Lethargic start costs Avs again in fourth loss in six games

This…was a weird one. The entire vibe in the arena leading up to the game felt a little off, then the game started and was completely lacking any energy from either team.

Even when Vegas scored two first-period goals to lead 2-0 after the first period, it felt like everyone in the building was collectively struggling to get any kind of emotion going. It was like this game was drifting through existence like I did when I was 25 and had no life plan or general direction.

That was this game through the first 35 minutes. A directionless 20-something just existing in the world trying to figure it out.

Then Jack Johnson reared up and smoked Keegan Kolesar at center ice and had a pretty good tilt against Nicolas Roy, who demanded retribution for Kolesar, who was slow to get up.

Johnson was given a five-minute major for interference, a jaw-dropping call given the relatively routine nature of the hit. Interference, definitely. Anything more than that is the officials simply reacting to the anger of the Vegas bench, which simultaneously stood up like they were forming a queue to each take a shot at Johnson.

That’s not how things work so only Roy got to drop the gloves but the aftermath was pretty inexplicable. Roy was given the instigator penalty, which comes with penalties of two, five and ten minutes. Johnson got the major and was done for the night.

For the first time all night, there was energy in the building. Things came alive. Confusion and hatred of questionable officiating will do that, I suppose.

Colorado got on the board when Cale Makar scored his first of the year, a puck that just seemed to have eyes as it worked its way through Robin Lehner. First there was life, then there was belief.

The start of the third period had a unique feel to it, too, because of the lingering three-minute power play from Vegas. They finished the last 45 seconds of 4v4, transitioned into the Vegas power play, and once Colorado killed it, felt like the third period was actually beginning.

Down 2-1 with right around 16 minutes to tie it, the Avs pushed. Vegas occasionally pushed back but for the most part, went into a purely “bend don’t break” mentality.

It worked and the Avalanche never got another puck past Lehner. An empty-net goal from Kolesar, whose injury on the Johnson hit helped the officials determine it was worthy of being called a major to begin with, was additional salt in the wound after he came at the start of the third period.

Coming into this game, these were two beaten-up powerhouses who tied atop the NHL’s standings last year but had struggled badly out of the gate. After the game, it’s the same story as they sit on identical 2-4 records.

With so many key players missing from the Vegas lineup (Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, Alex Tuch, Alec Martinez), the Golden Knights were ripe for the picking. The Avs played lethargic, apathetic hockey in the first period and then spent the rest of the game chasing and were never able to catch up.

Sure, they played better than Vegas did through most of the game. No way you can deny that slow starts haven’t stopped the Avalanche from achieving great results in the past (3-3 start last year ended in a President’s Trophy win and a 2-3-1 start in 1995 ended in a Stanley Cup). That’s fine.

The reality is something is very clearly still missing from this team. It might be a player, as the depth scoring has completely disappeared since the three-headed monster made its return. Maybe it’s a play, like Johnson lighting up Kolesar and igniting a completely different game from that moment on. Maybe it’s a mood, a feeling, a something.

That’s what makes this Avalanche start so frustrating all the way around. It’s…something. Everyone can decide on their own what the culprit is but that’s when you start to fear you have a real problem brewing; when people can’t land on an obvious answer and everything eventually becomes the answer, you find yourself in organizational quicksand, sinking into the depths despite trying anything and everything to get out.

Is that a little too dramatic for six games into the season? Sure, for some. The reality in the NHL, however, is that the league doesn’t wait around for you to find yourself. If the hole gets too much deeper, it gets really early around here.

Being the hockey equivalent of Matthew McConaughey from “Dazed and Confused” isn’t aspirational, it’s a red flag.

If they couldn’t handle taking on a seriously compromised Vegas team on home ice, why should there be excitement about them heading back on the road to an undefeated St. Louis?

The turning point has to happen soon. This isn’t doom and gloom so much as reality. It’s time to get a move on.

