By the Numbers: Blues at Avalanche, Game 30

Hello! This series attempts to break down the fancy & traditional stastical oddities & stories from the last game. Feel free to direct your complaints about stats being not the only judge of hockeythings to @AntonStrawman.

How long can it really take to say "the Avalanche were shitty and Pickard stole them a point"?

Graphical evidence: 25ish good minutes then a whole lot of poop on the floor

As the chart above shows, a healthy pulse quickly bled out in the second period and never really stopped. But maybe that's not gory enough for you.

Numerical evidence: First good and then so, so bad

Two things happened here. One of them is that Colorado failed to have the puck in the second period basically ever. Half their shot attempts were then either blocked or wide. That they managed to score at all during that second period is actually hilarious. The second thing is that third period. Sure the Avalanche got their chances again, but good gosh! 22 against? That's some kind of pace.

In case you were wondering, the all-situations shot attempt numbers for this one came out to +50/-72. -72 is pretty hahaha not good you guys.

So two well-earned points in the standings for St. Louis, none for you Colorado, and one Bettman point to Calvin Pickard, who is now your leader in the Connor MacDavid sweepstakes but with more outings like this could easily play his way past Edmonton and Buffalo. *stick taps*

Odds and Ends

• Colorado's worst possession players were all -14: Jarome Iginla (+10/-24), Matt Duchene (+12/-26), and Zach Redmond (+10/-24). Duchene's line saw a whole bunch of the Backes line and got killed.
• Colorado's best possession player was Daniel Briere (+7/-4) in eight minutes of 5v5 ice time. The best regular was Gabriel Landeskog (+14/-12).
• Calvin Pickard stopped 39 of 42 (29 of 30 5v5) and deserved so much better.
• Nick Holden's TOI jumped to 22:07? Okay?
• Colorado's SOG leaders were Erik Johnson and Landeskog (4 apiece), followed by 3 from Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon. MacKinnon, by the way, was your shot attempt leader with 9.
• Ryan O'Reilly was a soul-crushing 37% at the faceoff circle.
• TOI leader: Erik Johnson (23:38), behind St. Louis's Jay Bouwmeester (24:46) and Alex Pietrangelo (27:26). Big discrepency in ice time between Johnson and Jan Hejda is easily explained by EJ's 4:30 on the "power" play.
• Mr. Irrelevant is awarded to Dennis Everberg, who, in the 6:30 he was allowed on the ice, blocked one shot and that was it.
  
• Everberg, Borna Rendulic, Marc-Andre Cliche, and Cody McLeod each played less than 10:30 total and less than 8:00 EV. With the exception of Borna who's an injury call-up, these are all guys you intentionally signed or extended immediately prior to this year, Avs! Either trust them with some meaningful time or let's focus on replacing them with guys who you will. 21-minute nights are going to wear Duchene and O'Reilly down.