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Drouin catches fire in overtime win

  
Drouin
Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche skates against the New York Islanders at Ball Arena. (Photo courtesy of Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Colorado Avalanche are slowly getting some of their players back into the lineup. Last game, with their 3–1 victory over San Jose, Samuel Girard came back after a 20-game absence to enter the NHL Player Assistance Program. Tonight, the Avalanche would get forward Ross Colton back in the lineup. Colton missed two games after taking a shot to the leg in the game against Arizona. Tonight’s game, even though it was against the New York Islanders, was still an important game. Colorado is keeping their eye on the Central Division standings. Jonathan Drouin has caught fire and moved up in the lineup.  In a battle with the Winnipeg Jets. with the 5–4 overtime win, Colorado jumps into first place in the division by one point. Here are some of my takeaways from the overtime victory over the Islanders.

Takeaways

— Valeri Nichushkin has been fun to watch this season. Last season, he was in and out of the lineup so much it was difficult to find any consistency. This season, Nichushkin has remained healthy and been on quite a roll. Just in December, he had seven goals and eight assists in 13 games. Nichushkin and his wife welcome their daughter to the world, so he went on parental leave for two games. The longest Nichushkin has gone this season without a point are four and three games.

— Jonathan Drouin finished the night with a goal and an assist. For a player that is making only $825,000, he is turning into a bargain. Drouin has gone from being a healthy scratch to now playing on the top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Drouin has 10 points in the last 15 games and added two more tonight.

— The return of Colton meant that the third line could be more aggressive. Colton loves to get in front of the goalie to make himself a screen. There were a few plays he took advantage of and it was a near miss on a goal. He also brings speed and heavy hits to the line. Colton may not score very often, but his game is a lot like Logan O’Connor’s, gritty.

— The defense struggled to maintain their zone. As the Islander forwards entered the zone with the puck, the defense was not pushing them out past the dots. If you can push them outside of the dots, you can take away the angle for the shot. It also makes it harder to get around the corner to make their way into the slot to get a better shot.

Conclusion

The top-six forwards are doing their job and putting the points on the board for the Avalanche. The defense is struggling at their basic positioning in rushes. If the defense can get back to the skill it had a year ago, Alexandar Georgiev would not be doing as much work. A genuine test will come for Colorado on Thursday as they take on the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. Three points separate the two teams in the Central Division, so this will be an exciting one to watch.

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