The Colorado Avalanche became the first team in the NHL this season to reach 30 points in a 4–1 win over the New York Islanders on Sunday night. It wrapped up a superb Sunday for the city of Denver, despite some struggles along the way.

Colorado responded after going down early in the first period, scoring all four goals unanswered. It took a bit with plenty of stumbles, but depth showed up and showed out in a big way.

View from the Mountaintop

Colorado came out of the gate looking like they were skating through molasses. Through 15 minutes, they had only three shots on goal to open the game. They eventually got things going with goals from Ross Colton and Victor Olofsson. It was certainly nice to see the depth chipping in once again. Particularly on a night off from the top guys, the Avs earned another victory on not their best night.

The Islanders created a bit of chaos at both ends of the ice. It left Scott Wedgewood scrambling, especially on power plays. A handful of times, he had to make some unorthodox saves and stood tall in his 28-save performance.

That chaos also carried over onto open ice with some big hits and missed calls. Martin Necas took a hard fall into the near boards after a missed tripping call. He took a while to get up while favoring his left leg, but continued on. There were some other things, such as a missed interference call on Parker Kelly and no cross-checking call on Nathan MacKinnon when Scott Mayfield went through the back of him. In the near corner, Brent Burns threw down the Isles’ goalscorer Emil Heineman. In the same sequence, Josh Manson took down Anders Lee and proceeded to one-punch him in the ensuing fight.

Coming into this game, there were tons of connections between the two sides, which were intriguing to watch. Brock Nelson played against his former team for the first time, recording a late goal and assist. Devon Toews continued his slow start to the season, but was a +1 against his old side. On the other bench, Jonathan Drouin and Calum Ritchie returned to Denver, both going with no points. On the coaching side, recently fired Ray Bennett returned and caused some trouble on New York’s man-advantage. Finally, Avalanche legend Patrick Roy returned once again with a warm round of applause to celebrate the team’s 30th anniversary.

Up Next

Colorado will face another New York-based team to wrap up this four-game homestand, this time against the New York Rangers. Puck drop on Thursday night is at 7:00 p.m.