On Friday night, in front of friends and family (including his mother, grandmother and teary-eyed grandpa), Tyson Jost made his NHL debut. Last week he was in college, this week he was facing the St. Louis Blues as a member of the Colorado Avalanche.
Statistically, it went pretty well. Jost had 13:25 of ice time, including shifts on the penalty kill, powerplay and in overtime. He chipped in with two shots, one hit, one blocked shot, one takeaway and won 50 percent of his faceoffs.
Afterwards, Jost said he played “pretty good.” Still, when asked by Mile High Sports what areas he could improve upon, he had a pretty blunt answer.
“Everything. Just getting comfortable with the pace and the speed of this game,” Jost said. “I think one thing is just kind of keeping my feet moving in the corners. Obviously, they’re bigger guys and they’re going to push on you a little harder. Just keep on my d-zone. Faceoffs a little bit too. I started out pretty good. Then [by] the end of the game, they kind of figured out what I was doing.”
Jost didn’t find the speed of the NHL game shocking. Instead, he was taken aback by the strength of the athletes he is now competing against.
“I mean, college is a pretty fast game. You’re only playing twice a weekend, so guys seem to have their energy all of the time and the game’s pretty fast,” he said. “Obviously, you don’t have the size that the NHL does. You’re playing against some pretty big guys out there. Some 6’6” guys, 220, they’re leaning on you. I think that’s one thing that I really noticed.
“College just did such a great job at developing me and pushing me to be the best player I can be. I owe a lot of credit to North Dakota and what they did. I think they made this adjustment a lot easier.”
It helped that Avalanche coach Jared Bednar showed faith in Jost, playing him in all situations, even throwing him out the in shootout (for the record, Jost also said he needed to work on a new move for that part of the game), simply because he “wanted to see him shoot.” Jost was very grateful that the team was already showing confidence in him, but is well-aware that his work is far from over.
“It’s humbling. I’ve just got to keep bringing that, taking it game-by-game and keep pushing,” he told Mile High Sports. “Yeah, it’s nice they have some confidence in me, but I have to keep earning that every day, day in and day out, in practice and in games. I have to just keep pushing forward from here.”
