Closing In and Closing Fast

Hard to believe that we are approaching the very end of the month of March. On the evening of March 27, baseball had officially returned, but while baseball had the Opening Day spotlight, there were still things to decide in hockey. Playoff spots needed to be filled--fourteen of them remaining, and two of the teams looking to join the NHL's Sweet 16 were the Colorado Avalanche and the Los Angeles Kings. I say both teams are looking to join, but honestly, it's a foregone conclusion that we'll see both teams in the playoffs, as they are two of the hottest teams in the Western Conference.

I always get nostalgic when the Avs and Kings get together. Partially because I'm a Southern Californian, but also because I still remember the playoff meetings between the two teams in 2001 and 2002--both seven-game thrillers. Of course, 2001's second round series was part of the Avs' road to the Stanley Cup, but the Kings didn't make things easy for us. Regarding this matchup, this was the second game of the Avs' four-game homestand, and we won our first game against the Red Wings.

In this matchup, it was Mackenzie Blackwood against David Rittich, which did disappoint me a bit because I wanted to see our old Cup winning goalie, Darcy Kuemper, in net for LA. Funny thing, though: Rittich was the first goalie we faced during our 2022 run, and that definitely was a short outing for Rittich. Shots were pretty even at first, then the first power play went to LA at 4:22. LA's power play was shown to be very suspect, and it showed here. Killed off easy. Avs continued to press, then we got our first PP. Our PP's been on a roll, but LA's penalty kill entered the evening tied for sixth in the league. PP killed off, no shots. Avs continued to press, but with a few seconds left in the first, they call the weakest cross-check penalty on Nathan MacKinnon.

I am so sick and tired of the refs' bias against MacKinnon. They make up bullshit to call on him, and they get bitchy when Mack lets them know how stupid they are. He's the only one I've seen get "unsportsmanlike conduct" penalties for that. I've seen players say much worse and they don't get called for anything. So anyway, a lot of LA's PP time kicked off the 2nd period, but it was killed off. The Avs' pressing increased, and finally, Logan O'Connor puts one in after Cale Makar passes it right to him. So it's 1-0 for the Avs, but just over a minute later, it's 2-0. Martin Necas. Boy, has he been tearing it up since the trade. Avs killed off another LA PP, which actually had a shot for once, and then we went on the PP again. On that PP, it was Necas again! 3-0 for the Avs, and this was our sixth straight game with a PPG!

Avs led 3-0 after 40 minutes, and it was over. I knew we had this. The Kings are good enough to strike at any time, but I could tell they did not have it. We didn't need to really score another one, but that doesn't matter to us. When we went back on the power play, Jonathan Drouin made it 4-0 off a beautiful pass from Nathan MacKinnon. Now all that was left to do was count down the final minutes hoping for a shutout for Mackenzie Blackwood, and once the final horn sounded, the shutout was complete!

22 up, 22 down for Mackenzie Blackwood, and the Avs win it again! Martin Necas with a three point game, and Cale Makar adds two more points. For the Kings, they're grateful to the Seattle Kraken for demolishing the Oilers, and as for the Avs, that's two more points in the standings, two more points in the homestand, and two points closer to our eighth straight Stanley Cup Playoff appearance. Speaking of eight, not only is that the number worn by the best defenseman in the league today (the current leader in defensemen points this season), it's also our magic number. The Avs are eight points away from getting into the playoffs, and we have a big chances to really make a dent in that number.

Next up for the Avs: the St. Louis Blues in the third game of our homestand, with that game being an early one on Saturday. After that, the Avs' month of March ends with the last game in the homestand, a Monday night meeting with the Calgary Flames. And after the homestand, it's a very interesting April with our final seven games--five of them being on the road.

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