Miska Battled in First NHL Start

Hunter Miska did not get the result he wanted in his first NHL start but it wasn't for a lack of compete.
The goaltender learned he was set to start his first game in the NHL the day prior and stopped 23 of the 26 shots he faced as the Colorado Avalanche fell 4-2 to the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on Thursday.
"I felt good in there. I thought the team played really good in front of me, and I just allowed a couple goals that I thought I could have had," said Miska. "Cost us the game with that last one I let in but overall, I felt like I was pretty good and seeing the puck well, but it wasn't enough."

Of the three shots that got past Miska, two came while Colorado was shorthanded, with the first coming on a 5-on-3 Kings power play early in the second period.
"Miska, he battled. He played hard for us tonight and made a couple big saves," said head coach Jared Bednar. "I think that you look at their two power-play goals, and I think it's just a little bit of inexperience. He's probably a little bit deep on both of them and they found the top part of the net on him.
"[Ryan Graves] went out to get the block (on one of the goals) and we just missed it and they scored and sometimes you see those go in. But he did come up with a couple big saves on a couple scrambles in front of the net so real competitive performance by him."

The contest was just the second time that Miska had seen NHL action. He made his league debut in a relief appearance on Nov. 13, 2018 with the Arizona Coyotes at the Detroit Red Wings, and he played the final 18:16 of that contest and stopped eight-of-nine shots.
Last season, he registered a 16-6-3 record, 2.48 goals-against average and .924 save percentage in 26 games with the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles. He also joined the Avs in the 2020 playoffs in Edmonton and served as the backup goaltender in the final three contests of the team's second-round series against the Dallas Stars.

OTHER NOTEWORTHY DEBUTS

Defenseman Bowen Byram played in his first NHL game, and the 19-year-old had one shot on goal and two penalty minutes in 11:19 of ice time.
"Definitely some nerves and jitters at the start there, I thought I calmed down later into the first and then into the second and third I felt pretty good out there," Byram said. "I think I did some things well and I think there's some things I can improve on but overall, I think it's a good starting point for me."

Byram, the Avs' No. 4 overall selection in the 2019 NHL Draft, played the previous three-plus seasons with the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League. He led all league defensemen in goals (26) after producing 71 points in 2018-19 and recorded 52 points (14 goals, 38 assists) in 50 games with the Giants last season.
"Bo was pretty good too, lots of things that I liked. I liked the confidence with him skating the puck and getting involved in the rush and was hanging on to some pucks in the offensive zone, which is both good and bad," said Bednar. "The more he plays, the more he is going to understand that he's probably got to move it a little bit quicker sometimes, and that what's there when he first gets the puck is probably the best option… Got called early on a hold on (Anze) Kopitar. It was probably both guys holding each other there and Kopitar gets the call and from then [on] I liked his defending. I thought he was hard on pucks, hard in the scrums, a heads-up player. He was making plays to get us out of our zone--it was not an overly dynamic game, but it was effective."
Byram wasn't the only member of the defensive core that was playing in his first game with Colorado. Greg Pateryn also made his Avalanche debut after the club acquired him from the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. Pateryn had previously played in 270 NHL games with three different organizations, and in his 271st contest in the league, he had two shots on net, one hit and three blocked shots in 14:54 of ice time, which included over four minutes of penalty-killing time.
"I liked some of the things he did too, he played to his strengths, and he had a couple big blocks on the early penalty kills especially," Bednar said of Pateryn. "We saw him defend hard. He was tough to play against in front of the net, they have some big bodies down low. He's still figuring things out a little bit too, but I think for the most part he was pretty solid. There's a simplicity to his game, but he digs in in the right areas to try and help us defensively and that's what he's here for, especially on the penalty kill."

GAME NOTES

The Avalanche finished 1-for-4 on the power play and has scored a goal with the man advantage in each of its four games so far this season. Colorado is 9-for-21 (42.9 percent) on the power play through the early part of the campaign, the most power-play goals of any team in the league.
Nathan MacKinnon's first-period, power-play goal was the 58th of his career, moving him past Peter Forsberg and into sole possession of sixth place on the franchise's all-time list.

MacKinnon also had an assist in the contest, recording multiple points in a regular-season game for the 135th time in his NHL career, which trails only Joe Sakic (182) and Michel Goulet (172) for the most among Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques players under 26 years old.
Mikko Rantanen tallied for the third game in a row, tying his goal-streak record. He has now scored in three-straight contests five times in his career.