In 1983, on his way to becoming the NHL’s all-time leading scorer, Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
the avalanche might want to use Thursday night’s big tip against the blues.
Producing more than 100 shot attempts in Game 2, as the AVs did in the series opener on Tuesday night, should give Colorado an excellent chance to take a 2-0 lead in the series heading into games 3 and 4 at st . louis.
Generating shots was no problem in Game 1, a 3-2 overtime win for Colorado. the avs had 106 attempts. the blues blocked 27 off jordan binnington and the keeper stopped 51 of the 54 that were not blocked. Colorado missed the net 25 times, including five shots from the post.
Unfortunately, playing the same way but with a more accurate shot should be the goal of the avs.
it worked against nashville in the first round. In Game 2 against the Pres, Colorado attempted 103 shots. But 34 were blocked off Connor Ingram and the goalie stopped 49 of 51. The AVs missed the net 18 times.
in game 3 in nashville, colorado won 7-3 en route to sweeping the series.
st. Louis, the 2019 Stanley Cup champion, seems like a tougher exit than Nashville. and the avs are unwilling to take their foot off the gas.
“If we’re preparing properly for the next game, and this series, we can expect there to be ebbs and flows and we can expect their goalie to shine,” AVS coach Jared Bednar said Wednesday. “We can expect times when things don’t go well for us and being resilient is the key and being mentally tough. It goes back to our belief system. We believe as a group that if we continue to play the right way, it will work out in our favor and you just have to keep it up.”
the avs outshot the blues 54-25 in game 1 and, given the fact that they had five shots behind binnington, they could easily have produced a blowout. but they had to get back up from a bad rebound that took them to st. louis took a 1-0 lead and overcame all near misses to win in overtime.
“It’s easy to get discouraged,” said defenseman Josh Manson, who scored the game-winning goal at 8:02 of overtime. “But there was an immediate response (after trailing 1-0) and I think that’s a good sign for a team. that’s a good team across the way. they have a lot of guys coming back that have won. so they know how to win, so it’s easy to get deflated. but we found a way.”
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colorado leads the series despite getting just one goal from its top six forwards on Tuesday night. center forward nathan mackinnon and right winger mikko rantanen assisted on linemate valeri nichushkin’s equalizer. But the other two counts came from defenders, including the second from Sam Girard.
but mackinnon’s line accounted for 16 shots. that line usually plays against st. the best trio of center louis ryan o’reilly and wingers brayden schenn and david perron. bednar calls that a win, or at least a good push.
“It’s not just about being on the record every night like that. they’re playing against a really good line,” bednar said. “the mackinnon line is against o’reilly and sometimes a wash is good enough. You’re not going to win that matchup every night because you’re playing the best players on the other team.
“But I thought they were good and played the right way and spent a lot of time on the offensive end. they were dangerous. they couldn’t make the puck go, so they don’t go into the sheet. but everyone on our team is watching those guys and how they play and how they compete and the details of their game. and when it’s good, everyone else follows it.”