Four their fourth game on the young season, the Colorado Avalanche traveled to upstate New York to take on the Buffalo Sabres in a very early matinee affair. While it took some time for the Avalanche to find their legs they earned a tidy 3-1 win on the backs of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar who each scored in this contest.
The Game
It was the home team who came out with the best energy to start this matinee and put five shots on goal on the board quickly. But it was Nathan MacKinnon who didn’t need
much opening to fire a backhand on Alex Lyon to put Colorado up by one early. Special teams was the story for the rest of the period as Buffalo had three power plays and Colorado one, however neither team converted on their opportunities. Buffalo snuck the equalizer past Scott Wedgewood near the end of the period on a Tage Thompson wrist shot which had eyes. As such, the first period ended in a 1-1 tie.
Buffalo started the second period with the same zeal but couldn’t grab the lead. Instead, Colorado found another quick strike with Cale Makar sneaking in the backdoor and buried a feed from Val Nichushkin. A questionable matching minors call put the teams on a 4-on-4 and it was MacKinnon who again used the extra room and found a small opening to put the puck past Lyon. After 40 minutes of play the Avalanche had a comfortable 3-1 lead.
Not much of note happened in the third period as there was no additional scoring. Colorado found some coffee at intermission and finally woke up tilting the shot advantage 15-4 in their favor. At one point Martin Nečas scored but the goal was overturned due to the play being offside. After that the teams cruised to a 3-1 final in favor of Colorado.
Takeaways
Buffalo did well for the most part to block out the toxic cesspool of negativity around them and looked alive for the majority of this game. But what they lacked was a Nathan MacKinnon and a Cale Makar, true game breakers who can make a difference when the rest of the team isn’t at their best.
Though it wasn’t a factor in the outcome of this game, the power play still struggled going 0/4 in this contest. Perhaps some juggling of personnel is in order because Brock Nelson isn’t doing his best Mikko Rantanen impression on the right side.
An underplayed storyline is the fact that Gabe Landeskog’s minutes are being managed. He played 13 minutes in this game including three on the power play. Surely whatever keeps him healthy and effective is the ultimate goal but still something worth pointing out.
Upcoming
One final game on the road trip after a few days off in Columbus, Ohio. Puck drop against the Blue Jackets is at 5 p.m. MT on Thursday, October 16th.
