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October 24, 2023
Logan O'Connor after the Avalanche's 6-4 win Sarurday over the Carolina Hurricanes. This seems almost hard to believe now. For 21 consecutive games in
the last half of the 2015-16 season at the University of Denver, Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery made freshman winger
Logan O’Connor a healthy scratch. It was a testing experience for O’Connor, who
eight years later has settled in with the Avalanche as a valuable, corrosive and versatile winger. At DU, he was part of a highly touted Pioneers freshman class that also included forwards Troy Terry, Jarid
Lukosevicius, Dylan Gambrell and Colin Staub; plus defensemen Blake Hillman and Sean Mostrom. Born in Texas when his father, Myles, was playinig for the International Hockey League's Houston Aeros, but raised
in Calgary, Logan forced himself to take stock. I first asked Logan about the experience on a Zoom
call in late 2021, when the Avalanche was about to resume the schedule after a holiday break and a seven-game COVID-related
shutown. “It was definitely a dream obviously at that point to get here,”
O’Connor told me then. "But it was hard to see at that time, just based on where I was at in the lineup, being
out of the lineup for [21] games straight, it definitely was hard to see beyond that and you’re sort of getting frustrated. “But when that was going on, I just tried to stick to my identity, play to the details and be a really
good teammate. I think that’s the biggest thing, is help those around you. Thinking of where I’ve come from there,
it’s definitely pretty crazy to think about. But I think a lot of it goes towards hard work and just playing to my game
and constantly trying to improve day in and day out.” In other words, he didn’t
spend that hockey down time gorging on hot dogs at Mustard’s Last Stand, adjacent to DU. By
the next season — 2016-17 — O’Connor was an integral part of the Pioneers’ Frozen Four championship
team as a sophomore. He had another solid, if unspectacular, season as a junior before he was named the Pioneers’ captain
for 2018-19. But he attended the Avalanche’s 2018 development camp as an undrafted free agent and instead of returning
for his senior year, signed with Colorado. O’Connor is a better pro than his DU career
— ultimately, 16 goals and 27 assists in 108 games — could have foretold. It
happens. That’s due to both late blooming and the suitability of his game for, first,
the AHL — he played 104 game with the AHL Colorado Eagles in 2018-19 and 2019-20— and now the NHL with the Avalanche. At age 27, he has become much more than an organization forward, more than a guy who can be summoned from
Loveland to capably fill in during injury sieges … and then be sent back. He’s
entrenched. O’Connor already has three goals this season -- all
shorthanded, one each in the last three games -- cementing his role as a gritty penalty killer and even a middleweight avenger
when the moment calls for it. (It did last week when he fought with the Kraken's Jordan Eberle, whose hit on Avalanche winger
Andrew Cogliano in the playoffs last spring left Cogliano with two fractured neck vertebrae.) He's playing on the fourth
line with Cogliano and Fredrik Oloffson as the 5-0-0 Avalanche tries to remain unbeaten in a Tuesday night meeting with the
New York Islanders at UBS Arena in the shadow of Belmont Park. His shorthanded
goals against Seattle, Chicago and Carolina made him the eighth NHL player to get shorthanded goals in three consecutive games,
and he joined Joe Sakic in that elite group. "I've seen him around here a little bit,"
O'Connor said after the win over the Hurricanes Saturday. "He's a bit of a legend. . . It's weird for sure, but it's
definitely pretty cool and surreal, I guess, to be with him. But I'm more so excited about the two points and the good start
we've had as a team here." O'Connor also has one assist to go with his three
goals in Colorado's five games, and he's averaging 11:41 of ice time. “It’s
always nice to score shorthanded, especially consecutively, but (Cogliano) made a great play again tonight," O'Connor
said. "And, it’s always been someone else making the play to give me the opportunity. Cale (Makar) on the first
one, Mans (Josh Manson) and Cogs the second, so it’s a team effort unit-wise. Like I’ve said before, penalty kill’s
been good thus far and it starts with (goalie Alexandar Georgiev) in the backend.” (By the way, there are one or two NHL players who don't have nicknames.) I
again asked O'Connor about becoming a better pro than college player. "I think maybe
my work ethic finally starting to pay dividends, more so than in college," he said. "Compoundimg, doing the extra
work, that's maybe separated me from other guys, giving me the chance to improve in other areas of my game." Logan O'Connor's career stats at hockeydb.com Avalanche coach Jared Bednar wasn't around when O'Connor initially struggled at
DU, but when I mentioned O'Connor is a better pro, Bednar conceded, "Could be. I didn't know him much as a college player
until I saw him at our rookie tournament. At rookie camp, one year we played a scrimmage and I think he had three goals that
game. I was like, 'This guy's pretty good, we should sign him.' Everyone was saying the same thing. Yeah some times the pro
game just matches up more. It's a more defined role, probably for what he's doing. Talking to (Montgomery, now with the Boston
Bruins), he really liked him in college, too. You see why. He's one of the hardest-working guys we've got, competitive as
can be. He wants to win. Any role, any task you give him, he's happy to try and help and do his best while he's doing it.
We need to drag that out of our entire roster, that kind of mentality." Avalanche road trip: Tuesday -- at New York Islanders Thursday -- at Pittsburgh Sunday -- at Buffalo
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