I’ll admit it, until Monday night, I had never heard of Michael Hutchinson. Maybe I noticed him in his Avalanche debut win against the Red Wings on March 2, 2020, but with Coronavirus sweeping the globe at that point, I can’t be certain, of well, anything. Regardless, I, and countless others now know that Michael Hutchinson is 2-0 in his first two NHL playoff games, and has helped Colorado to force a decisive Game 7.
The 30 year old Barrie, Ontario native entered the NHL in 2010, and since then has had a nice tour of the NHL playing for the Bruins, Jets, Panthers, and most recently with the Leafs until he was traded to Colorado in February of this year. In his first game in goal for the Avs he stopped 17 of the 18 shots put up by the Red Wings, and won 2-1. The game also happened to fall on his 30th birthday. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the dirty thirties than with a victory over the Red Wings.
In Wednesday night’s game, Hutchinson made 27 saves, with the only goal being another odd bounce. Has Dallas scored any nice goals this series? To me, they have all been garbage goals, though obviously my memory isn’t always reliable when it comes to the Avs. I’m like a mom who thinks her kids are angels, when they are actually terrorizing the rest of the restaurant. However, you can’t dispute that Dallas doesn’t play a pretty game.
It wasn’t only Hutch who had a good game, but the rest of the Avalanche played one of the, if not the best, game of their playoffs. We played a solid and consistent 60 minutes. After Dallas scored the first goal, the Avs rallied quickly to even the game, and only took one penalty late in the third. Granted, our power play still needs some major adjustments, where we went 0/5, and have not scored one PPG in the past two games or 11 attempts. Despite this, the Avs played a disciplined game, and were able to hold onto the lead. In Rantanen’s goal giving the Avs a two point advantage of 3-1 lead, MacKinnon earned another point, continuing his playoff point steak to 14 games, where he joins Bobby Orr. The current record of longest playoff point streak is held by Bryan Trottier of the New York Islanders in 1981 with 18 games. MacKinnon also leads the league in playoffs points this year with 25, that’s two more then Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Ryan O’Reilly, had in the entire playoffs last year.
Through their well-executed game, the Avalanche were able to win 4-1, and faced off elimination in back-to-back games. But we aren’t done yet; the Avs will look to build off of this win to capitalize in the next contest. Game 7: The holy grail of the sporting world. It’s do or die. Sink or swim. Shit or get off the pot. Historically, the Avs have not fared too well in Game 7’s. They have an overall record of 4-7 in their last 11 attempts since moving to Denver, two of those losses going to Dallas. The Stars haven’t done great in Game 7 either, losing their last three. In fact, Dallas has not won a Game 7 since playing the Avalanche in 2000. Let’s hope that the saying, “third time’s the charm,” holds true on Friday night where the Avs will face off against the Stars for their third Game 7 match-up. The Avs will dress for their 12th Game 7 in franchise history, and look to become the 30th team in the NHL who has overcome a 3-1 deficit.
Both the Avs and the Stars lost Game 7 of the Conference Semifinals last year, and one of those teams will be repeating history again this year. But it won’t be the Avs.
On a side note, I’d like to thank Feedspot for selecting Avid Avaholics as one of the “Top 10 Colorado Avalanche Blogs and Websites To Follow in 2020”. Thanks to all of you for continuing to read, and let’s hope my next post is in preparation for the Western Conference Finals. Go Avs!