Avalanche News
Have the Avs Found the Blueprint to Beat the Stars?
What changed from Game 3 to Game 4 for the Avalanche to have such a drastically different outcome? Determination. Some called it desperation, but I see it as a next-level shift in focus and energy that earned them a 4-0 shutout against the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
Let’s start with the Avs’ dominating Game 1 win, which looked similar to Game 4. The most notable change was that Gabriel Landeskog was not in the lineup for Game 1 but was for Game 4. How much of a difference did his return make? It has been resounding.
“I was surprised with the level of play he got to, even just in game one. The poise he has with the puck. I was just worried about the game being a little bit too fast for him, not because of his training or conditioning or skating with his leg, or any of that. It was just more of being out of the game that long, it’s a long time, and it’s hard to do, but it seems like he’s settling in nicely,” head coach Jared Bednar said after Game 4.
Nathan MacKinnon is the only Avs player to score on the man-advantage through four postseason games. The power-play units have struggled to produce and went 0-6 in Game 3.
In Game 4, the Avs scored in all scenarios — Logan O’Connor had a short-handed goal, MacKinnon scored his third power-play goal of the playoffs, and Landeskog scored his first NHL goal since June 20, 2022 on the 5-on-5.
There may have been more pressure, nerves, distraction or a combination from Landeskog’s return, or just not creating enough chances in Game 3, but they responded big to even the series with the Game 4 win. It felt like the energy of the team was different from the two games.
“We raised our level in a lot of different ways in that game compared to Game 3, compared to Game 2. Game 3, we still played a pretty good game, but Game 4 is definitely noticeable difference the right way, and that paid off for us …,” Charlie Coyle said. “Whatever we did there was definitely the recipe, because I thought we played pretty solid for the most part. So now it’s, how do we emulate that and build on that? And we’re looking to do that tonight.”
Landeskog said adjustments are made from game to game, and Brock Nelson referred to it as “cat and mouse.” The Stars will undoubtedly come out with a force back on home ice, and the Avs need to continue the momentum built last game to shut them down and take the series lead.
READ MORE: Now is Not the Time for Avs to Be Quiet
“The idea every time you step on the ice is to continue to get better as a group. It’s a good hockey team on the other side. We can expect their best game tonight. For us, we continue to focus on what we have to do and what makes us good and hard to play against, and we just need to repeat the same effort,” Landeskog said.
There isn’t one particular thing that changed from the team’s performance throughout the series. There is a word, however, that keeps coming up — focus.
“Now it’s time to get back to the focus that’s needed to beat Dallas, and I think our team wants that, everybody wants that,” Bednar said ahead of Game 4.
If the Avs stay as dialed in as they were two nights ago, they will come back to Ball Arena on Thursday up a game in the series.
