Third Period Domination + ‘Best Win Of The Year’: Avalanche-Canucks Statistical Review

– Reviewing Natural Stat Trick‘s 5-on-5 analytics, the Avalanche earned a 70.59% CorsiFor, a 69.23% share of the scoring chances, a 68.18% share of the high-danger chances, and a 69.61% share of expected goals.

To underscore how dominant the Avalanche were in that third period, Colorado earned an 87.50% CorsiFor, a 90.91% share of the scoring chances, a 100.00% share of the high-danger chances, and a 92.94% share of expected goals.

It was, in every sense of the word, an onslaught.

Individual Impacts

– Despite several wingers missing from the lineup, including Artturi Lehkonen, Jonathan Drouin, and Zach Parise, the Avalanche’s new-look second line of Yakov Trenin, Casey Mittelstadt, and Brandon Duhaime was the best analytically. The trio held a 1.18-0.50 edge in expected goals in 10:26 TOI in 5-on-5 situations.

Duhaime had his best game in an Avalanche sweater on Wednesday. The 26-year-old logged a team-high 1.23 xG in 16:21 TOI, nearly four minutes more than his season average while still with the Wild. Duhaime forced 12 shot attempts, with five on goal. He was great on the penalty kill and was analytically the best player on the ice who did not record a point.

Trenin came in just behind Duhaime with an 0.85 xG. The former Nashville Predator brings a certain level of nasty to his game to gain position and screen goaltenders for his teammates’ shot attempts. Added, Trenin forced seven shots on goal in Wednesday’s game, four of which were on goal. Logging 16:27 TOI, he was well over a minute more than his season average, which again was likely a direct result of his promotion in lines. But he handled his minutes well.

– Usually, I begin the individual impacts with the goaltenders, but I wanted to highlight how well the second line played last night. The top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Valeri Nichushkin accounted for three of the four goals, but the second line worked so hard to create opportunities for others. I am really enjoying the new players thus far.

Ok, now onto Alexandar Georgiev. The Colorado netminder made 18 saves, earning a 1.84 xG. However, Georgiev allowed a bad goal on Nikita Zadorov early in the second period that was not screened nor redirected. That is one he has to make. The two prior to that: it looked like Nichushkin got caught puck-watching on the centering feed on the Canucks second goal, and the first one was a redirect. As such, Georgiev accounted for a -1.16 goals saved above expected metric.

With Justus Annunen playing as well as he is right now, Georgiev undoubtedly has to be looking over his shoulder. That’s not to say that Annunen would be the starter for Game 1 of a playoff series (he might, I suppose), but it should, in theory, motivate Georgiev to step it up a notch.

On the back end, Samuel Girard–Josh Manson outchanced Vancouver 1.74-0.10. That duo has been so good all year long, and Wednesday was no different. They accounted for a 23-1 ratio of on-ice shot attempts for-on-ice shot attempts against. Unfortunately, the only shot against found the back of the net. That’s the way it goes sometimes.

(Featured Image Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports)