Why the Colorado Avalanche’s penalty kill has been so good

The Colorado Avalanche provided one of the best comebacks of the season on Sunday when they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 in overtime, at one point being down 4-0 with less than five minutes to go in the second period.

Forward Jonathan Drouin had two goals and an assist, and Nathan MacKinnon, smack dab in the middle of the Hart Trophy race, chipped in a goal and an assist, too. The Avalanche now sit in first place of the Central Division, tied with the Dallas Stars in points but they have more wins.

One of the big reasons for their success is their penalty kill, which ranks No. 9 overall in the league but has been perfect since the March 8 Trade Deadline. Is it the additions they made or something deeper?

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk are joined by former QMJHL coach Jon Goyens to discuss the Avalanche’s penalty kill and what’s the reason for all their success.

Tyler Yaremchk: There are a bunch of reasons why this Colorado team is having success, but let’s start with the penalty kill. They’re at 100 percent on this recent run, what are some key elements that have lead to this success?

Jon Goyens: I wanted to do a deep dive. Is it just their additions from the Trade Deadline? I think what’s very evident is that skating is a major element of how they build their team, and the guys they added can skate. Doesn’t matter if you’re on the top line or the fourth line, their strength is that they don’t have to dig deep into their top-six forward group to build a penalty kill.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…