Joonas Donskoi makes bid for additional use during shootouts with winning goal vs. Kings.
In future Avalanche LOS ANGELES» shootouts, Joonas Donskoi could be the go-guy guy behind superstar Nathan MacKinnon.
Donskoi improved to 6-for-13 (46 percent) in his NHL career late Saturday night when he scored on Jonathan Quick to give Colorado a 2-1 shootout victory over the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center.
MacKinnon, who missed on Colorado’s first shootout attempt, fell to 11-for-27 (41 percent) in his career.
Donskoi and MacKinnon were each at a team-high 42 percen tin career shootouts entering the game. Donskoi, who i sin his first year with the Avs, probably got his first shootout chance with the club because of the injuries to Mikko Rantanen and Nazem Kadri.
The Avs have gone into a shootout just twice this season.
“Haven’t used him, (but) we haven’t had many shootouts,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of Donskoi. “I have the stats on that, on all our guys, and we had a few guys out of the lineup. So usually a guy like Mikko would shoot for us, too. But obviously, with a guy like Donny and numbers he’s putting up, he finds a way and scores some big goals in a shootout. So that’s why we used him tonight and he came through for us.”
Just Gravey. So much for Ryan Graves being a shutdown defenseman. He now has nine goals, tying the most he has scored as a professional since 2015-16, when he was with the American Ho ck( Nic hush kin ),” ey League’s Hartford Wolf Pack.
Graves, 25, is on a first-pairing defenseman with partner Cale Makar. Graves is second, behind Makar, in goals by Avs defensemen and leads the NHL with a plus-43 — a whopping plus-10 more than the runner-up.
“It’s nice to chip in with a goal, it’s nice (drop pass) by (Gabe) Landeskog, good screen by Val Graves said postgame. “Quick was having a good game tonight, so the screen was very important on that. He doesn’t see a thing. I just couldn’t hit Val, and luckily I didn’t.”
Depth charge. The Avs really seem to enjoy having Colorado Eagles regulars join the NHL fun. They had an Eagles forward on each of the bottom-three lines against the Kings, with Martin Kaut, Logan O’Connor and Sheldon Dries. And Colorado’s backup goalie was Eagles regular Hunter Miska.
“In our lineup, we have depth in the organization, depth with the Eagles who have guys who deserve to be up,” Graves said. “It’s a good problem to have. Guys coming up are ready to contribute and we have confidence with them.”