Avalanche need more out of their secondary scoring
The Colorado Avalanche are shockingly facing elimination on Tuesday night in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights.
After winning the Presidents’ Trophy in the regular season and breezing through the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with ease, the Avalanche have run into a brick wall as injuries have hampered superstars Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar while the supporting cast behind those two has failed to pick up the slack.
Martin Necas, Brock Nelson and Valeri Nichushkin have combined for just 5 goals in 36 games on this playoff run, leaving Colorado without help from key producers that thrived all year long.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the impact that Colorado’s lack of production from its secondary stars has had on putting them in this 0-3 hole.
Carter Hutton: I do think they have a chance. It’s going to be health related, right? Like you look at this roster with a Cale Makar playing at what percentage we want to label. Not 100%. That’s all we can definitely say. Nathan MacKinnon, what happened last game? Nichushkin missing the last 20 minutes. His lack of production, their depth. If we’re going to be going back to Colorado, it’s going to be because we had a really good goalie performance… or we get some depth scoring. They need a Brock Nelson goal. They need someone to step up and push this lineup and get there. I do think if you’re going into this game as a Colorado Avalanche, you’re reflecting on a first period where you left with a three-goal lead and you know you can do that, right? Like you know you can. It’s there. Then it’s about like just compartmentalizing the game of winning a shift, winning a puck battle, keeping it simple. But right now, man, does this Vegas team just look unflappable, Ty?
Tyler Yaremchuk: As you head back to Colorado, you can’t think of this as any more than like you said a period at a time. I get the health part… but I think you brought up something else there. Like there’s some depth pieces here on this Avs team who are not giving you what you need. Jack Drury’s been a great story, I suppose, but where’s Brock Nelson? There’s a handful of names, I know Nichushkin was hurt; he was down on the third line. Who knows if he’s playing tonight or whatever, but Like I think even with a MacKinnon being knocked down a couple of percent and maybe playing through something, I still look at a team like, where’s Marty Neca been? He’s been pretty quiet. Like look at this, one goal in 12 games in the playoffs. One goal might have been a bit of a difference maker at some point in this Western Conference Final. A team that’s this deep, and I’ll go ahead and say a team that looks this perfect on paper, which is what the Colorado Avalanche are, they’re perfect on paper. Depth and all of that, a couple of injuries, even if they’re to key guys it shouldn’t result in you getting swept.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…