West Coast Swing

Coming off the big home win against the New Jersey Devils, which saw a five-point performance, as well as the best defenseman in the league picking up four assists, the Colorado Avalanche headed across the country to Pacific Division territory. First off, some big news broke entering that brief road trip: Martin Necas is staying in Denver. Eight years, $92 million. $11.5M/year cap hit. Necas was traded to the Avs last midseason; the deal that sent Mikko Rantanen to the Hurricanes, who quickly dealt Rantanen to Dallas.

Some of my fellow Avs fans on Twitter said that we could/should have given this deal to Rantanen. Here's the thing. Rantanen turned down $12M/year from us. He wanted MacKinnon money, and not a cent less. We said no, so we dealt him--the smart thing to do because last year was the final year before he could enter free agency. After ending up in Dallas, Rantanen took $12M/year for 8 years because it was the best he could get, and he wanted to fuck with us (spoiler alert: so far he has).

The Avs spent Halloween in Vegas; an early start time at that. Speaking of early, we scored early--within the first minute, Martin Necas (there's that name again) put it in and made it 1-0. Defensemen Cale Makar and Devon Toews assisted, and the 1-0 score held up after 20 despite being on PK quite a bit. Second period saw Brock Nelson make it 2-0, and the only assist came from Jack Drury (another prize from the Rantanen trade). That was the score after 40, but in the third, the Golden Knights got on the board, and it was Tomas Hertl who put it in, because of course it is (I say that because he's an ex-Shark). 2-1 score was staying strong, and the Avs would add to it, and it's Brent Burns, the 40-year-old defenseman and his powerful beard scoring his first with the Avs. The assist came from Necas, who played with Burns in Carolina.

Burns' goal made it 3-1, but shortly afterwards, Mitch "Toronto should have kept me" Marner made it a one goal game again. The goalie was pulled for the extra attacker, and that allowed Cale Makar to put it in and ice it. The Avs won in Vegas, 4-2, and that game saw Martin Necas rack up three points. I'd say he's worth the money, which kicks in next year, meaning that we getting a prime Necas performance on Carolina's dime this year.

On a wild 1st day of November that was main evented by Game Seven of the World Series, the Avs went even further west to the Bay Area to face the San Jose Sharks. In this game, Mackenzie Blackwood finally made his season debut after being sidelined, and after Scott Wedgewood did an excellent job in net. Once again, the Avs scored first. Once again, it was within the first minute, and once again, it was Martin Necas. Like I said, he's worth the money. Makar and Toews assisted, and the 1-0 score held up until that last two minutes of the period, when Macklin Celebrini--last year's top rookie--tied it up.

1-1 was the score after 20 minutes, and Philipp Kurashev gave San Jose the lead at 4:07. Five minutes later, some craziness. Puck goes in, net comes off, it's later determined that Jeff Skinner took that net off intentionally. The goal counts, and it's Nathan MacKinnon who gets to 10 goals first. Game's tied at 2 after 40 minutes, and again after 60 minutes. Overtime for the Avs again; fifth time for both teams. "We're going to win in extra time this time," I thought. Yeah, Philipp Kurashev had other thoughts, like his second goal of the game.

Avs dropped that one, 3-2, in OT, but three points out of four isn't bad. What is bad is our OT problems this year. Five OT games, all losses--two via shootout and three in the actual period. That's five points lost. However, here's the crazy thing. At 7-1-5 and 19 points, the Avs currently have the best record in the entire NHL. And again, Necas is tearing it up, as is MacKinnon, as is Makar. Overtime is our only problem right now, but we're still standing strong.

Next up for the Avs is a home game with our good friends, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Always special when those teams face each other, mainly because of that 2022 Final.

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