Knights not going to beat Avalanche ‘off the rush,’ Stone says

DENVER — Flashback to the end of the postseason bubble. One of the primary reasons the Golden Knights didn’t play for the Stanley Cup was their inability to grind out five-on-five, in-zone offense.

That same problem has arisen against the Colorado Avalanche.

The Knights saw the supply line to their offense taken away in the opener of the two-game series Thursday, as Colorado limited chances off the rush following a freewheeling start for both teams.

With the teams tied in points atop the West Division entering Saturday’s finale at Ball Arena and on a collision course to meet in the playoffs, the Knights need to find a solution to the stingy Avalanche defense.

“They play a different style than most teams and we’re going to have to adjust to it,” right wing Mark Stone said following Thursday’s 5-1 loss. “We’re not going to beat this team off the rush. They’ve got some guys who really do a good job. We have to make them come 200 feet to beat us, and I don’t think we did a very good job of that.”

The Knights have lost three of the five matchups with the Avalanche and were limited to two goals or fewer four times. The 19 shots on goal they produced Thursday was a season low.

Colorado features a mobile defense corps led by Cale Makar, Samuel Girard, Devon Toews and rookie Bowen Byram. Their skating ability allows them to kill off rushes in the neutral zone and quickly transition any turnovers into offense.

The Avalanche allow the fewest shots in the league at 25 per game.

“It’s something we’ve taken a lot of pride in as a team,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s early reloads, making smart reads when a team’s leaving the offensive zone and getting numbers above the puck.

“It’s not anything that we do just against Vegas. It’s something that we try to do every night in order to make our team better, and we’ve been getting incrementally better over the course of this season.”

The challenge for the Knights is similar to the playoffs when opponents limited opportunities off the rush and their failure to manufacture offense through deflections or rebounds led to their ouster from the Western Conference Final.

Colorado backchecks with exceptional speed and ferocity, but is undersized on the blue line. If the Knights are able to get dump-ins below the goal line and establish a physical forecheck, they can wear down the Avalanche defense.

“If you put pucks in behind them, they don’t really want to go back and get it,” Stone said.

The Knights had success with that formula in a 3-0 victory at Colorado on Feb. 22, cycling the puck down low often and preventing easy breakouts.

They followed a similar low-event blueprint in the first meeting, earning a workmanlike 1-0 victory on Feb. 14.

“We just have to be a little smarter with the puck once it’s in the neutral zone,” right wing Reilly Smith said. “Obviously, they have mobile defensemen who try to squash plays early. But I think we can do a better job on the rush, and then continuing that, creating more offense just through cycling the puck and getting in on the forecheck and causing them to turn pucks over because we weren’t doing that (Thursday) night.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.