi Lehkonen during the fifth minute, with Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar assisting. It looked like we'd get more of the same, with Boston not getting any shots.
We would not.
In a span of 39 seconds, Viktor Arvidsson and Michael Eyssimont would score, and just like that, the Bruins led 2-1. That was the score after 20 minutes, with the Avs killing off a penalty that spanned into the beginning of the second. Then we received our power plays, and the stats were awful for us this year. As good as our start has been, our one main flaw is the PP. It's ranked 30th so far, which is third to last in the league. Going 1-for-8 against Carolina (one of the two teams with a worst PP than us) definitely didn't help. We didn't score on either PP, and right before the period ended, Morgan Geekie (who I still remember as a Hurricane) put it in to make it 3-1, and that was the score after 40 minutes.
The third period was wild, and a bit violent. Some scuffles took place during that period, but even so, the Avs were still behind and needed to play catch-up badly. We pulled the goalie for the extra attacker, and we did get one in. Lehkonen again, with under 20 seconds left. We would not be able to tie it, and after the game ended, another brawl, and MacKinnon was throwing hands!
Two streaks ended that Saturday afternoon. One, the Bruins snapped their six-game losing streak, and two, our own point streak came to an end. This was our first regulation loss of the season, and in Game #9. Even so, 5-1-3 is a much better start than last year, and it still shows that the Avs are a force to be dealt with this season. We really need to get that power play going, though. Thankfully, there's still 73 games left. That is a lot of time to figure things out and make our PP look (at least) respectable. Just get it up to the top half by the New Year, and maybe the top 10 by March.
Next up for the Avalanche is a home-and-home against the New Jersey Devils. The first meeting will be in Jersey on Sunday, and the rematch on Tuesday is in Denver. After that, the Avs will end the month of October in Vegas against the Golden Knights.
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About the Creator
Clyde E. Dawkins
I'm a big sports fan, especially hockey, and I've been a fan of villainesses since I was eight! My favorite shows are The Simpsons and Family Guy, etc.
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Comments (2)
Thanks for the coming up hockey schedule as well.
I do wonder if you like hockey over football unless Greenbay is on Thanksgiving 🙂