The Hockey PDOcast - First Impressions of Avalanche vs. Kraken

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

AJ Haefele joins Dimitri to talk about why Seattle was able to give Colorado trouble in Game 1, and what they expect to see from both teams as the series progresses.This podcast is produced by Dominic Sramaty. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

dressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dimitri Philipovich. And joining me is my good buddy, AJ Hayfley. AJ, what's going on, man? Oh, you know, just living the dream. That's right.

Watching playoff hockey, getting to talk about it. I got up this morning, made myself a coffee, put on the abs cracking game to rewatch it, so it would be fresh in my mind. It's like I could take some notes, because I knew we were going to do the show today. And I've certainly got some takes. I, you know, this is my first time,

um, experiencing postseason hockey while having a daily show, uh, in the past. I used to just, you know, pretty much I do a preview. And then unless something extremely notable happened mid-series, I would just wait until the series was over and then I'd kind of recap it and preview what was next. And that gave me the benefit of seeing how the story plays out and then being able to react accordingly, right? I really dislike the idea of jumping right after game one and, and firing up

hot take machine and panicking and being overly dramatic just because it's the only thing we've seen so far because we know that as these series go along, there's twist and turns, there's adjustments, there's matchup changes, there's evolutions, all that good stuff. And we have to look forward to. But one of the perks of having a daily show is that we can react to stuff while it's kind of fresh on the mind while we just watched this game most recently last night. And so we're going to talk abscracking here today. You and I are going to deep dive it, do a breakdown of what we saw what we think matters, what we think doesn't, how we think it's going to progress as the series goes along.

What was your first thought from watching this game in terms of how it played out, whether it was confirming a pre-existing belief or whether it was kind of surprising you because you didn't anticipate it going that way? I think there was a, I think there's a little bit of both, to be honest with you. I think the confirming the pre-existing belief is that the way that Seattle won game won is the way that Seattle wins all their games. they they forecheck hard they put teams into uncomfortable situations and they play very opportunistic hockey and their whole lineup does it that's not a lineup where you look at you look at the top line and you say we've got to shut these guys down you know that's no offense to mattie baneers or jared mccann of course Jared mcchanon that's 40 goals score of jared mccann yeah exactly he's having a 40 he had a 40 goal season this year you obviously need to know where he is when he's on the ice but it's you know Jared I just feel like it's safe to say Jared McCann is not one of those guys that causes you to lose sleep when you're prepping for a series what causes you to lose sleep is that you look at that Crackett lineup and you say on any given night the Cracken scored three goals last last night in game one game two they could have three completely different goals scores and still win three one and that's that's what if you're Colorado and you're looking at

at them, you're looking at this matchup, that's what worries you. That's what makes you uncomfortable is that all four of their lines play such cohesive hockey, and they play such connected hockey with a really strong, defensive soul, I guess,

if you would call it that, that game one kind of played out in such a way that it was like, this is how the Kraken live. This is just, this is their life. And, I say that and I don't I don't feel like the Cracken played particularly well in game one.

You mentioned things that surprised me. I mean, you and I are two of the most public Devon Taves fans on the planet. And watching Devon Taves come under pressure and make such a horrific decision to just give the puck away. to a Cracken player in front of his own net completely by himself, you know, three or four minutes into the, into the game.

It was shocking. I mean, that's, that's the thing Devon Taves. You don't expect Devon Taves to do. Well, here's a thing, AJ, I'm contractually obligated to cut you off here and defend Devon Taves' honor because,

of course, it was a horrific pass, which is like, you're taught, I think, from the first day you start playing competitive hockey, don't throw the puck up the middle of the ice like that, especially from that angle. His defense partner that was out there was Sam Gerard and Akele McCar, and Gerard was bunched very close to him. Not that it excused the pass, but I will say it's not like he had a very, it's not like he, he, he, he chose to forego like a safe D to D pass to alleviate pressure. He really all he could have done was, I guess, held under the puck. just taking a hit and just like tried to keep it along the boards there until reinforcements came

and that's probably would have been a preferred alternative that would have prevented a goal again certainly but it was he was handed the puck it was kind of like a live hand grenade where i was like all right here take it here and then all of a sudden two guys are bearing down on you good luck and so it was an unfortunate situation the way that happened but but you're right we're just not used to seeing that was a very uncharacteristic play from from the debauntate's handbook it it is you know on on my show last night after the game, I also said, hey, look, go and watch that play. There's no help for Devon Taves.

Evan Rodriguez is two feet inside the blue line. Nathan McKinnon is nowhere to be found. Miko Ranton is nowhere to be found. They have flown the zone already, and that forecheck just bore down on them and forced the exact kind of mistake that that kind of intense forecheck is designed to create. So, I mean, there's no getting around the fact that Devon Taves can't make that pass.

