The Avalanche are rolling again, and Monday night gave them a little bit of everything: a third straight win, a clean end to a three-game road skid, and another game where Gabe Landeskog made his presence felt without needing the scoresheet.
Landeskog’s fingerprints were all over the night after Artyom Levshunov’s hit on Cale Makar. He didn’t let it go, stayed in Levshunov’s face the rest of the way, and made sure his point was heard after the game.
The hit, as it happened, should have drawn more attention than the two-minute minor for elbowing. Levshunov’s feet left the ice when he made contact with Makar, and it sure felt like the kind of play that would have brought an ejection if Makar had stayed down.
That’s the frustrating part: it often takes an injury before anyone treats those hits like the problem they are.
On the ice, Nazem Kadri keeps looking like the player who has shaken off his scoring slump for good. He’s now up to four goals and six points in his last five games, and he has 13 points in 15 games overall.
That puts him on pace for more than 70 points over a full season. With Brock Nelson also in the middle, there’s still a natural question about how long both can keep producing at that level if they remain at center.
Jared Bednar clearly didn’t love the way the Kadri line looked against Calgary, and he made a change anyway. Even after a win, he shuffled the pieces, moving Nelson in with T.J.
Hughes and Jaden Schwartz while Kadri skated with Nic Roy and Landeskog, two players he already has strong chemistry with. The switch paid off immediately.
Kadri scored twice, including once on the power play, and the response from that line was exactly what Bednar wanted after a quieter night.
Hughes got something out of the adjustment, too. He picked up two assists for his first career multi-point game.
Schwartz was right there with him. He scored twice and finished with multiple points as well, giving the Avalanche a full bounceback from that trio.
Through 15 games, Schwartz has already posted two points in five different games, and his fit has been hard to miss. He looks like the kind of middle-six producer Colorado has been trying to get from Ross Colton over the last couple of years.
In goal, Bednar made the call to go with Mackenzie Blackwood in Chicago rather than saving him for Columbus, and that choice made sense. Blackwood has now started 11 of 15 games and the last three in a row, and Bednar is essentially asking him to be the guy.
It’s the same kind of trust he gave Alexandar Georgiev before him. Blackwood has answered it well, going 6-1 in his last seven starts and 8-3-0 overall.
He’s tied for third in the league in wins, and at this point there’s no reason to treat him like anything other than the starter. He should sit against Columbus, with Scott Wedgewood getting the nod, and it wouldn’t be a shock if Blackwood starts each of the next two after that.
The penalty kill was perfect, going 4-for-4, and Bednar said after the game that Blackwood was his best PKer. That lines up with what showed up on the ice.
Devon Toews kept his own strong season going, too. He added a goal and an assist, pushing him to 15 points in 15 games.
That’s a big number for a defenseman, especially after his production dipped last season. He’s already passed his goal total from a year ago and is only nine points away from matching his point total.
And then there was the goaltender interference call, which remains one of the league’s messiest gray areas. Landeskog did exactly what Ryan Smyth, Tomas Holmstrom, Joe Pavelski, and plenty of others have done for years: he planted himself at the top of the crease and took away the goalie’s eyes.
The slight contact he made with Spencer Knight didn’t change the play. The puck was going in either way, and it’s hard to look at that replay and honestly say Landeskog’s arm had anything to do with the result.
In Other News...
Avalanche Sent A Message After Cale Makar Took A Scary Hit
The Avalanche had to settle themselves quickly at United Center after falling behind 2-0, but they answered with the kind of push that usually says plenty about a teams mood. Nazem Kadri and Jaden Schwartz each scored twice, Devon Toews added an empty-netter, and Colorado turned a rough opening stretch into a 5-2 win over the Blackhawks. Mackenzie Blackwood backed it up with 21 saves, and the comeback came after a goaltender interference challenge wiped out a potential Chicago goal.
For Colorado, the result mattered not just in the standings but in the tone it set after Cale Makar absorbed a scary hit. The Avalanche did not let the moment linger, instead leaning into a more forceful response and taking control of the game from there. It was the sort of road victory that can carry a little extra weight, especially when a team is looking to show it can handle adversity and still finish the night on its terms. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Kucherov Buzz Comes With One Massive Roster Problem
The chatter around Nikita Kucherov and Colorado has a way of grabbing attention, and for good reason. A player of that caliber naturally gets tied to any contender with championship aspirations, especially when his next contract is expected to land in the same neighborhood as other recent blockbuster deals. For the Avalanche, though, the appeal is easy to understand even if the fit is not.
Colorados bigger issue is not whether Kucherov would improve the roster, but how the roster would make room for him. The cap picture is tight, the current group already has a defined shape, and there is not an obvious need that would force a major shuffle just to chase a star of his stature. That leaves the Avalanche in the familiar position of admiring the idea from afar while the practical hurdles do most of the talking. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Fans May Be Forgetting One Key Piece Of The First Cup
When Avalanche fans look back on the franchises first Stanley Cup run in 1996, the usual names come up fast: Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and the core that carried Colorado to the top. But Valeri Kamensky was right there in the middle of it, too, giving that team another dangerous offensive threat and helping turn a talented roster into a championship group. After being drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in 1988, he worked his way into the NHL and became an important part of the Avalanches early identity.
Kamenskys Colorado peak was more than a supporting role. He scored 38 goals in the regular season and added another layer in the playoffs, finishing the title run with 10 goals and 12 assists. His time with the Avalanche was a major chapter in a career that stretched across several teams and ended with 200 goals and 501 points in 637 regular-season games, a reminder that one of the key pieces of that first Cup team can be easy to overlook. [Read more 🡒]