Saturday Stats: Justus Blues(tus)

Annunen posted a .500% save percentage against the Caps.

Justus Annunen was on a heater at the end of October, posting four straight wins and giving up only a couple goals he might want back in the process. Then Alexandar Georgiev got a start, Kaapo Kahkonen got a look, and Annunen cooled right off.

Last night he bottomed all the way out, giving up two terrible goals and one tough one on six shots against the Capitals before getting yanked early in the second so 23-year-old Trent Miner could make his NHL debut. Love this for Miner, of course, but for Annunen?

He had a chance to prove his strong October was his new normal and not an outlier when Georgiev picked up an injury and had to sit out, and instead laid the biggest egg of the season – a season that’s already seen way too huge big goalie eggs.

Bad news, Justus.

But this was easy to predict. When Annunen was hot, he seemed to earn a chance to be the starter but the coaching staff was reluctant to endorse him in that role. You can say last night proved that to be the right move, but maybe letting Annunen get starts against more dangerous opponents when he was in his groove would have built up his confidence in a way that would have prevented this kind of result when he was inevitably pressed into action due to injury or Georgiev being Georgiev.

Goalies need coddling, especially young ones. At the NHL level they’re all physically capable – they just need to find the right mentality to play with consistency and that’s very had to do. Let’s not forget Annunen is just 24 – Goalies often take into their late 20s to fully bake, and Justus has a couple years left in the oven before he’s burnt.

A couple more showings like last night, however, and it might be time to admit someone forgot to put sugar in the pancake batter.

SATURDAY STATS

Friday was a gameday, so my column is out today and since Saturday Feels doesn’t have any kind of ring to it you’re getting stats instead of feelings. Enjoy!

0: Points from the Big Three Last Night

It’s very rare for Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Mikko Rantanen to all post bagels in the same game, but it happened! Maybe the return of Val Nichushkin, Jonathan Drouin, and Miles Wood relieved the pressure they’ve been feeling to be the entire offense for this team and they just couldn’t dial in the intensity they’ve been playing with, or maybe they just didn’t get any powerplays to feast on in the second and third periods despite getting hooked and slashed pretty constantly. Probably a bit of both, if we’re being honest.

1: The number of Days since the Avs last injury.

Cool cool cool, fun fun fun. The big Val/Jo/Miles return game was overshadowed somewhat by the surprise injury absence of Alexandar Georgiev, who had just seemed to find his form again in four straight starts. I wonder if insisting on riding him after riding Justus for two weeks played a role in this? There has to be a better system to keep both guys fresh and on their games.

.017: The difference between Georgiev’s save percentage and Annunen’s

Despite letting in half the shots he faced last night, Annunen is still ahead of Georgiev .880 to .863. This is goalie hell!

2: Points for Parker Kelly Last Night

The first goal may have been bad work from Caps goalie Charlie Lindgren, but it sure looks like Wood-Kelly-Kovalenko is going to be a strong fourth line. Not only did they chip in both goals, they also posted the best underlying numbers of any trio on the Avs. Wood’s absence may not have hurt as much as others, but he’s such a strong forechecker and defender it’s not unreasonable to think adding him to the mix will make Kelly and Kovalenko much better.

3: Times I saw Sam Malinski fall on his own last night

And I’m sure there were more off camera. What was that about? At one point he tripped on his own net? Bizarre. His first goal of the season was much more fun!

4: The number of Days between the Avs waiving Kaapo Kahkonen and Alexandar Georgiev getting hurt.

And honestly it took longer than I expected.

17: Points from the Big Three Last Week

Oh right, they’re insanely good.

Last week I predicted a Colorado Avalanche loss to Carolina and then three wins, and while I got the record right I got the order wrong so technically I went 2-2. Darn.

This week I’ll say:

@ Flipadelphia – Win
@ Washington – Revenge Win

Season total: 9-9