Yes. He can't. He can't make that mistake. But at the same time, when looking at the puck that Gerard gives to him, then you look at the forward support sitting on the, where it's just not in a helpful spot. You look at it and you say, this is exactly the kind of disconnected hockey that costs the. have in game one. They were not playing as a cohesive unit, whereas you look at how Seattle forechecked him. You looked at the way that they, you know, one guy, one guy foresecks him on the wall, another guy picks it up, Tolvenin comes off, and he's right there in the middle of the

ice for that pass. And it's connected hockey. It's exactly what Seattle does at a really high level, just as a team, to make, to make other teams uncomfortable and life hard for them. And the abs just played right into it. Yeah, I think it was jarring to see the abs, D's struggle to the degree that they did, which we were so used to them having the personnel and the system that allows them, even when you watch that stand the cup final against Tampa Bay,

that was a clear difference between the two teams. Colorado had the horses in the back end to, even against Tampa Bay's heavy for check to make the first guy miss and then carry it out or make a play higher in the zone, rather than getting stuck behind the goal line like that. And Seattle's forchick is certainly, very heavy. Five-on-five shots off the forecheck.

They were generated from turnovers were 14 to 6 for Seattle last night by my count. And it's surprising to see Colorado being beaten in that category to that degree. I wouldn't count them. I'd say there was probably 15 to 20 defensive zone turnovers that, you know, not as egregious as the Tazon we described, but ones that kept Colorado stuck in the zone prevented them from playing the way they want to play on the move. and they just weren't able to generate those clean exits. So I guess my question for you is moving forward, acknowledging,

and this shouldn't have been a surprise, right? Heading into the series watching crack and tape, knowing how they've played all year, this should have been something you sort of foresaw and expected. I think because of the way the abs are constructed right now with questions about the depth up front, how they're going to generate goals, needing to get out on the move and create some easy opportunities,

I do think there's a bit of an urge, like your description of what the forwards did on that play, is to cheat a little bit in trying to fly the zone and get ahead of the Cracken, because once their D gets set, they're so good at defending the rush. I guess it's going to come down to attention to detail and discipline of like doing the exit first and then worrying about what comes after, right? That seems like that'll probably be the biggest adjustment because in theory, the abs do still have the defensive personnel to deal with whatever the Crack and throw

at them off the forecheck. Yeah, absolutely. And it will come down to that kind of discipline of you're not going to be able to shift by shift, skate downhill, skate with the puck through the neutral zone, create rush chances, and play with that kind of up-tempo, you know, avalanche hockey that we saw last year. It's not last year's team. They're not as good as last year's team. They can't, their margin for error is a lot smaller. The other thing to consider, they had two guys on their defense in game one that,

we're just coming back off of long layoffs. They are healthy-ish right now. I mean, it's kind of unbelievable that they lose Jack Johnson in warm-ups to injury, and they have to slot Eric Johnson in. And if you haven't been paying attention to the last couple weeks of Avalanche hockey, and I can understand if you haven't, but Jack Johnson has significantly outplayed Eric Johnson. over the last few weeks.

And so that was an unexpected downgrade in the lineup for them in game one, is that they have to put Eric Johnson in there. And when we're talking injuries again with the avalanche this year, part of it is the fact that they've been this group together, the group that played in game one, has played so little together that you talk about them being connected and them doing all the things that they need to do, they just haven't spent very much time playing together,

which is kind of a shocking thing after 82 games. But it's it's certainly not a good, I mean, there's no good excuse there. The avalanche, and you said it already, that walking into this, you know what the crack can do. And so to see how Colorado handled it in-game one, there's no other way to say it from Colorado's perspective other than to say it was just it was tremendously disappointing to just see that they they

fed into it the way that they did and the guys who had poor games you're you know josh manson having a bad game two penalties and just a a total brain turned off moment behind his own net on the third cracking goal to start the third period fine he's played 27 games this year he it's his first game in like three or four months. Like I can understand. Josh Manson's rusty. It's whatever. It's fine. You're also just going to get some of that with Josh Manson sometimes.

But watching Devon Taves and Valanchuskin, two of your smartest players, two of your most consistent players, have the kinds of games that they did was when you knew that Colorado was in trouble. When he makes that mistake, when Valenucheskin goes crashing the net and finds a JT. Com for rebound all alone in front of the net and makes literally no play on it. It looked like he just took the puck and passed it right to Philip Grubauer and then immediately proceeded to fall down with no contact from a crack in player. There was no resistance.

He was by himself. He was in good position. He makes no play and then falls down. It was like a comedy of errors all night from him. And that is, again, another guy, Valenucheskin has been one of their steadiest and most reliable guys over the last, honestly, the last like three years.

And his game has been so on the rise that when he has a poor game as he did in game one, you're almost uncomfortable watching it because you're just like, what is this? Where are we with, like, are we working under assumption that Natushkin is fully healthy?

