Takeaways from a thrilling but costly Avalanche loss

There are roller coasters and there is tonight’s game.

When a game gets billed as a “Stanley Cup preview” type of game, you tend to get a pretty good game, especially in the second half of the season.

What the attendees at Pepsi Center got tonight was on another level.

While the Tampa Bay Lightning walked out with a 4-3 overtime victory, Colorado certainly didn’t embarrass themselves in this one and put themselves in a position to win a game that almost got away from them entirely.

Despite scoring first on an Andre Burakovsky power play goal, the game slipped away from the Avs quickly in the second period as Tampa Bay gave the Avs a taste of their own medicine with three goals 9:49 to take a commanding 3-1 lead.

Given all of Colorado’s well-documented struggles coming from behind, there wasn’t a lot of optimism in a strong comeback attempt, especially against a team that came in on a 10-game winning streak.

Making a Colorado comeback even unlikelier was Mikko Rantanen going crashing into the boards when Erik Cernak dangerously tripped him going full speed during the second period.

Rantanen got up and left the ice immediately, in obvious pain and using some adult language on his way out to express his frustration with what was likely his second serious injury of the season (more on that later).

Now down 3-1 and no Rantanen to go along with no Nazem Kadri, no Matt Calvert, and no Philipp Grubauer?

Well wouldn’t you know it, that’s the superstar’s song playing.

Nathan MacKinnon took a perfect drop pass from Gabe Landeskog and cut into the slot and fired a wrist shot behind Curtis McElhinney to make it 3-2 with just 94 seconds remaining in the second period.

Suddenly, there was life.

The injury problems could wait. There was a third period to play for.

And what a wild third period it was.

J.T. Compher sparked a major scrum when he collided with McElhinney as he cut through the crease and jumped to avoid him. The whole thing resulted in four minutes of penalties on each side but the bloodlust had already kicked in.

When Ondrej Palat tried to knock MacKinnon off the puck, MacKinnon gave him the schoolyard bully shrug and dismissed him as a mere mortal unworthy of MacKinnon’s lunch money.

Because Palat was injured during the comical exchange, multiple Lightning players took umbrage with MacKinnon’s casual dismissal of their teammate and tried to pick a fight with him.

The ensuing exchange of sharp sticks and harsh language saw Ryan Graves stand up for MacKinnon in the way that makes a player forever beloved by a fan base.

Somewhere in all of this, Val Nichushkin deflected a point shot from Cale Makar to tie the game and add extra emphasis to the final minutes of the third period.

Onto overtime the game went and Colorado actually had the superior scoring opportunities but McElhinney made the stops he needed to in order to buy time for the Avs to find a way to beat themselves, as is their recent history in the extra session.

The delay tactic worked out for Tampa Bay as MacKinnon turned the puck over to Nikita Kucherov and lost the foot race to get back and Kucherov recorded the game-winning goal as he slipped the puck through Francouz’s five hole to win it.

It was an intense and memorable evening, just as it was when these two teams met in Denver last year when the Lightning won 1-0 on, you guessed it, a Kucherov game-winning goal.

The focus immediately shifts to what’s next for Colorado.

The deadline is next Monday. They have major injury issues. They have cap space and assets galore. If they want to make a deal, they can. All the injured players should return before a postseason series begins. What does Colorado do? It’s certainly going to be interesting to see.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• First on what everybody is worried about: I’ve been told it’s a collarbone and the timeline is likely 6-8 weeks. Seven weeks from today is right about the time the postseason is slated to begin. They will be cutting it close with that injury.
• Despite the brutal injury list, Colorado is now just one point behind Dallas and St. Louis for the Central Division lead (Colorado has games in hand AND currently owns tiebreaker advantage over both clubs). For the doom and gloom crowd, they have an eight-point lead over the Nashville Predators for missing the playoffs entirely.
• That play from MacKinnon is brutal stuff. Totally overshadows the rest of his game, where he seemed to turn his dominance back up to the level we saw before the All-Star break. He finished with five shots on goal, four blocked, three missed, one hit (sorry, Palat), one giveaway (OT…), two takeaways, one blocked shot, and won seven of 12 faceoffs (54%). That’s a whole lot of stat-stuffing to go along with another two-point night. But that giveaway overshadows almost all of it. He just has to make a smarter play there, especially against one of the few players in the league as good as he is.
• It was a weird night for Andre Burakovsky. He scored the nice goal early in the first period to get the Avs going but had a pretty tough night from there. He lost his man on Tampa Bay’s first goal, had two bad icings when he missed stretch passes to open teammates, missed the net on a one-timer on a PP later in the game with McElhinney sliding and out of position, and for good measure, missed the net on a clean breakaway when the puck rolled a bit on him. Just a tough night. And yet, he scored that goal and was dangerous in OT. Just my opinion here but I think his breakout is real. He has limitations so this isn’t a superstar find or anything but I’m starting to believe he could be a legit 60-point guy.
• Gotta talk a little Francouz here. The game-winning goal he gave up against LA lingered with Grubauer hurt for the foreseeable future. His backup, Hunter Miska, couldn’t get an NHL deal all summer and only recently signed one when Colorado’s injury hell extend to the AHL with Adam Werner and a potential heart problem. That isn’t to say Miska didn’t play well to earn the deal he got; he most certainly did. But there isn’t a lot of confidence right now in his ability to win NHL games if called upon. That leaves Colorado leaning on Francouz, whose numbers have outshined his actual play this year. The second goal tonight, for example, was just a bad goal. It’s a weak shot from the point that doesn’t have the same kind of traffic the Toffoli game-winner did on Saturday night. Just a bad goal. And even the third goal, Francouz thinks he’s covering the puck but doesn’t get a whistle and it gets poked in. Just has to be better in that situation. Giving up free goals is a disaster, especially against good teams. The game-winner from Kucherov is a tough ask because he’s an elite player on a clean breakaway. But the difference tonight was McElhinney made the saves in OT, Francouz didn’t. Bottom line. Francouz needs to be better if he’s going to be the starter for possibly multiple weeks if Grubauer can’t come back soon.
• I’m sure this will inspire well-reasoned debate but I thought Tyson Jost was fantastic tonight. He played with an edge we don’t normally see from him and was actively involved in plenty of good, including drawing a penalty in the third period. Naturally, he walked out with nothing to show for it but if he can find that anger in his game, it would have a transformational effect on him in a bottom-six role.
• On the flip side, we are seeing the hard ceiling of J.T. Compher right now. He just isn’t a top-six player. He works hard and gets involved in every piece of feisty action he can but he’s being overplayed because Colorado just doesn’t have an answer for that position with Kadri gone. That center depth is suddenly a problem.
• Just an appreciation message here: I really enjoy watching Cale Makar in tight games. Success just follows some people and Makar is a magician at times. Avs fans are outrageously fortunate to watch him during his career. What a special talent he already is.