A Second Look: Avs 4, Panthers 2

The Short of it

In the first period, Tyson Barrie opened up the scoring just over two minutes into the game to give the Avs a 1-0 lead, and Aaron Ekblad answered just over three minutes later with a power play marker off a feed from Brian Campbell. The second period would show a similar pattern, as Gabriel Landeskog scored 13 minutes into it and Aleksander Barkov answered 23 seconds later to bring the Cats to a 2-2 tie in the second intermission. Nick Holden scored the eventual game winner half way through the third period on the power play, and Jarome Iginla added an empty netter with 27 seconds left in the game for the final 4-2 margin.

Despite finishing the first period knotted at one, the Panthers completely outpaced Colorado, generating 26 shots versus only 12 for the Avs. The two clubs each took 17 shots through the second frame, and the third would see the Panthers in scramble mode (after Nick Holden’s marker) taking 19 shots to 14 for Colorado.

• The Panthers managed to have every single player finish with a Corsi above 50%, and only five to post an ending C-ZS below zero.
• Dylan Olsen had the toughest night of everyone, he was on the ice for 11 positive Corsi Events and nine negative for a 55% Corsi. Considering he started 71% of his shifts in the offensive zone, it probably should have been higher.
• Derek MacKenzie had the best night of the eight (!) Panthers who finished with a C-ZS above plus-20. He was on ice for 13 Corsi Events in total, with eight positive for a 62 Corsi%, a very impressive figure when matched up against his shoelace-scraping 25% positive zone starts./

Tomas Fleischmann has been showing flashes of his prior brilliance (remember the VFW?), evidenced by his 64 Corsi%, 24 above his 40% ZS.

• Despite putting up the higher bottom line, the Avs only had three players with an even or better Corsi, Maxime Talbot (50%), Erik Johnson (53%), and Cody McLeod (60%).
• John Mitchell and Dennis Everberg were the only Colorado players with impressive Corsi/Zone Start comparison. They were both present for nine positive and 11 negative Corsi events, while Mitchell started just 11% of the time on the offensive end of the ice, and Everberg, 12%.
• The only other Colorado players to finish with a C-ZS above zero were Erik Johnson and Jan Hejda. Nathan MacKinnon was the in the negatives, but not embarrassingly so.
• 12-of-18 Avalanche skaters had C-ZS totals worse than the standard deviation of plus or minus-10, but I guess that really matters less than the final score.

Make sure to check back with us tomorrow as the Panthers face off against the Edmonton Oilers.