Avs-Golden Knights Game 1 Studs & Duds

The Colorado Avalanche lost their season opener in Vegas 8:4 (!). Here are the studs and duds for the Avs from the game.

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Mikko Rantanen

Yesterday I found it strange when Avalanche General Manager Chris MacFarland spoke to the media yesterday and when asked about Mikko Rantanen he seemed to view the situation somewhat casually.

Rantanen's hat-trick tonight was a stark reminder of how special he can be and why he is considered one of the greats. He scored three goals tonight and it could have been five. He was great.

Usually, Rantanen is the guy who puts out great stat lines and drives me nuts with other aspects of his game. That's not the case at all tonight. I loved his playing. I'm sure he'll appreciate that.

Josh Manson

I loved Manson's playing. He was fiery and scored a few solid goals throughout the night, but was also good with the puck and disciplined in his game. How many times do we reach the end of the night and Manson did it pulled a penalty and no one scored?

Everything we want to see from Manson, we saw tonight. To be honest, his duo with Sam Girard was strong the entire game. In the head-to-head race on the ice against Jack Eichel, Manson was even in shot attempts (7:7), but left a lot of ground in scoring chances (5:1 Vegas).

Against the rest of the Golden Knights forwards, Manson had a 15-2 record in shot attempts. This is defensive excellence. Manson is no longer a top defenseman, but it's encouraging that he even held his own against Eichel in this regard, especially in a game where Eichel's line was on fire and Vegas was easily the best offense.

This was a strong performance from Manson.

Casey Mittelstadt/Nikolai Kovalenko

I particularly liked them together, so I'm including them here as a duo. Kovalenko was what you want to see from a rookie: a little shaky at times with poor defense (see: Zach Whitecloud's goal, where Kovalenko goes full-on Rocket League “follow the puck aimlessly” mode), but way too offensively like.

Kovalenko's forecontrol and playmaking were excellent. It was his pass through the neutral zone to Ross Colton that ultimately led to Mittelstadt's goal.

This goal was also a good performance from Mittelstadt and suited his game for the rest of the evening. He made smart and efficient decisions with the puck. He pushed the puck into dangerous areas when he saw an opportunity and pulled it back out to reload when there was nothing there. We hope that from him all season long.

Mittelstadt's goal went into the net and was able to get a good bounce. Hockey can be rewarding at times.

I liked what these two had to offer, and it's not hard to be excited to see what they might look like one day when Artturi Lehkonen is ready to return to the lineup and play alongside them if Kovalenko maintains this level of play can.

The offense in general

It wasn't an overwhelming offensive performance from Colorado, but they continued to push in this game. They performed well for a long time, stringing together good shifts in the Vegas zone and pushing hard.

They had the same problem as last season in that they often had the puck, but struggled at times to create much traffic in front of the opposing goaltender and were too often united on shots from the perimeter, but I think that's the one Reality for this forward group until one or two of the big name reinforcements show up.

There were plenty of opportunities for this team to weaken in this game, but they kept pushing until the sixth Vegas goal that took the last wind out of Colorado's sails.

However, there was a lot to like on this side of the puck and I think there are building blocks here. The addition of Mittelstadt as a significant threat helps move this piece forward, and if the second line can be fully fleshed out, the Avs will be fine.

Duds

goalkeeper

This is obviously where it starts with Alexandar Georgiev, as conceding five goals on 16 shots in the first game of a season that could determine the course of Georgiev's career is nothing short of a nightmare.

There is no goodwill for Georgiev after last year's poor season performance, so he needs to turn things around quickly or the Avs will have to seriously look for help.

I just don't understand how to get around multiple targets being bad targets. The first Vegas goal is terrible. After that, choose a destination and you don't want to see them either. The Avs made mistakes before him because it's the NHL. You pay a goalkeeper to eliminate these mistakes.

Georgiev allowed one high-danger goal (from only three chances), three medium-danger goals and one low-danger goal. I'm just saying that to curb the question: “But AJ, didn't you SEE the defense in front of him?” I did, and it wasn't nearly bad enough to warrant five goals on 16 shots, friends. It just wasn't like that.

Annunen wasn't much better, as he's credited with conceding two goals on four shots, but he actually gave up three after one was dismissed because Vegas had called a penalty moments earlier. Despite the bailout, he achieved a save percentage of .500 percent.

I'm not here to argue individually about which goals fall to the goalie and defense, because it's a team game and that also means there's another NHL team on the ice (Ivan Barbashev's goal was incredibly cool , let's be honest), but there's one thing you can't get around the fact that seven goals from 20 shots is a farce.

It's better to be an anomaly dragging down their stats for the next six weeks, rather than a sign of things to come.

Untimely errors

Aside from the Matador-esque approach to stopping pucks, this was the aspect that bothered me the most about Colorado. They scored, got back into the game, and then did something incredibly stupid.

That is, after Miles Wood makes the game 4-3, he receives the staggeringly stupid penalty for bringing on board a man who had his back turned the whole time. There was no reason for it. Vegas scored on the ensuing power play (after a terrible miss by Cale Makar, another big mistake) and it was back to a two-goal deficit for the third time.

The Avs again got within 5-4 and Devon Toews accidentally hit a player with his stick and received a four-minute penalty. Vegas scored five seconds later to make it 6-4 and the game was essentially over.

Vegas executed when needed, but Colorado couldn't get out of their way. Such self-destructive, stupid mistakes were all too common last year, and as long as they continue, questions will arise about Colorado's current leadership structure and the wisdom of continuing to hold on to the dream of having Gabe Landeskog come back to help fix this stuff.

On a side note, Wood was pretty bad overall in this game and was somewhat outplayed by Ivan Ivan in my opinion. This can't continue for Wood or the Avs.

Cal Ritchie

It was a tough debut performance for the kid and a stark reminder of why not many teenagers stay in the NHL. Ritchie has had a mediocre pre-season and gets this first impression as there is a good match between his skills and the team's needs at the moment, but it won't continue like this if Ritchie's game doesn't take off.

Obviously this isn't a comment on Ritchie's suitability as a long-term NHL player or anything like that, but he just wasn't good in this game. He was too hesitant to shoot, missed the net when he had chances and passed the puck several times. Defensively, he got a little lost in transition.

He was even briefly benched in the second period when Colorado moved Ross Colton to Mittelstadt's wing to replace Ritchie and moved Parker Kelly to Colton's spot as 3C. That substitution resulted in a goal, but the Avs went back to Ritchie in the third period, especially after the goaltender was substituted late in the game.

After getting over this initial shock of NHL speed, I would like to see a much better performance from Ritchie on Saturday night.

Avs Unsung Hero

Nathan MacKinnon

As always, there were brilliant moments. MacKinnon finished the game with two assists and hit the post on a breakaway in the third period, which would have won the DNVR bet of the night on bet365 (shameless plug, leave me alone).

He was dangerous offensively all night. He was Nathan MacKinnon, the MVP you expect. He went head-to-head against Jack Eichel and Mark Stone and kept them on their heels for quite some time in the game.

The real problem here was a 90-second stint late in the first period in which MacKinnon had poor coverage in transition and lost Ivan Barbashev, who scored at the back door, then stopped running as he came back in transition, and Mark Stone defeated him.

A 1-1 game became a 3-1 game when MacKinnon blew primary coverage twice in a row against the best forward line Vegas had to offer. It is simply unacceptable at its best. He has to be better. Much better.