For the second game in a row, the Colorado Avalanche did not look like themselves. On Monday, the Pittsburgh Penguins rolled into town and scored a touchdown as the Avalanche got blown out. They would have a dominating game with 7–2. Unfortunately, old friend Samuel Girard did not play because of an injury. During the first period, Girard received a standing ovation and a tribute video for his time in Colorado.

View from the Mountaintop

Colorado needs to stop doing the drop passes at the blue line. Plain and simple. Two goals in two games stem from turnovers created by poor drop passes following Monday’s game. Colorado ended up chasing the game from that point forward early in the game. Turnovers caused two out of the three goals in the first and led to breakaways. A turnover directly caused Bryan Rust’s goal in the second, making for three goals on the night.

The power-play unit had three opportunities throughout the game and failed to convert. Colorado managed six shots on goal; nothing found the net. The biggest issue with the power play unit during the game was that they had trouble holding the puck in the zone. The puck kept bouncing over sticks, or the passes were too hard. So the point man spent most of the time chasing the puck instead of setting up a play.

The best-looking play all night for the Avalanche came early in the first period. Cale Makar sent a pass down the boards for Martin Necas to grab on the run. He centered a pass for Nathan MacKinnon and a beautiful finish.

We cannot blame the Avalanche goaltenders for this loss. Scott Wedgewood allowed three goals on five shots before being replaced by Mackenzie Blackwood. All the goals were situations that were nearly impossible for Wedgewood to stop. Especially the first goal by Evgeni Malkin, which was a backhand shot no one saw coming. In the last several games, the defenders have let the opposing get in close on the net or on breakaways. The goaltenders may not be taking many shots, but the quality of the shots the other teams are getting are high-quality shots.

Up next

Colorado battles the Dallas Stars on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. MT. TNT will broadcast the game.

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