Avalanche Need More from Depth Scoring with Crucial Back-to-Back Looming
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The Colorado Avalanche and head coach Jared Bednar dropped their most recent game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night 6-3. Two out of the three goals that were scored came from superstar forward Nathan MacKinnon.
Getting most of your goal production against a good team from one forward is not going to win a team a whole lot of hockey games. Especially when MacKinnon is used to putting up 100-point seasons like it's nothing and a breeze.
The Avalanche are set to travel to Dallas to take on the Stars Tuesday night and then return home Wednesday night and host those same Stars. The Avalanche need to get more from their depth if they want to get one win, if not wins, in both games.
The Avalanche cannot go into these games and expect to win with goals from MacKinnon, Brock Nelson and Martin Necas and nobody else. The Avalanche ice 12 forwards a game, and there is no reason why a few of them cannot come up clutch and put the puck in the back of the net against a good team.
Gabe Landeskog and TJ Hughes Need to Step up Against Dallas
When fans think of a team like the Colorado Avalanche, they think of the usual suspects and that includes Gabe Landeskog. Landeskog has not done much of anything yet even though the season is still in the very early stages.
So far through five games played for the veteran, Landeskog has totaled one goal and one assist. And with a tough team like the Stars looming ahead the next two games, the veteran might want to make his presence known and try to get on the scoresheet way more often.
As for TJ Hughes, this is a rookie that made the team out of training camp. When watching him in camp and the preseason, he definitely looked like he belonged. But so far this season, the results have seemed to yield the opposite.
Through five games played, Hughes has only tallied one assist and is averaging 15:10 time-on-ice a game. He is a guy that gets powerplay time and gets that ice time that suggests that Bednar and crew trust him to play him more in each game.
But he needs to do everything that he can to try to show up more and get on the scoresheet more. Rookies usually get a lot of leeway, but this kid is special and he needs to show it.
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Tyler Miller is a 26-year-old Sports Journalist who has had a passion for writing ever since graduating from Georgia Southern University with a Journalism degree in 2022. Tyler has been writing about sports for going on 8 years now. Tyler has been a hockey fan for years and looks forward to covering the Colorado Avalanche for On SI. Tyler also has had experience writing for FanSided in the past where he was a site expert and a contributor across different sites.