Avs lose offensive touch and Mikko Rantanen in a night to forget

In sports, as in life, adversity is never far away, always closer than the horizon would suggest.

In a 7-0-1 start, Colorado handled a little adversity well and certainly had their share of luck along the way.

All of that ran out tonight in a classic house of horrors for them as they lost 3-1 to the St. Louis Blues.

The Avs got out to a relatively (compared to the rest of the game) hot start early in the first period but the lifeless power play continued to misfire, even if it showed a pulse for the first time in a week.

The Blues scored first on a PP of their own to get the 1-0 lead but it didn’t last long.

Nathan MacKinnon lasered a puck past Jordan Binnington while the Avs were on a five on three advantage and tied the game going into the first intermission.

It was all Blues from there as the Avs mustered one whole shot on goal in the second period (from Tyson Jost, of all players) and the Blues scored two goals on 11 shots.

The third period was an exercise in Avalanche futility as they couldn’t generate anything before the final buzzer sounded on the first regulation loss of Colorado’s season.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• This was an awful game to watch. It lacked flow, speed, intensity, all the things that make hockey great. But that’s St. Louis Blues hockey for you. They nickel and dime you to death with a relentless forecheck and active sticks in every passing lane. They’re committed to doing all of the little things well and on a night when Colorado clearly didn’t have their best, it was like getting enough papercuts to slowly bleed to death. Just a mess of a night for the Avs.
• A main culprit was obviously a power play that lacks imagination and urgency. The zone entry has been the same thing for the last 12 months and the only changes made have been minor tweaks on how many players are standing stationary at the blueline hoping Nathan MacKinnon does something special. I’ve been loath to come down too hard on Ray Bennett because he has coached PP units that have finished in the top 10 for the last decade and that kind of track record of success walks the walk. But something clearly needs to change. Safe is death and right now the broken zone entry on Colorado’s power play is that worn-out blanket we all grew up with that we got rid of five years later than we should have that was being held together by dirt and grime (mine was purple).
• The rest of the effort tonight was just a tired team getting punched in the mouth by a division opponent trying to stop a losing streak.
• I’m not going to lay fatigue as a major factor in the loss because it certainly isn’t, but it was definitely still a factor of some kind.
• Buried in here a bit but Mikko Rantanen injured…something (ankle? knee?) in the second period and did not return to the game. He was clearly in significant pain and the replay certainly was not encouraging that it was not something serious.
• All of the takeaways from this game but the only true lasting impact will be that of Rantanen’s health. If it’s a serious injury, Colorado’s fun run could be stopped dead in its tracks before it got into second gear. If it’s short-term it’s a huge sigh of relief and the Avs will have dodged a major bullet.
• Philipp Grubauer – Still awesome in third periods. The third goal (which happened in the second period, for clarity) against is one that really shouldn’t happen to NHL goalies but the position is hard and things happen so you just sort of shrug it off. Without the Avs ever getting the second goal, it just doesn’t feel like it was a very impactful goal overall.
• There weren’t very many skaters who popped tonight but I thought Nazem Kadri and Tyson Jost both looked like they were really going at different stretches. I also felt Cale Makar played one of his better defensive games this year. He was attacking in the neutral zone better than he has been and letting his instincts take over. It’s crazy he has eight assists in nine games and we haven’t seen him do much of that really special stuff yet. A testament to his raw talent but it sure would be nice to see him pop off at some point.
• I am continually impressed by the smarts of Ryan Graves. His feet are a little heavy and he overcomes that by getting himself into good positions with great reads and he isn’t overly conservative offensively. He’ll never be a big point producer but he should pick up assists just from his aggressive play in holding pucks into the zone. He does well extending offensive zone possessions, though there certainly weren’t many of those tonight.
• The Avs continue to be subjected to an inexplicable schedule. Following five games in eight days in five different cities, the Avs have three days off before taking on Vegas on Friday in Sin City and then back home against Anaheim on Saturday. Immediately following that? Three more days off. Why?