Because he's been more productive. But I will say, watching his skating, like he's still, it speaks to what a nightmare he is that he can still be so disruptive with that reach and that motor. But there was certain times last night where you would watch and in the past, I would have expected him to create separation or break away and make something happen. And he gets the puck and defenders are just glued to him. He's not really able to hit that other gear that made him so special last year. And that's kind of, it's frustrating to watch. And it's remarkable to think because when he was so good last year,

he was playing on that like badly mangled foot and he was still able to to get the job done. So I think that's also why it's a bit jarring to see how he looks physically in some of these sort of like one-on-one foot races with other other players. He's definitely not fully healthy. I have been kind of harping on this for a while now that he's not, that you can see that he's not fully healthy because that lack, that lack of burst that you're talking about, that little separation. I mean, you're talking about, you're talking about just the smallest margins here, right? And him not having that has been a difference maker for him in terms of the kind of impact that he makes offensively for sure. Because his ability to go wide on guys was a really important element of his game because it had to be respected. It doesn't have to be respected right now.

He's not going to go wide on somebody unless they, just totally fall asleep and have a bad gap. Right now, it's, he's still effective. He's still really good. He's still really reliable. The motor and the size and just the general disruptiveness is all still still there. But the offensive impact is a little more muted when he's not next to Nathan McKinnon because he's not able to create some of the own, some of the chaos on his own.

own, as we have seen in the past. He's definitely not fully healthy. And there's doubt as to whether he will be ever again just because the nature of his injury, the nature of the surgery that he had on his ankle and the scar tissue that it creates and the friction that it causes when he skates. And there's nothing that he can really do to rest and heal and get it back to the way that it was before. You know, maybe, you know, maybe if he has losing round one and he has the entire summer off,

you know, and he stays off of it and he avoids it, maybe, maybe that fixes it. But other than something like that, this just might be like the new Natchewski reality here, is that that little extra burst just isn't quite there, but he's still a really effective player otherwise. Yeah, yeah, a bit more one-dimensional, as you said. I thought that was a great point of not having. having to really account for or respect the threat of like him just taking it to the net against you from distance. Yeah.

A guy that big should not be able to move that faster. And maybe we're letting that that that's true. You know, while we're on the topic of the abs defense quickly, you mentioned Manson. I did. I had a note here in my game notes of just how bad he looked. You're right. He's played he hasn't played since March 1st. He's played six games since December 1st.

So give him a bit of leeway there. But, you know, you can see the timing was off on. not in the third period where they had that that rush and he was helping lead it or kickstart it and then he just skates in offside and and negates it. The defensive miscus the penalties like Ryan Donato just putting his shoulder down and taking the puck to the net against him and forcing him to take a penalty obviously not ideal. I did like Bowen Byram's game and I know that the the on-ice numbers don't really reflect it. and a part of that is because of what they gave back defensively the other way.

But in a game where the execution was all for the team, the offense looked quite limited. I thought, especially when they had him out there for some of those offensive zone shifts with Kalamakar, like his ability to seamlessly play that, when the abs are at their best, they play that kind of positional interchangeability game

in the offensive zone, right, where all five guys are moving around. You never know where you're going to see a defenseman. And there were two or three times where Byron was able to pop up in a scoring position, the crack and clearly we're not able to account for where he would be on the ice and then he hits the post or the crossbar on one of them. He had a few other kind of giving goes and nice little plays in the car. I really like, I think we're talking to talk about this more later in terms of like

what personnel adjustments the abs can make in terms of creating more offense out of this group. I think getting Byram in those situations off those offensive zone draws and off those kind of momentum plays where they're in attacking positions with him and McCar and playing that five-man game is I think something that Jared Bednar should experiment with and explore more because it gives them a slightly different

offensive dynamic and I think that showed last night. Yeah, and if there was one area where you did feel like Colorado showed a strength, it's what their defensemen were able to create offensively.

The way that they moved the puck around the zone as a group. It didn't happen nearly often enough. But you could see that when they started, when they started building up that momentum, they started making some of those plays, you know, between Gerard and Byram and McCar. I think they did have, they did have some solid sequences throughout the game. Byram, Byram just seems cursed at this point.

He hit something like five posts in the postseason last year. hit one again last night. If I recall, still doesn't have a postseason goal. Just sitting on a bunch of assists, which he got another one last night. But he's like literal inches away from taking that next step offensively.

And the, you know, Byron McCar thing I think is definitely something that needs to be revisited. watching those defensemen activate in the way that they help generate offense from the blue line and the way that they kind of play,

the way that the Avalanche like to play low to high through their defense. It is something that Seattle looked uncomfortable with last night. And I will be curious to see how they try and tighten the screws on that. Well, and let's give Seattle credit. I think we have a little bit, right? We talked about their forecheck,

some of the pressure they were able to create. But a lot of this conversation a lot of the issues with the Avalanche game, I think, is comes from like a, being disconnected, as you said earlier, or a lack of execution. And part of that is because part of it is self-inflicted, I'm sure, and then, you know, not having a lot of reps playing together and guys coming back after extended absences. But part of it is also when you play the way that Seattle does, that can kind of force your hand in that way, right?

