The statistics were tallied before the matches on November 7.
No club is immune to injury, but few clubs have been hit as hard as the Avalanche.
Gabriel Landeskog, Jonathan Drouin, Valeri Nichushkin, Miles Wood, Ross Colton, and Tucker Poolman are currently on the injured list. That’s without counting Artturi Lehkonen and Devon Toews, two key players who also missed games. It even went so far as to force Oliver Kylington, usually a defender, to play on the 4th line. As a result, Colorado finds itself in sixth place in the Central division with a record of 6-8-0.
The stars did their part to limit the damage. On the offensive end, Nathan MacKinnon (25 points) and Cale Makar (23) lead the NHL in points at their respective positions and Mikko Rantanen isn’t far behind, with 17. On the other side of the ice, Makar excels again , but behind him, or sometimes alongside him, Samuel Girard plays a key role that can easily go unnoticed.
Acquired in the Matt Duchene trade, Girard has always had a reputation as an offensive-minded defenseman who excels with the puck on his stick. That was true in junior, when he surpassed points per game in his last two seasons, and it’s still true in the NHL, where he averages 34 points per 82 career games. He remains active in transition this season and supports the attack with six assists, but he proves this season that he can be effective over 200 feet, even for a broken team that is not the all-conquering power of a few years ago. years.
Despite an .881 save rate from his goaltenders when he’s on the ice, Girard is the only Colorado defenseman who maintains a positive differential, at +1. A deeper look shows that this +1 does not represent Girard at its true value. Colorado gets over 60% of expected goals when he’s on the ice, meaning they have a clear advantage when he’s on the ice. Not only is that the best mark among team defensemen by a considerable margin, but it puts him 22nd in the NHL this season. He doesn’t have to face the opposing big guns, the task usually falls to the Makar duo, with good reason. It remains an impressive performance for the Quebec rear.
Girard does a little bit of everything defensively. He excels at protecting his blue line against zone entry attempts. He’s not the most physical, with 12 hits in 14 games, but he uses his stick very well to disrupt opposing plays and force turnovers that create an opportunity to restart the attack on the other side. At $5 million per season, a value surpassed by seven of his teammates, Colorado could hardly get more bang for his buck.
Star players like Makar and MacKinnon are always going to steal the show and end up in the top 10 highlights of the week, but the best clubs are the ones that manage to surround their best players well and that’s exactly what Girard does this season and for several years on the Colorado blue line.
