Last season the Colorado Avalanche, much like this year, began the year in an underwhelming fashion; a 3-4-4 October buried them deep in an inescapable hole in the Central Division standings. They were desperately rearranging the forward line combinations in hopes of generating the scoring they needed to fight their way back into the playoff picture. Colorado fell short of the playoffs, but they finished the last month and a half of the season strong with a 12-6-1 record and scored almost three goals a game throughout the final 19 contests.
During this stretch that ended the 2014-15 season there was an offensive resurgence from the Avalanche that came from two veteran pieces who are no strangers to one another, Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla, who previously played together in Calgary. Between them, they scored 16 goals and notched 16 assists with one of the two contributing a point in all but two of the final 19 games.
Once again this year, the Avalanche are scrambling to find the perfect line combinations to fix the scoring drought that has led them to the bottom of the division. The most recent line combinations were put together before last week’s game against Tampa Bay; Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay are back together and scoring goals, but is it enough?
Per usual, they are putting points up on the score sheet. In the three games they have been together, they have scored three goals and three assists and are seemingly continuing the deep-rooted chemistry they have always had together. Whether it was in Calgary, where the two first found their understanding for one another, or here and now in Colorado, the two have a knack for scoring and even more so when they are together on a line.
It’s never been a question whether or not the combination of Tanguay and Iginla are going to produce. Now that they are finally back together, the challenge for the Avalanche lies in figuring out how to get the rest of the forwards to start scoring goals consistently. The Avalanche will continue to struggle in the standings if they are going to rely on the “old guys” to lead them in points. The responsibility is now on the younger talent of the team to elevate their game and help the Avalanche generate offense consistently.
To start the season, the fourth-line, consisting of John Mitchell, Cody McLeod and Jack Skille were the ones getting the job done offensively. Then, it was Gabriel Landeskog combining with Nathan MacKinnon combining for most of the point production. Now, it is the two “dads” having to carry the load of the points with a bit of help here and there. This sort of inconsistency has plagued the Avs for the last two seasons. It is imperative to the success of the rest of the season that the Colorado Avalanche figure out how to get the entire team playing well as a unit, and not one line at a time.
For now, it seems the senior members of the team haven’t lost much of a step. Their knowledge of the game and each other allows them to demonstrate their profound chemistry and hockey IQ in a way that translates to goals. It’s is bewildering that it took this long to put them together, but Tanguay and Iginla combined still find ways to get it done and will continue to do great things for the Avalanche goal scoring needs.