And if you're not, if you're not feeling it, it can make it a long, miserable night for you. And I guess part of heading into this series, I was like, all right, I'm not sure what to make of, I mean, the abs regular season in general, just because it was such a rotating cast of players in the lineup and you never knew who was going to be playing. They were always missing somewhat important. But in the three games we did see against Seattle, they all sort of followed a similar script or a similar theme, right? Like Seattle did show that they were able to skate with them, play at their pace, at least challenge them a bit and make life difficult for them. and now we're up to four games in this head-to-head series this season where the Cracken have given up six goals against combined in them. And, you know, for the abs in terms of thinking about how they're going to create

offense, you mentioned some of that low to high and some of the offensive zone sequences, their bread and butter is and will always be attacking downhill off the rush, being able to regroup quickly and sort of catch you on your back foot. And in this game, I had the rush shots at 5-1-5 at 18 to 16 for the abs. but I would honestly say four or five of those at tops were clean, right? A lot of them were sort of ones where the cracking were in fine position. They were either able to block it or get a stick on it or disrupt a shot. You had the McKinnon, Ranton, two on one.

You had, you know, JT. Comfort, the sequence you described earlier breaking in. But there were very few of those instances. And I guess finding a way to get that transition game going, you're going to have to beat that forecheck cleanly first, but finding ways to, to, to, kind of, of flip the ice from those neutral zone resets into quick opportunities going back the other way is going to be, I think, comparative because off the set sequences while the abs had success, I think the Cracken are perfectly fine playing that game with them. Like, I think they will live with Nathan McKinnon kind of skating around the outside of the

offensive zone and eventually just throwing the puck on that because he doesn't know what to do else. Like, they can play all game that way. What they don't want to do is get into these situations where it's three on two after three on two. And so the abs finding a way to do that is I think what's going to determine whether they finally were able to break through offensively or whether the next whatever four or five, six games of the series are similar to one, three one types of games. Yeah, I don't think that the overall tone of the series is going to change a whole lot from this. I think that's just the, I think that's just the battle of styles in this is that Seattle does a great job of muddying the waters.

and, you know, they've been, Colorado wants to boat race teams. So, you know, and when you, when, you know, Seattle creates all that chop to, to,

to run with the metaphor, Seattle creates a lot of chop. It makes, makes, you know, makes, makes, trying to be the,

the speedboat team very, very difficult. And, uh, you know, we saw a little bit of that last night. I really do think, though,

that the, the big thing here is that, yeah, Colorado's depth is a question. and how do they handle it and how good are they going to be? You know, can J.T. Convert do the 2C thing? Blah, blah, blah, blah. All this stuff.

Yes, all those things are fair questions. But at the end of the date, Nathan McKinnon, Migo Ranton and Kail McCarr, all can play better and have to play better. Because those are the guys that, those are the guys that give them the advantage in this series. Those are the guys that give them an advantage in any series. When you walk into a series and you have. of the three best players right off the bat. You know, you're off to a pretty good start there.

But if those guys don't play like the three best players in the series, it's going to be pretty hard to win. That's your formula. It is. Well, and unfortunately, maybe this was why the result was the way it was. I thought the best player on the series last night was Yanni Gord for either team. And if that's going to be the case, then it's going to be a tough series for Colorado, not that McKinnon and Renton and didn't get their chances because they certainly did.

But I thought that the job Gord did. He played the primary matchup against them. I believe he was on the ice for like half of McKinnon's minutes, held them to a draw in terms of shots, outchanced him. They were on the ice for the goal against them. McKinnon created. But, you know, Gord himself created four five-on-five chances, was responsible for seven other five-on-five shot contributions.

He was fantastic. And that's kind of the matchup you thought you'd see heading into it. And it's not really Jared Bednar's style to worry too much, I think about, you know, who's playing against who, right? Like he typically is just like, he's very of the mind of like, oh, I'm just going to put my best players out there and they're going to be able to win against anyone. And that's certainly been the case for a long time and taken them very far.

But I think in this particular case, if it's going to, it's a bit of an uphill battle or a tougher slog than I think it needs to be. If at home with last change, you're getting all of these McCarr-Ranton in minutes against Gord and Adam Larson when it doesn't even. need to be. Now, part of the issue with matching up against the Cracken is that, as you mentioned, they have the depth and it's not like there's necessarily going to be a massive drop off regardless of who's on the ice for them. But it's pretty clear that those are the players they prefer to have on there. And they were able to get them out there for a significant portion of the game. And they did

very well in those minutes. And so that's, I think, something to watch where I think Colorado could potentially create a few additional easier opportunities for them if they can just try to try to get away from that a little bit. Yeah, I mean, Jared Benner has always just been like, ah, my guys are better, go get them. And it's true in the series, and I just think that they just need

to up their level of play. I mean, the level, the level dropped so much from game 82 to game one of the postseason. It was really disappointing to watch because the avalanche completely dominated periods one and three against Nashville in the last game.

of the season obviously it's it's Nashville yeah I don't say that as like a that's like something to brag about necessarily at this point but yes totally um but it was it was just to see that the intensity was there in game 82 uh and then you know of course they had that awful second period where they gave everything back that they built but um but from just from an intensity from an emotional perspective uh watching the abs in game one they could truly begin their title defense They're as healthy as they've been all year. I say that as they literally lose a guy in warm-ups to injury. You know, there was all this excitement.

