Nazem Kadri broke through with his first goal of the season on his 28th shot in his 11th game.
If you had spoken to him throughout this goal-scoring drought, you would’ve never thought he had been dealing with it. Kadri is one of the more confident players on the roster and is very comfortable in his skin as that guy.
I chatted with him before the Avs departed for the road trip, and again at practice on Thursday. Both times, he confidently said he’d break out of the scoring drought soon. He wasn’t worried about it.
On Friday, before the game, he told me he’d score against Tampa Bay — a team he famously scored the biggest goal of his career against.
He delivered.
Also Read:Postgame: Six Different Goal Scorers Propel Avalanche to 6-3 Win Over Lightning10 Takeaways
1. Having Kadri get one on the power play was as big as having him score in general. The top unit has been working hard to get over their own struggles, and Jared Bednar credited them for having an outstanding performance against the Lightning. They only ended up with three opportunities and the one goal, but they moved the puck well and seemed like they had more confidence in their decision-making.
We’ll see if they can build on that on Sunday.
2. Going back to Kadri, he only had 16 goals last season, which is not up to par for his standards. He’s obviously not playing as big a role now as he was in Calgary, but I’d imagine he wants to be closer to the 25-35 goal mark like he was in the years before. He has 73 more games to build on tonight’s tally.
Hopefully, for his sake, with a lot fewer shots ringing off the post.
3. Kadri entered the game with 27 shots, which was the second most among players with zero goals, behind Darren Raddysh’s 29. Zach Werenski and Dylan Cozens (25 shots each) round out the top three now that Kadri’s got one.
4. His power-play tally was, of course, set up by T.J. Hughes. I loved this response from Bednar postgame about Hughes’ ability to learn on the go.
“I met with that line this morning. Actually, went through three games with them, and there were five or six points in that video session that I repeated. And like, first period alone, I noticed four or five of those six things that he immediately did better, so that takes an intelligent player.
“The whole line, but especially T.J. His first period was phenomenal, right? And then we lose him for a bit in the second because we’re killing penalties the whole time, and he’s not doing that for us. And then he jumps back out and has the confidence. But I think he’s starting to skate a little more. The patience and his puck plays, it was phenomenal tonight.
“But to be able to just take the information in the morning meeting and then implement it in the game just tells me how much growth we can still get out of T.J.”
5.Nathan MacKinnon became the third player to reach 20 points after the Edmonton Oilers duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. McDavid is already at 31 (hilarious, I know).
Also, Artturi Lehkonen’s nine goals are tied for third in the NHL. He became the fourth player to reach nine goals after Kirill Kaprizov (11), Draisaitl (10) and Kyle Connor (nine).
6. Watching Andrei Vasilevskiy casually take a MacKinnon one-timer off the mask and continue play without skipping a beat was quite funny. He barely needed to readjust his helmet after the fact. I couldn’t believe it didn’t get damaged given how loud it sounded when the puck struck it.
7. Devon Toews had two goals in Calgary and added another tonight, which matches the three goals he had all of last season in just 11 games.
8. Toews’ 2025-26 season was uncharacteristically low for his standards, but it appears like that’s going to be a one-year blip. He has eight points in 11 games after recording 11 in 13 playoff games last spring. It’s safe to say he’s heading back toward his usual 50+ points.
9. Loved seeing Logan O’Connor back on the ice after the passing of his father two weeks ago. I can’t imagine how heavy his heart must feel during this difficult time. And he looked great.
10. I don’t know why the NHL has not yet made it mandatory for referees to always explain what they’re reviewing and what their determination is after the fact. I genuinely didn’t know what they were reviewing on that “challenge for a missed stoppage” play late in the second period.
Like many, I thought it was because the puck may have gone out of play. But after looking back, you can see a replay where the Lightning player batted the puck down with a high stick and Brock Nelson was shouting to the officials that they had missed it mid-play. Regardless, the lack of a proper explanation from the referees, especially after a review that stretches for that long, is not a good look.
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