Avalanche rout Vancouver, 7-1

In Denver, seven different skaters struck for the Avalanche in a 7-1 thrashing of the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.

Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves for the Avs win.

“I would say today we put the whole package together,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “We’ve done it a couple of times now, but the picture should be getting clearer and clearer for our players that this is the way we have to play in order to have success.

“I think they’re buying into that, so getting a 7-1 win and playing the right way and with the right habits and sustaining it for the better part of 60 minutes is real important for them to get those results.”

Nils Hoglander scored for Vancouver after the Avs had taken a 6-0 lead into the third period.

“We weren’t close tonight, obviously,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “They looked like a team that’s trying to find their game, a team that thinks about winning the Stanley Cup. We looked like we had a bunch of guys who were a half-step behind and we weren’t close tonight.”

Mikko Rantanen had a goal and three points on the night for Colorado.

Logan O’Connor and Devon Toews hit for goals and two points each for the Avs.

Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog scored to give Colorado a 2-0 lead.

“We should be embarrassed,” the Canucks’ Bo Horvat said. “We obviously didn’t come to play tonight. They outplayed us. It’s unacceptable and we can’t let it happen again. They came out strong and looked like they wanted to win a hockey game, and we didn’t. We didn’t show any sign of response. That’s just not the way we want to play. That’s not the way we want to approach games.”