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Cole has added steady D, along with a calming influence |
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Rick Sadowski
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The Avalanche did more than improve their defense by signing Ian Cole to a three-year contract as a free agent on July 1.
They also added a steadying influence, the kind of player who can help to prevent things from spinning out of control in pressure situations.
In Cole’s case, his presence helped the Avalanche end a five-game losing streak Sunday with their 4-1 win in Edmonton.
“When you look at the way he plays and the way he carries himself – every practice, every game -- there’s an intensity, there’s a sturdiness to his game, there’s attention to detail that I think a lot of our guys can look at and try to emulate,” coach Jared Bednar said after practice Tuesday. “He’s won two (Stanley) Cups, he’s been there before, he doesn’t get too rattled in certain situations.”
Bednar said that Cole’s temperament and experience were especially apparent in the third period Sunday.
“(The Oilers) put on a big push,” he said. “The intensity of their game ramps right up, and (Cole) is one of the first guys to notice it, that the push is on and that our game has to elevate. Some guys just have that ability to know that it’s one shift or two shifts, that we have to go up a notch here if we want to win this game.
“A guy like Ian Cole had to crank up his intensity and physicality in the battles and start coming up with pucks, which gets you in and out of your zone. Sometimes we lack a little bit of our composure in some of those situations, so having more guys like that that can help get you out of it is a real key. He’s certainly one of those guys.”
Cole, 29, is in his ninth NHL season and been a playoff participant each of the past four seasons. The 6-feet-1, 219-pound defenseman sees no reason why he shouldn’t be able to extend his streak to five in his first season with Colorado.
“We still have growing to do, maturing to do,” said Cole, who has a goal, four assists and a plus-7 rating while averaging 19:22 in ice time through the first 17 games. “We still have a better overall game that we can get to, but you see the flashes, you see how good we can be when we put our best foot forward. It’s an exciting time to be here and I’m looking forward to continuing to grow and to see how long we can play this year.
“There’s struggles every year and there’s going to be more struggles before the season’s done. Nothing’s ever smooth sailing the whole way. Ideally you try never to lose back to back games, let alone three or four, so it’s certainly a trying time.
“But I don’t think anyone ever lost confidence or started to think that we don’t have a great team in here. We were able to hold that confidence through those struggles and know that we can work through this and come out better on the back end.”
The Avalanche (8-6-3) were in the second wild card spot in the Western Conference before Tuesday’s games. They play Boston on Wednesday to open a two-game homestand (Washington on Friday) before heading out on the road again for three games before Thanksgiving.
The Avalanche and New York Islanders have each played six home games, fewest in the NHL. The Avalanche are nearing the end of a stretch where they will have played 14 of 20 games on the road.
The Avalanche have gone 3-2-1 at the Pepsi Center, 1-2-1 in the past four there. They won 28 games at home last season, matching the franchise record set by the 2000-01 Stanley Cup championship team.
“It’s really nice to be home,” Cole said. “We pride ourselves on having a good home record. Right now our home record’s not good enough, so we’re looking forward to improving it.”
After allowing 25 goals during their 0-4-1 streak, the Avalanche (with some big stops by goalie Semyon Varlamov) held the Oilers to a goal and kept high-scoring center Connor McDavid off the scoresheet.
“We saw that when we play a tight-checking, team defensive game, we turn more pucks over, we go play more offense, we hold onto the puck more, and possession is better,” Cole said. “It’s certainly key for us to play a strong team defensive game and have clean breakouts every single time.”
They’ll have another big test with the Bruins and their high-scoring line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak; the trio has combined for 31 goals and 37 assists in 17 games.
The Avalanche’s top line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and league-leading scorer Mikko Rantanen has 28 goals and 41 assists in 17 games.
Varlamov will start.
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