Something isn’t right.
Over the past few weeks, the Avalanche have gone from coasting into the Olympic break to a level far beneath that. They’re playing careless, lifeless hockey, and the scoreboard is reflecting it nearly every night.
For the third time in 13 days, Colorado lost 7-3. The Montreal Canadiens were the better team. Just like the Nashville Predators were on Jan. 16. And just like the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 23.
The power play continues to struggle. The goaltending isn’t at the same standard as before. The shorthanded goals are sinking them. And even the penalty kill isn’t keeping up with its early-season success.
Thursday night’s effort in Montreal is the type of game that should finally change the mindset of a roster that, for the first three months, prided itself on never taking a shift off. They showed up each game, each shift, right until the final buzzer. Even on nights when the Avs were up by four, five, or six goals, they still tried to add onto their lead.
That hasn’t been the case for weeks now. And the wakeup call should start at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday. Should.
Whether it does or doesn’t is up to them.
5 Takeaways
1. I find it hard to believe that losing Gabe Landeskog and Devon Toews should impact the squad this much. Those are obviously two key pieces of the roster, both on and off the ice. But this is night and day a different team than the one that won 10 straight games into early January.
It would be nice for the Avs to have Toews back on Saturday. That, at least, would re-solidify the top six on the blueline.
2. The shorthanded goals against are getting out of hand.
The power play used to be ineffective, but now it’s ineffective and is negatively impacting the scoreboard. Colorado has given up a league-leading nine shorthanded goals. Five of them have come in the last 13 games since Landeskog got injured.
3. Scott Wedgewood gave up seven goals on 28 shots. He looked shaky. There’s no question about it.
In his last three starts before this, Wedgewood stopped 66-of-71 shots and went 2-0-1. He needs to find that game again.
4. Going back to special teams, the power play is sinking lower and lower. Now operating at 15.7%, the Avs are 29th in the league on the man advantage. They’ve scored just 27 PP goals all year and have nine shorthanded goals against. That +18 goal differential on the PP is tied for the worst in the league. Edmonton is No. 1 at +45.
5. The two positives from this game: Brock Nelson keeps on scoring, and Ross Colton finally snapped his goalless drought.
