His underlyings were rough in Arizona and not much better in Anaheim, which makes the Minnesota stats encouraging to me – he was able to raise his game against a quality opponent, and it took great goaltending and defensive work for the Wild to hold him back.
He had an off night and still put up quality underlying stats – he’s that good.
His turnover at the point on the powerplay sprung Fredrick Gaudreau for the shorthanded goal that ended up being the Wild’s game-winner, and though his night overall did look good on paper it was clear he was having trouble getting his skates to cooperate so his hands and mind could work their magic. Sometimes even the best players get goalied.īut if you want good grades it’s not enough to just study, you have gotta finish your homework.Ĭale also got blanked by Arizona and Minnesota, but he didn’t look nearly as good as MacKinnon doing it. He led all forwards in Expected Goals For percentage and Corsi For percentage on the night but Filip Gustavsson stood strong and kept everything out. So the results were not there, but his actual play was normal dominant MacKinnon –MacK decimated the Wild in all underlying metrics but just could not get pucks to go in. They played three, and both the Wild and the Coyotes kept him off the scoresheet. A+Ī two-point week for Nate could only not be disappointing if they only played one game. Nothing bad that happened to anyone in the whole world was Val’s fault this week – he was fully him out there.
Potted one in Anaheim too for good measure, and then couldn’t beat Gustavsson but was a wrecking ball on both ends of the ice against the Wild. Val was great all week, and single-handedly willed the Avs to that Arizona win while the rest of the team was letting the Yotes back in it. Valeri Nichushkin pulls off a gorgeous move to win it for the Avalanche in Round 7 of the shootout! #GoAvsGo /yY8F9RGKAh- Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights March 26, 2023