There was all this buzz. You know, you have Seattle. You've won the division. You watched the absolute war that was game one in Dallas and Minnesota. And you're going, well, thank God they're not involved in that thing. And they just come out and just to lay the egg that they did in game one. you know just it just doesn't you know the morning after it really just doesn't feel very good it doesn't but you know i think they and they will play better right the execution will be

there moving forward but listening to the ESPN broadcast like the entire time they kept trying i guess play up this idea that the crack and were you know they score that first early goal and they're like oh well this is huge they can they can ease the nerves a little bit and and sort of get their feet wet, playing their first playoff game as a franchise. Meanwhile, a lot of these guys not only have a playoff experience coming from the other teams they were picked from, but also play a very playoff style type of game. And I think we saw that as well. So I just did want to kind of hammer that point home as well, because on the one hand,

it's going to be up to Colorado to play better and they need to handle their business in that way, but also just the style of game Seattle played, understandably made that issue kind of even worse or shine a brighter light on it. And I would expect that to continue as well, right? I wouldn't expect Seattle all of a sudden to go away from this. Like it's something to work for them all regular season. And also now that they have this game in the bank,

it's like, all right, yeah, we just need to keep doing all of these exact same things. And the result might not be the same, but we're going to have a chance in every single one of these games. absolutely i mean there's there's going to be no blowouts here i don't think um the only way one was going to get away is if uh

phil gruebauer has a one of those days and you know it was Seattle Seattle makes life difficult for opponents and Colorado could get into games where they don't

fight that battle as hard as they should uh it's just a different team from last year. They have a different drive. They have a lot of different elements where I think that they have sacrificed a little bit on the margins to try to keep up with the skill level that they're after. With the Evan Rodriguez's and Dennis Morgans of the world where they maybe lose a little bit of the physicality, they lose a little bit of that quote-unquote playoff style hockey to try to get a higher skill player. that might be able to sneak a goal for them here or there, you know,

because they're not having an Andre Brokowski like they did last year, who could get out there and could just, oh, hey, look, he just scored into a goal. Yeah. Yeah. He just, you just beat a goaltender. Hmm. The abs don't have a lot of that this year.

They have to work a lot harder. Beyond their top line, they have to work a lot harder for that offense. And they're really reliant on their defense to chip. in and activate and help create. You're talking about those rushes, the three on twos that Colorado wants to create going up the ice. Those aren't three forwards most of the time. It's a lot of the time one of the defensemen jumping into the play.

And when you have kind of a game-changing talent in Kail McCar, you know, I thought Cal McCar was pretty good last night. His first came back. He was physical. He created a lot on offense. I also think he gave a lot back defensively, and that timing did that. look like it was quite there yet. But as he gets better and more comfortable in the series,

I expect Colorado's offense to start to round into shape a little bit more. If he never really gets it going, the abs won't win the series. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty simple calculus there. AJ, let's take a quick break here. And then when we come back, we'll keep chatting about the abs and the abs cracking and what they expect from the series. You're listening to the Hockey P.D.

cast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. Everything Canucks before and after the games. Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Back here, AJ Havely talking about the abs and their game against the Cracken last night. Let's talk a little bit about Nathan McKinnon. I think the conversation about the team's depth and scoring and all that is less interesting. You certainly saw it last night where.

When the abs had McKinnon and Ranton in on the ice at 515, they had 15 shots in 17 minutes and seven high danger chances. In the 32 minutes where everyone else played at 515, they had 12 shots and four chances. And that's going to be an issue that they have to deal with moving forward. The reason why it wasn't as big of a deal towards the end of the regular season when they banked a bunch of wins and got into this position they were in for this matchup was because McKininin and just absolutely went nuclear and we're scoring every single season. night and the pucks were going in for McKinnon in particular and he he like very nice positive regression at just the right time um you know i thought last night you saw both the good and the bad with McKinnon at times you certainly see the the goal he sets up for Ranton in it right it's a beautiful show of both skill but also understanding of what he's facing where he spins off of pressure

buys himself some extra space and then instead of forcing a low percentage shot finds Ranton in banks it in off of them and it's the only goal they were able to score. There were also times where I thought you saw some of the lingering issues with his game where what makes him special is how jittery he can be and also how he can force the issue. At times he skated himself into trouble and that's a recipe for disaster against the way this Cracken team defends. So I'm not sure you can change that at this point. It's kind of what you get with McKinnon's game.

But I remember you and I had a long conversation about this in our Stanley Cup final preview last year against the lightning and talking about how McGinnon's game had evolved, how he'd learned to be more patient and defer. And I feel like in this series, that's going to test that again because just the way the Cracken are defending him right now, it's going to be tough for him to do a lot of those superhuman solo individual efforts. It's going to be a lot more sort of making a simple little play in the neutral zone that allows the rest of his teammates to go in for a man advantage because he's commanding so much

attention. Yeah. And I would say that. this is where I would start with just a quick like personnel swap here. And I would put Arturie Lekanin back up next to him because Lekonin is a guy that McKinnon trusts and has had a great deal of success with. But Lekhinen is also the little details guy. You know, he does all the little things. He wins the board battles.

He chips pucks really well. He reads the ice really well. He can keep up skating-wise with the pace that McKinnon wants to play at. Just that swap with Evan Rodriguez, I think, would really do a lot of good. Also, I often refer to Arturi Lekanin as Nathan McKinnon's emotional support adult. Just kind of his, you know, just that guy that kind of lifts him up a little bit. And I always joke, you know, Nate doesn't like anybody, but he loves Arturie Lackettin. it's it's it it is it's just true though

they they play great hockey together I would make that switch as far as McKinnon and the patience and you know this year he was maybe as good a playmaker as we've ever seen him be understanding that when he walks into the zone walks when he rockets into the zone with the puck When he tries to destroy the ice with his gates.

Exactly. Yeah, that kind of frenetic energy that he plays with, where it just looks like he can't wait to make the next three things happen all at the same time. He's played with a different level of patience this year where he has understood that he's drawing all that attention to him. And as that attention starts to creep in on him, that means there are teammates who are open. And he does a pretty good job most of the. the time of finding them. Last night you watch in game one and there's a lot of like blind back hands into

the middle of the ice or up the wall where he thinks that he's going to have help and doesn't. And he, there were a lot of turnovers in game one from him just trying to do a little bit too much and maybe trying to try to force the action a little bit too much instead of letting it come to him a little more naturally. I think he'll probably look at that and he'll the guy I mean the guy is world class he adjusts so quickly and so well that I'm not going to say that

Seattle is going to be able to put the clamps on him all series long but I do think that their strategy of force him to give up the puck is a good one they just have to continue hoping that he keeps making poor decisions with it. Yeah I mean And it must also be a bit of a mind-bending experience where you're hearing everyone, and I'm sure he can see it, right?

We wouldn't never say it publicly an interview, but you can see how the game's playing out. And it's like, all right, if McKinnon and Renton aren't creating, not much is going to happen offensively. So it's like, all right, all the offensive burden is on your shoulders. But then now you have Dmitri Filipovich and AJ Haefley saying on his podcast that less is more for McKinnon. Like he needs to defer a little bit and get rid of the puck earlier and make better decisions to let others do stuff.

And it's like, all right, how can both those things be true at the same time? But then you watched that game last night. And I did think, like, there's just, there's certain times where his style of that frenetic energy where he tries to overcomplicate it and stick handles a million times while waiting for something to open up, it looks great when something does finally open up. But the issue is with the way the Cracken are defending. And they were much more aggressive defending them than I expected. Like, they're a very aggressive one-on-one defensive team where they really kind of

posture and gap up on you and make sure someone's always in your face. But they were sending two, three guys his way, even on that assist to Ranton. And the reason why Ranton was so open was because three defenders were quite literally just facing McKinnon and waiting to sort of like envelop him if he skated into them. And sometimes he has a bad habit of skating into people that way because he's such an athletic freak and he just moves so fast and expects to just barrel through you. But this isn't the series to really test the ability to do so. like he'll break through occasionally but the crackin will be very happy with him playing right into

their defensive game that way so i did just want to note that um but it'll be yeah i i like to like an adjustment and i think we all need a an emotional emotional support human so i uh i like that shout from you um is there anything else here on the avs offense or their game do i talk a little about seattle's offense because it's been a bit of a bugaboo for me like you could see how they created yesterday, right? Very opportunistically off the forecheck. A few times where the abs got caught deep and they got out on the rush and got chances that way. A lot of cycling the puck up to the point and then looking for like second and third efforts. I do appreciate how deliberate their approach is though, right? It's very like someone tries to get open in the slot. It's a one quick pass. It's very simple. It's not some sort of elaborate cross seam saucer pass. It's like a very simple short tape to tape. And that puck is immediately out. stick because that guy's trying to shoot and pick a corner. And I think that's how they were able to get such a high shooting percentage this season. And that can give you some interesting challenges as a goalie and as a defense because

that's not typically the way most teams are attacking and having success attacking in this modern NHL. But the Cracken have clearly enjoyed that to great success so far this season. Yeah, I think it's really disciplined is the word that I think jumps to mind because, you you know, guys at this level want to make plays. They want to create. They want to do certain things. But even some of their, you know, some of their more skilled players that you would look at between, you know,

Jordan Everleigh, a Jaden Schwartz, Jared McCann, Maddie Baneers, obviously. They are comfortable playing the simple game all night. They'll make that two-foot pass instead of trying to make the, you know, the saucer pass through the seam and catch the guy on the back door for the easy goal, but it's got to go through four players to get there. You know, the way that they value the puck is something that you have to respect and have to attack because if you know that they're going to make the simple play, then you need to attack that and you need to force them to try and play at a higher level of offense.

