Avalanche winning streak ends with listless loss in Dallas

Let’s start with some caveats before we get to whatever you want to call what happened tonight in Dallas.

The Avalanche came into the game tonight on a six-game winning streak, all without Nathan MacKinnon and while also missing important depth players such as J.T. Compher and Bowen Byram, but mainly no MacKinnon.

It’s hard to feel too much negativity about a loss in a place you historically struggle in but tonight’s 3-1 shelling by the Stars wasn’t even competitive and I think that was the most frustrating aspect.

Giving up two goals to Joe Pavelski in the opening 90 seconds gives the Stars, one of the league’s tightest-checking defensive teams, such a huge advantage because it allows them to spend the next 58 and a half minutes doing what they do best – playing defense and frustrating you.

After multiple skate malfunctions and nothing short of a night to forget against the Ottawa Senators, Darcy Kuemper slid back into the starting cage for the Avalanche and while the first goal certainly wasn’t anything he or any other goaltender on earth could have stopped, the second was a familiar sight as a shot beat him cleanly on the blocker side and changed the entire dynamic of the game.

One goal just isn’t enough to get by in the NHL. You know a team needs more, and giving one up right away is a problem but not a death sentence. Against a team like the Stars, however, giving up two in the first 90 seconds? It’s curtains.

While Kuemper did have some nice saves along the way to keep it from getting out of hand, it felt inevitable the third goal would get by him and shut the game down. It did, and it did.

Now, Kuemper’s struggles aside, the team in front of him failed to show in any kind of meaningful fashion. The Avs had two power play chances in the first period to get on the board and climb back into the game on the scoreboard and emotionally.

Not only did they fail to do so, they didn’t even come close. They didn’t threaten Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger at all and didn’t make him do any kind of work.

It’s not as if the Avs were any better at even strength because they certainly weren’t. They didn’t generate any kind of real scoring chances and the Stars looked like the better team in all facets.

I’m not convinced that they are or anything but Colorado completely failing to show up tonight is certainly a disappointment. Long winning streaks usually end with loud crashes instead of hard-fought losses so this tracks, but it doesn’t look any better.

Truth is that Colorado has had a few too many of these no-shows already this year and while the six-game winning streak was a good reminder that this team is quite talented and capable of housing the bad teams in the NHL, tonight’s loss was a stark reminder of the work left ahead of the Avalanche.

They got punched in the mouth early and never really got up off the mat. In a one-game setting, you don’t really make too much of it, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen it this year. Against this particular opponent, one they haven’t seen since their playoff elimination at the hands of the Stars in the fall of 2020, it feels even worse.

Normally I’m not a particularly negative person when a team loses a game after a lengthy winning streak but this is certainly more about how it happened for me than that it happened. Of course the Avs were going to lose again. They’re going to lose at least 20 more games this year. This is just the way of things.

It all feels like two steps forward, one step back. The Avs are still coming out ahead, but not as much as they maybe should have. I’m open to the idea I’m living a little too heavily in the moment here.

They’ve played exceptionally well in November, albeit against weaker competition, and it’s a weird thing to hold the Avs performing to expectations against the poorer teams on their schedule. If expectations are they beat them and they do, why is that bad?

It isn’t, and I’m probably being a little too harsh here.

Colorado can bin this performance and move on to tomorrow night’s home tilt against the Nashville Predators. With almost the entire NHL playing today, there won’t be any rest advantage in Denver tomorrow as both the Avs and Preds played and are traveling to Denver tonight.

TAKEAWAYS

• Bednar postgame said he just didn’t like the competitiveness of his team. It was too little too late and while the numbers might indicate “wow what a major push” they feel like as empty calories as it gets when you have a 20-1 shot advantage in the third period. Getting outshot 12-4 and outscored 2-0 in the first period means it’s going to take a huge effort to get back into it and it was just too little too late from the Avs.
• One guy who did have it throughout was Cale Makar, who scored in his franchise-record fifth consecutive game. It won’t mean anything to him because the Avalanche lost but it’s a notable feather in his cap as he continues cementing himself among the league’s elite defensemen.
• Nicolas Aube-Kubel’s goaltender interference penalty was pretty disappointing. He’s been called for penalties in three of his five Avalanche games. It was the number one concern with him when he was claimed and he has lived up to it. Now, the penalties in previous games could be argued they were pretty soft calls, but tonight’s was no-doubt goaltender interference. It’s a call that has gotten harder to figure out in recent years but Aube-Kubel’s was about as blatant as it gets as he made zero effort to avoid contact with Jake Oettinger, who was injured on the play. Oettinger eventually returned but the score was 3-0 because the Stars scored on that PP, effectively ending the game. You like NAK going hard to the net on a night the Avs were far too soft all over the ice, but you have to do it intelligently. Bulldozing an opposing goaltender on an easy call doesn’t do anything to spark your team. It made the mountain that much tougher to climb.
• Kuemper has to be better. The team in front of him does, too, but he has to be better.
• One of the positives of today is the team is hopeful Bowen Byram will be cleared and ready to return to action as early as tomorrow night against Nashville. Also on the injury news front, all of Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Kaut, and Pavel Francouz are progressing as expected and are scheduled to go on the five-game road trip the Avs embark on next week. Very positive news overall. The Avs should greatly benefit from the added forward depth. The lack of any impact at all from the fourth line continues to be a sore spot.
• The Avs haven’t won in Dallas since March 21, 2019, and have just two wins in Dallas in Jared Bednar’s tenure. Quietly, Dallas became the house of horrors that St. Louis used to be, apparently.
• I know people but won’t find this as interesting as I do but the Stars designated “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex as their official win song this season. I’m not sure what Colorado’s is this season but I’m pretty thankful it’s not that obnoxious earworm.
• I lowkey really loved Alex Newhook’s game. Some issues there but on a night where very little happened offensively, he was one of the few who was moving his feet and working to generate anything. Sneaky suspicion the AHL portion of his career just might be done.