The Colorado Avalanche won consecutive road games this week for the first time since March 7 and 8, 2015. The most recent of those road wins came in Boston in a hard-fought, come-from-behind fashion where the Avalanche scored three unanswered goals to seal the victory. Since the month of November has arrived, the Avs seem to have turned a corner. At the beginning of the month they were showing improvement in their game, despite losing a few games that they could have won. Now, it seems as though they have continued to progress and are starting to find their game, both individually as well as finding comfort with one another.
On Oct. 14 the Avalanche hosted the Boston Bruins at Pepsi Center and the game ended in a 6-2 loss for the Avs. A game which head coach Patrick Roy questioned the compete level of his team and called their play “awful.” In Thursday night’s rematch between the two teams, the Avalanche were successful in several aspects of the game that we had yet to see them be successful in this season.
We saw pressure on the forecheck that forced turnovers and created offensive chances, a few of which ended in goals.
For the first time, we saw them consistently winning the dump and chase. Getting the puck deep and then not coming close to winning it back has been a big issue in Colorado’s lack of possession and scoring chances this year.
The offense continued to show promise Thursday night trough finding different ways to generate good offensive chances, when before, it seemed like they would throw any puck they could at the net in hopes for the best. There is a big difference between simply shooting the puck and creating legitimate scoring chances. Now, the Avalance are generating shots on goal from high percentage areas and they are creating plays that are dangerous for opposing goaltenders, not only scoring more goals, but also causing defenses to work harder in attempt to stop them.
The “compete level” coach Roy criticized less than a month prior was present and stronger than ever against Boston. Early in November, he said that the Avalanche needed to find ways to get the results they have been working for – simply, to find ways to win. They had been playing well and doing a lot of good things, they just had not been awarded for the hard work.
In the last two wins for Colorado, they found ways to play a complete game and come out on top. Many of the struggles that the Avalanche faced earlier this season have been addressed.
In the first two games of a long road trip, the Colorado Avalanche deserve credit for finding what had been going wrong and fixing it. By sticking together, working on specific issues at practice and implementing their work into game situations, the Avalanche appear to have pulled themselves out of their slump.
Now, the challenge lies in consistently showing up with the same level of play we have seen in the last two games and pulling themselves out of the deep hole they have created in the Central Division.