Then, hey, we're just going to keep this very meat and potatoes. We're going to dump it. We're going to rim it around. We're going to cycle and we're going to try again. What you would think that the abs would have the right personnel to be able to to really sort of sit on some of those shots, right? With like the smart defensive players, they have the reach and their ability to use their skating to kind of disrupt shot lanes.

You would think that that would actually play right into the way the abs, the one would want to defend you ideally. I do, in fact, think that that is something that plays right into what Colorado should be wanting to try to accomplish. They can live with that, and the Avs should be able to attack that, and that's one of the areas where I think Colorado should feel comfortable in the series.

But watching how it played out last night, the Avs just didn't look like they had, defense isn't just about defensemen. It's team defense, right? It's your forwards have to be bought in. And Colorado's forwards looked disconnected from their defense last night, And the way that Seattle kind of just, they just play such a disciplined game that I think it can drive a team like Colorado crazy.

Because Colorado wants to get out. They want to play with speed. They want to play a little flashier. They want to play on the other end of the ice. They don't want to defend all night long. They don't want to be down there. They just, they get really antsy. And then that's when forwards start flying the zone.

That's when guys, that's when the little, the breakdown of the little details come. and I think what Seattle has to do is just stay true to themselves and you look at the guys on that team you don't have any worry about that. They are going to be cut and paste every single game. It is going to be the same formula for them every game.

There are no major changes to make. Even even if Colorado starts to find success in the series, which I think will happen at some point. I mean, Colorado's just too good not to. But even when that starts to happen, Seattle

doesn't panic. Seattle's not going to make any kind of major changes. They're not going to be kind of an overhaul to what they're doing. They're just going to wake up and they're going to say, all right, we'll get them tomorrow, we'll frustrate them, we'll wear them down. You know, we will physically wear them down. We'll mentally wear them down. And then they have to continue to really, really hope that Philip Grubauer outplays Alexander Georgiev. And it sure would help if Alexander Georgiev would not tow pick in the middle of trying to make a save. Yeah.

Well, Grubauer himself stopped 34, 35, right? Got the benefit of two posts. I thought, as I mentioned earlier, most of the shots he faced were not very clean looks. They were very contested and disrupted, and the abs at a tough time, especially,

like, they weren't able to get anything really clean in the middle of the ice. It was even their rush shots were sort of coming down the wing from very predictable positions where an NHL goalie should be able to read that site line and just get in front of it and make a safe. save, but Gruberauer has had issues over the past two years of sometimes, sometimes even those shots beat him, though, right? And I guess what you're saying is as long as he makes the saves he needs to, I think

this should, like, this should hold up defensively. And whether it's enough is a totally different question, but certainly I wouldn't expect any major blowups in that regard. You know, the other thing for me thinking about it is, and maybe this isn't as big of an issue for the way the Cracken are constructed, as you said, because not only is it so true to most of their players identity, but also because of that balance they have beyond,

I guess, Adam Larson, who played nearly 28 minutes last night, and I'd expect him to get even close to 30s in some games in this series. Most guys are going to, like the ice time should be fairly balanced, right?

Most guys are going to get their opportunities. So I wouldn't necessarily expect physical fatigue to be an issue throughout this series, but maybe more so mental fatigue, where when you play such a, disciplined, kind of detailed, all right, everyone knows their assignment and you're always glued to that guy and you need to do all these things right to succeed. Over the course of a seven game series, it's really tough to avoid having the occasional

sort of slip up or breakdown or that efficiency eroding defensively, right? And so I think if I was Colorado, I'd be saying, all right, just keep playing this series. And at some point, those openings will start to manifest themselves and show themselves more frequently as a series goes along so that's what i'll be banking on but maybe maybe maybe you're maybe you're right maybe just because of the way they're constructed and the way they play that might not be as true to to this cracking team yeah i uh i think it's going to be fascinating to see how it it develops because you do have two teams with just different beliefs of how to play the game here and and different roster construction um i'm i mean i'm i'm excited to see it i really

I think the element of this that I'm most fascinated by is just watching how these two defenses continue to attack each other because Seattle's defense isn't really going to create a ton of offense. And for a guy who had a top 10, I'm sure he'll get nowhere sports this year and Vince Dunn. I really didn't think he was very good last night. I thought it was Adam Morrison doing a lot of that heavy lifting there on that bearing. And I was I was kind of underwhelmed by by Vince Dunn. I think he's got a lot more to give. And if they see that, if they have seducey a lot more from Vince Dunn, he's one of the few guys on that back end that has a dynamic element to his game that can create a little bit.

