Minus top-line winger Mikko Rantanen, the Avalanche outshot St. Louis 42-18 on Thursday night and beat the Blues 4-3 at Enterprise Center. Colorado improved to 3-4 while St. Louis (5-1) suffered its first loss. The game story is here.
Five takeaways:
Identity. The Avs played to their identity — an up-tempo, relentlessly fast pace with everybody on board. Because of Rantanen’s late scratch to an undisclosed injury, they went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, but everybody was in-sync with how they wanted to play. Colorado outshot the Blues 9-3 until the hosts scored the game’s first goal, but never stopped playing at a breakneck pace.