It was only a matter of time. The Colorado Avalanche finally unleashed the offensive weapons and defeated the Vancouver Canucks 7-3. It was the night of story lines for the Avs. But more importantly, it was a night they desperately needed.
Coach Roy made it very clear after the loss Tuesday night that he wasn’t happy with the way things were going.
“Right now the way I look at, is we want an easy game,” Roy said. “Until we’re where we want to compete at the level we were last year, we’re going to struggle. We’re not sharp mentally.”
The night of story lines started off with an all too familiar downer. Just as they did opening night, the Avs let in an early goal that sucked the life out of the Pepsi Center crowd. And after taking a penalty just minutes later, it seemed like another game that was going to get away early.
It clearly wasn’t the start they wanted.
“I want us to be ready individually tonight, Roy said. “I want our guys to go home this afternoon and think, individually, what they need to do.”
But after killing off that early penalty for too-many men in the ice, the Avs looked ready. They controlled play and would eventually tie the game off a backhand goal from Jarome Iginla—his first as a member of the Avs.
The Avs would go down 2-1 before the break off a goal that caused a bit of a stir from the situation room. But from that point forward, the boys wearing the blue third-jerseys took over.
Iginla finished off the night with two goals and Matt Duchene—the first star of the night—had three points and was all over the ice. The defense was led offensively by Tyson Barrie, who recorded three assists to bring his point total to six. Varlamov returned from a groin injury and won his first game of the season. The highest paid blueliner Erik Johnson scored his first goal of the season and despite all of this, the game-winning goal came, once again, off the stick of Danny Briere.
Briere was demoted to the fourth during practice by coach Roy yesterday. He played on the right wing alongside rugged forward Cody McLeod and Marc-Andre Cliché. The veteran, however, did as vets do and still delivered. The game-winning goal was his second of the season, the only two wins the Avs have this year.
The headlines were everywhere for the Avs, and the night ended with a crucial victory. With this win, the Avalanche improved to 2-4-2 on the season and went from 12 total goals to 19. They had six different goal scorers, and 11 different players recorded an assist. They won’t be able to celebrate this win for long though. Something team captain Gabriel Landeskog is well aware of.
“We certainly went for the fourth, and the fifth and the sixth one, and we closed them out in a good way,” he said. “It’s certainly a good start for Sunday.”
That Sunday game will be an early afternoon game. They travel to Winnipeg to take on Zach Redmond’s former team, the Jets. Puck drop is scheduled for 1 p.m. MT.
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