I don't think the Cracken will really, I don't, like these things aren't mutually exclusive necessarily, but some of the things that make Vince Dunn special and very, and very effective in terms of that dynamic ability offensively, the Cracken might not want to get into a type of game environment where those things are as needed. You know what I mean? I think they really want to simplify everything and kind of pick their spots carefully

and not necessarily be getting into this game where you're just sending stretch passes and trying to open the game up, which is where I think Don would thrive more. You're going to see him do stuff in the half court sets offensively, but otherwise it's going to be a lot of kind of, kind of patiently biding your time. And so I don't know if you're going to see him pop as much in this series

based on the way you play in the regular season. And that might be fine from the crack and from a team perspective. If they do have to start chasing in a game, though. Yes. Yeah. That is where, you know, you saw the third period of last night's game, especially in the brief moments before they made it 3-1, the abs were just desperate.

They were, you know, Sam Girard's trying to spin guys off of him. and go up the wall and trying to lose three guys. And you're just like, oh, my gosh, dude. You just need to play a more connected game than this. You've got four guys on the ice. And I am curious to see how when Colorado gets a foot in the door here, and they do start to put their own imprint on this series. How does a guy like Vince Dunn handle it?

And do we see more of those elements? Do we see them press? can can the crack and continue to stay as disciplined as they have been and and will that what is what is a desperate cracket team cracket team look like yeah no i think that's a really good point because they were up one nothing yesterday and there was one one and then they went up to one and they held that lead the rest of the way i think it's an entirely different game plan and ability to execute that game plan when you're playing with those game states as opposed to if you're down to nothing early and all of a sudden you're having to to push for

offense right so that's a that's a really good point i thought larsen would was phenomenal. He doesn't get the attention that Dunn gets because he doesn't have the flash or the points to his name. But like it felt like every time there was a puck in the vicinity of the net, he was there to just kind of knock it down and clear it out of trouble. And I just thought he was phenomenal. And I would expect, he's done it all here all year.

So I would expect that to continue. But that's someone to watch for. All right. Is there anything else on this series or do you think we've kind of hit it? I think from the abs, beyond switching up Lekinen and Rodriguez, as you mentioned and maybe experimenting with more Byram-McCarr offensive zone shifts. They don't, because of the way this roster is constructed and some of the limitations

down the lineup, there isn't a lot of like, oh, just wait for Jared Benner to play this card. It's a lot of, well, we need our players to play better. And so that's not necessarily from our perspective, from breaking it down or talking X's and O's, it's not the most interesting, but it's kind of the reality for them. Is there anything else that you think we need to mention before we sign out here? Yeah, I mean, I think it is, it is important to note that, you know, this is a, Alexander Georgiev has been great this season for the avalanche. That was kind of a tough game one for him where he got hung out the dry on two of those goals,

and then the other one, he literally tow picks and creates the second goal because he's falling down. It doesn't have a chance to really make a save on a, let's be honest, that goal doesn't go in. if Alexander Georgiev does not fall down. That's not a goal. And who knows what the game looks like. I want to see what happens when something like that's not going on. What happens when Colorado's defense is not giving them two free goals, and then the universe creates a third one that just kind of goes that way.

I want to see what happens with Georgiev. I'm fascinated to know has this bet that the Avs made that they can. can continue to find goaltenders to try and find them postseason success. You know, this churn that they've had at the position over the last few years, are they right about this? Because if they are, it's a copycat league, and I really want to see the trickle-down effect of teams that try to copy what Colorado does in terms of how they treat the goaltender position and how they put a cap on,

kind of an internal cap and say, we don't want to spend more than X dollars at this position so that we can build the roster in front of this guy. So this guy has the bet, you know, we don't need the man here. If we don't have a Connor Hellowbuck, we're not going to spend money at this position just because we feel like we have to. You know, and you end up making some of the mistakes

like we've seen some of the teams make in recent years with big money commitments to guys who maybe don't deserve them. And so I think the Georgi have element of this is still something that I am really interested to watch play out. That's less Avalanche Cracken specific and more of just like the wider NHL landscape in general and how goaltender is such an important position and such a hard position to scout and get correct. And it's so hard to value. And you just kind of have this team in Colorado that kind of lives on an island and, you know, issues this common thought process about how to approach the position.

and I just want to see if it works. I'm just curious to see. It's a big bet. Yeah. All right, AJ, well, this is a blast. I'm really looking forward

to the rest of this series, even if I don't think there's going to be that many goals scored. I think the pace the game was played at, particularly in the first two periods or so. Last night was really fun, and I'm expecting that to continue. And tactically,

there's such different teams that, as we've mentioned so far, that complementary skill set of strength versus weakness makes this really fun to watch. Looking forward to see. it play out. I'll let you quickly let the listeners know where they can check you out and kind of what you've got on the go. Yeah, you can find me over at DNVR Sports. I head up the DNVR Avalanche coverage over there. We do five podcasts a week and written articles and we do video

breakdowns. We have a YouTube channel and we do watchalongs for games. We have pre and post game podcasts. We do just about everything that you can imagine in terms of coverage for the avalanche. So that's where you can find us. Well, the gold standard, my sir, there was a blast having you on. Hopefully, we can have you back on as this postseason goes along for more breakdowns. We'll be back tomorrow with more of the HockeyPedio cast, as always streaming here on the Sports Night Radio Network.