Team Connor McDavid Scores 4 in the 3rd; Beat Avs 6-3

1st Period: What a fun twenty minutes! Things started off with a literal BANG when Nathan MacKinnon absolutely rifled a wrist shot past Cam Talbot thanks in part to a beautiful pass Mikko Rantanen fed him just before getting whacked into the boards. Patrick Wiercioch also assisted on the goal. That lead would only last for three minutes, however, after Nikita Zadorov passed a puck to Francois Beauchemin that for whatever reason the alternate captain was unable to handle. The puck went straight to the blade of Connor McDavid's teammate, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who then tied the game at 1.

Following nearly eight minutes of 1-1 hockey, a delayed penalty on the team Connor McDavid plays on allowed the Avs to play some thirty seconds of six on five hockey, that ended with Rene Bourque hitting the twine after the first Avs' goal-scorer MacKinnon delivered a pass straight from the gods. Fedor Tyutin was also credited with an assist, but that pass was merely pedestrian in relation to MacKinnon's. Unfortunately, once again the lead was squandered after Jarome Iginla got called for a penalty. Right after the power play started for McDavid and his teammates, Jordan Eberle fired one in with only ten seconds left in the period which knotted things up going into the first respite of the evening.

2nd Period: Our second period of play featured only one goal, and it was scored by the team that does not employ Connor McDavid. That means... you guessed it... Colorado scored! Yay! It was done by Rene Bourque, on a tip-in that was shot by Tyson Barrie on an Avs power play. Colorado fended off some efforts by McDavid and his pals to score as well in that period, meaning 66.6% of the way through this game, the Avalanche held a 3-2 lead.

3rd Period: The final 33.3% of the game made everything before it seem like a distant memory. The wheels completely fell off the Avalanche bandwagon. A goal from Milan Lucic in the first minute of the period tied it at 3, a very pretty play from Connor McDavid gave his team their first lead of the night, and then Lucic got another on the power play soon afterwards. This all happened in the span of seven minutes. Throw an empty-netter on top of all that to make it a 6-3 final. I'm not too sure what went on in the Avs' locker room after 40 minutes. Maybe they all got food poisoning at once. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable explanation and what turned a fun game to that point, into one where you want to drink bleach.

Mr. Fish's Three Sardines:

#3: Matt Duchene: Dutch was skating hard and had a couple good opportunities to score. Much good.

#2: Rene Bourque: The somewhat controversial addition to the Avs is now at the summit of Avs' scoring so far this season. Might not be a great thing for the team as a whole, but I appreciate Rene's effort.

#1: Nathan MacKinnon: Twist my arm and call me Sally he's been playing good as of late.

Mr. Fish's Three Flounders:

#3: Semyon Varlamov: Can't fault Varly for all of the goals surrendered tonight, but McDavid's was defendable, and a couple others, although shorthanded, he maybe should have had. Ultimately, you just can't let five pucks get behind you.

#2: Francois Beauchemin: Well that first goal Edmonton scored falls squarely on his shoulders. Beauch has been anything but a consistently solid rock this season like the Avs need him to be on defense. Not being able to handle a pass in the defensive zone, or stay out of the penalty box isn't a great use of displaying your veteran leadership to the kids.

#1: Jarome Iginla: Woof. Hard to believe Jaromir Jagr is playing at 45 when Jarome Iginla looks more lost than a four year old kid without his parents on Black Friday at Park Meadows at age 39. He's slow, taking penalties, not defending well, not scoring at the rate he's being paid to anymore. Nothing much to help out.

On the note of penalties, SIX were taken by Colorado tonight. A third of which were at the hands of Iginla. The Avs take penalties this year like it's their job. Scoring goals is, fam. It's ugly and something needs to be done about it. But what? I don't know the answer to that because it's obviously very difficult to tell a bunch of guys to play a sport they've played their whole gosh darn lives in a different manner. Something to contemplate another day. Enjoy your Thanksgiving tomorrow, Avs fans! Hope it's a good one.