Early mistakes sink Avalanche in loss to Sabres

Tonight was a good reminder that while the end results are all that go down in the record books, not all wins and losses are created equally. Coming off a disastrous 1-3 road trip and then getting beatdown at home by the Boston Bruins, the Avs were reeling in the standings and with a lineup that included more AHL than NHL players. Things weren’t great, Bob.

An encouraging shootout loss to the New York Rangers and then wins against the St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers seemed to have the Avs back on track as they added key players back into the lineup.

Tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres saw another important player return from injury as Evan Rodrigues slid back into the lineup.

Despite the 4-2 final score in favor of the Sabres, this was, for me, one of the most encouraging games they’ve played in a while. The real bugaboo tonight was the first ten minutes of the game, where the Avs allowed Buffalo to jump onto them and build a 2-0 lead.

Goals from Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch capitalized on weak net-front defense from the Avalanche to put the Sabres up 2-0 just seven minutes into the game.

It didn’t happen immediately, but shortly after, the Avs found their legs and started taking over the game.

Buffalo would get by with the bend-but-don’t-break strategy through the rest of the first period and into the second frame.

Colorado’s pressure would begin stacking up, but in a classic hockey scenario, the Avs’ pressure offensively left them lacking defensively with a major miscue allowing Rasmus Dahlin to walk in alone from the blueline after a Tyson Jost forecheck stripped Cale Makar of the puck.

Dahlin placed a perfect shot high over Alexandar Georgiev’s outstretched blocker and the game felt like it ended with the Sabres taking the 3-0 lead.

The Avs continued to dominate the shots, but it was the sloppiness between the scoring chances that really seemed to define this game. While Colorado struggled to score, they had Buffalo back on their heels and threw away a multitude of scoring chances by botching passes, both sent and received, or seeing Grade-A scoring chances hit the goaltender’s logo.

Life would get injected into the building in the third period when Colorado finally got on the bored with a Mikko Rantanen goal to make it 3-1. The Avs didn’t give up a single shot on goal through the third period as they continued to mount a furious comeback attempt.

That comeback got another jolt of belief when, after having Georgiev pulled for 90 seconds already, Rodrigues potted a goal in his first game back from injury. It was a rebound from a Cale Makar shot that hit Nichushkin and found its way to Rodrigues’s stick and then into the net.

The joy of the moment was brief, however, as Colorado couldn’t regain the zone with possession and Dylan Cozens picked through some trash in the neutral zone, found himself with the puck and threw it into the empty net from near center ice.

Comeback, and game, over.

The Sabres avenged the loss back in Buffalo when Nathan MacKinnon’s five-point night allowed the Avalanche survive a high-scoring night but there was not to be any such luck at Ball Arena.

For the Avalanche, it’s a disappointing loss against a lower-tier opponent that they should really beat even with a banged-up lineup. To be honest, they have four of their top-six forwards back in the lineup. That group should really be able to handle the Sabres.

On the other hand, you can pretty easily make the argument the Avs did handle the Sabres just fine, it was mostly a matter of goaltending and lack of quality finish from Colorado that got in the way of them securing two more points tonight.

The final numbers at all situations tell that story pretty well.

• 83-32 shot attempts
• 42-21 shots on goal
• 44-15 scoring chances
• 16-6 high-danger chances
• 4.06-2.71 expected goals

Colorado allowed just one shot on goal in the entire third period – the empty-net goal from Cozens. That all looks great on paper, but the reality is that when you put yourself into a 2-0 hole seven minutes into the game, the other team, especially one as offensively prolific as this Sabres group is, can comfortably sit back and wait for desperate mistakes to build out their lead even more.

That’s exactly what Buffalo did and while the Avs had a spirited attempt at erasing the three-goal deficit they faced entering the third period, it’s just too much for a group without MacKinnon and Makar struggling to score goals the way he is.

In the end, this was overall an encouraging night in my eyes as the Avs played a pretty decent hockey game. The ultimate difference ended up being Buffalo’s stars cashing in on their chances and Colorado’s coming up just a touch short.

I’ll take a night where sloppiness that a team can clean up is the biggest issue versus just getting simply beat up and down the ice by the other team. Playing better is an easy thing to coach up, asking for players to play above their talent level is a totally different problem. Tonight didn’t feel like a talent problem is what I’m saying.

But, in the words of former Avalanche head coach Joe Sacco, tonight is what happens when you don’t start the game on time.

The Avs return to action on Saturday when the Nashville Predators come rolling into Denver for the first of two matchups between these two teams in the next week.

TAKEAWAYS

• Fair to wonder if Makar’s struggles overall are a direct result of his usage. When he’s playing a little less, he’s fresher to make the kinds of dynamic end-to-end rushes that have become a staple of his game. We’re not really seeing any of the neutral zone brilliance we typically do from Makar and I’m willing to bet he’s saving the legs a bit knowing that he is likely to push 30 minutes of ice time on any given night. This isn’t really me blaming Jared Bednar, either, because the multiple injuries on the back end have left him trying to rely on guys he doesn’t seem to trust very much in Brad Hunt and Andreas Englund.
• I’ll say this about Englund – he’s stayed within himself and played to his strengths (his size, mostly) pretty well. The quick-decision making and understanding of his own limitations makes his success remind me a little of when Ryan Graves first got a look in the NHL. Graves was a guy with limited tools but a knack for reading the ice well and being in good position all the time. Englund is a little more naturally gifted a skater than Graves but doesn’t appear to have any of the offensive instincts Graves possessed. Anyway, Englund isn’t Graves, but the opportunity he’s getting is similar to what Graves got back in the day and I’ll be curious if what Englund has put on film is good enough for the Avs to consider eschewing a veteran D acquisition at the trade deadline. Long way to go, obviously, and I’m betting the Avs do ultimately make that move, but Englund’s case is pretty interesting. The lack of ice time tonight was likely a lot more about the game’s score state than anything about Englund personally.
• I just don’t know what to make of the regression we’re seeing in Sam Girard’s game. I still like his defense more often than not, but a major selling point of his game was ability to skate pucks to safety and generate secondary scoring. He has just five points this season in 22 games (just an 18-point pace) and that is not at all what the Avs are wanting from him. His defense is too limited by his size for that to be an acceptable level of production on the other end. It feels like every decision with the puck in the offensive zone either results in a deflected puck out of play or ends the possession. Anecdotally, he feels like a major part of the problem with secondary scoring.