Friday Feels: Stayin’ Motivated

2 weeks ago  /  Mile High Hockey

Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images


Locked into the Central 3 Seed, the Avs need to stay motivated to close out the regular season Kind of an ugly stretch of game this week, eh? Two losses to Western playoff bubble teams, a shootout win over lowly Chicago, and a win taking advantage of an off night for Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins have made it clear this team realized they’re locked into the 3 seed in the Central and don’t have much to play for.
Guys with minor injuries are resting instead of playing, which is good - but the guys playing seem like they might also be resting at times, and that’s hard to watch. So here’s a couple clips this team should be using to get motivated:

SHOW ME THE MONEY: Yeah, let’s just get this out of the way first - plenty of guys are playing for their next contract. Joel Kiviranta could hit the 20 goal mark and earn a serious pay bump. Brock Nelson reportedly wants more than a 3 year, $7.5 million contract, and Sam Malinski needs more points to demand more than league minimum next year. That’s just naming a few who could really use these next few games to convince CMac to show them some cash.

I WANNA WIN THAT TROPHY:
Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are still putting up points despite looking lethargic at times this week, and that’s good because both of them are in the thick of NHL Awards races — Mack is barely ahead of Nikita Kucherov for the Art Ross trophy and the oddsmakers’ favorite to win his second consecutive Hart MVP honors, and Cale seems to have pulled away from an injured Quinn Hughes in the Norris conversation with his second straight 90 point season. Cale’s 30 goals are an incredible feat for a defenseman, and he could set the Cap Era goals record for a defenseman with just 2 more to pass Mike Green’s 31.

THE BUS IS A COLD, UNFORGIVING PLACE:
You don’t want to have to ride the bus, you better cement a spot in the NHL. The Avs are a roster loaded with tried and true NHLers right now, but there’s a couple guys on the fringes who need to prove they belong for next season and beyond or they could be in the AHL taking busses instead of planes for the rest of their careers - Keaton Middleton chief among them. Jimmy Vesey and even Miles Wood and Sam Malinski can’t be taking future NHL roster spots for granted. They’ll probably handle a bus ride better than Larry David, but do they really want to have to? I don’t think so.

FRIENDS HELP FRIENDS
The rest of the guys need to just find it inside themselves to help their friends get paid, win trophies, and stay in the league, because they genuinely do have nothing to play for til the playoffs.
FRIDAY FEELS
Let me just take a moment to say thank you to those who offered late congratulations on my engagement. I do appreciate it, though I hope y’all know I was totally joking around in last week’s column. In honor of that, let’s do Jokes and Chokes this week.
JOKE: Cale Makar’s Norris Candidacy
It’s an absolute joke that there are national media personalities talking about other candidates. Cale’s 6th in league scoring with 90 points, just scored his 30th goal - making him the 9th defenseman EVER to do so and only the second this century - and he plays arguably the toughest minutes of anyone in the conversation based on matchup data. Quinn Hughes is very good and Zach Werenski is having a renaissance season, but neither actually compare to Cale Makar statistically or in their impact in all three zones.
CHOKE: Third Period Collapses
When the Avs came back to beat Chicago with two goals in the third period and a shootout capper on Wednesday, it really put into perspective why Colorado’s recent habit of giving up late game comebacks has been so frustrating — teams full of teenagers do that, not Stanley Cup contenders. The Avs know how to close out games, but seem to get caught in traps of their own making when they take their collective foot off the gas late in games they’re controlling. That hasn’t happened as frequently as it maybe felt to fans and media immediately after the Flames game, but it sure shouldn’t happen any more.
JOKE: Charlie Coyle First Goal as an Avalanche
It’s an absolute joke that it took Coyle 14 games to finally put a biscuit in the basket in an Avs jersey - he’s played very well since arriving and certainly deserved a bit more in the results column.

He’s only mustered 4 assists in that stretch too, which feels very low for a guy who genuinely looks great in his role. Some of this is usage (it’s no coincidence his first game getting genuine top six minutes and powerplay time resulted in his first goal), but it also speaks to how he plays as a third line center - he’s playing defense first, making safe plays, and controlling possession to set up passes that lead to the passes that create goals. If third assists were a thing, I’d be surprised if he didn’t have a ton of them.
CHOKE: Injuries Are Back!
Stop it injury bug! We already dealt with you too much! Martin Necas’ neck injury in the Chicago game looked very scary, but he was able to return. Jonathan Drouin was far less lucky in the same game, as a slight knee on knee hit from Nick Foligno forced him out in the first period. Neither played in Columbus, joining Sam Girard and Josh Manson on the shelf for the time being. That’s a significant chunk of Colorado’s secondary stars dinged up going into the playoffs - better now than late April, I suppose, but let’s hope they can heal up quick (and maybe bring Gabe Landeskog back to the lineup with them??!?)
PREDICTIONS
Maybe I should have factored in motivation issues when I decided to only predict wins, because the Avs lost two and tried to lose a third this week before waking up to force overtime in Chicago and then beat up Columbus. I did nail some detail predictions though! The PK was perfect in St Louis, Wedgewood made less than 25 saves in Chicago, and Charlie Coyle got his first goal - call me an oracle if you want (and ignore everything else I got wrong).
Saturday @ St Louis: 5-2 W, PK gives up no goals (yes I’m running this back) Tuesday vs Vegas: 5-4 W, Sam Girard returns and scoresThursday vs Vancouver: 8-0 W, Cale Makar tallies 3 or more points
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