TAKEAWAYS

• They lost this game and it sure sounds like I’m leaning more towards “oh no, they suck again!” territory but I genuinely felt the Avs played with the proper sense of urgency in the second portion of the game. Hell, statistically speaking, their first period wasn’t even as bad as it seemed. The Avs were, once again, just okay in this one. That’s simply not good enough for this group.
• Colorado’s top players were heavily taxed as the coaching staff shortened things up to try and get them back to tied on the scoreboard. It makes sense but boy is it telling that four forwards played under ten minutes. They just don’t feel like they can trust any of these guys, young or old, to generate anything and when you look at the results, it’s easy to see why. None of them are generating much volume of anything you want generated. It’s just not good enough all the way down the lineup.
• The lack of production from Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky cannot continue. Those are two guys in contract years that you thought were getting ready to have potential career years because their financial futures (especially Burakovsky’s) hinges so much on what they are able to accomplish this season. Right now, it’s a whole lot of nothing. Kadri is consistently engaged and sometimes looks like he’s stuck out there alone trying to do it all so anecdotally I don’t have a major issue with how Kadri is playing but Burakovsky is a different story. He’s drifting through games and even his normal demotion down the lineup has so far failed to spark anything in him. A great example: Late in the third period, Burakovsky had the puck at Colorado’s own blue line and was trying to buy time for his teammates to complete a line change around him but he got the lightest of pressure from a Vegas player and fumbled the puck before turning it over and delaying the change he was trying to get. It’s the kind of soft, avoidable nonsense hockey that he settles into when he’s not committed to doing all the little things to maximize his considerable talent. Disappointing is a generous word to start Burakovsky so far this year.
• Bowen Byram was, once again, nothing shy of awesome. The fancystats show him to be a monster in this game. 32 CF/13 CA? 17-6 advantage in scoring chances? I mean come on. His confidence is exploding off the ice. He looks more confident in what he’s doing right now than Makar, who has always been the quiet but dominant type. Byram is way more in your face about his dominance. They are the perfect yin-yang and could be the league’s premier pairing in years to come. It’s not fair to expect them to be that right now, but that’s the kind of potential we’re talking about here and seeing Byram start to live up to that hype a bit is really encouraging.
• A player whose game I really liked a lot tonight? Ryan Murray. I think him playing with a sense of urgency really tapped into his puck-moving ability. I hadn’t really thought about it before but putting him in the third-pairing role he currently inhabits might minimize his confidence to try and make plays offensively a bit. He’s been timid to start the year, not something that I would say is a trademark of his stops in New Jersey or Columbus. He’s never lacked confidence but his Avs tenure he has looked unsure of himself and like he’s tiptoeing around mistakes. Tonight, with the Avs trailing and in need of some spark, Murray played with the kind of purpose I expected to see more of coming into this year. That’s much more of the kind of guy I think he should be for the Avs moving forward, regardless of role or whatever. He should be who he is and he’ll be a very good fit along the blueline.
• On the opposite of that is Kurtis MacDermid. I’m not sure why they bother even playing him if they’re just going to play him 7:33 in a game where they were down to five D the entire final period. It’s obvious there’s no trust there and him losing his man two minutes into the game and watching him score shows why. He’s grossly miscast on this defense. If they insist on trying to salvage something from MacDermid, the move to forward should happen immediately. It’s not like Sampo Ranta or Martin Kaut has kicked down the door and demanded ice time. They also just haven’t been good enough but they haven’t been downright disastrous like MacDermid has.
• Darcy Kuemper…a solid night. Got down early but played great to ensure his team was never out of the game. I’d probably love to see a better effort on the second Vegas goal but my real problem on that play is with Makar, whose turnover and lackluster effort on the backcheck was the true issue.
• I don’t have it in me to strongly complain about officiating again. It was a mess tonight with that baffling major penalty. No way the league gives any kind of discipline to Jack Johnson, right? RIGHT?