Avs officially stuck in a rut after shutout loss to Coyotes

We can officially call this a slump.

One night after head coach Jared Bednar ripped into his team publicly, the Colorado Avalanche came out with a whimper, giving up 17 shots in the first period alone and left the period down by two on their way to a 3-0 shutout loss to the Arizona Coyotes.

You would think the Avs would come out with some juice after their coach tore into them to the media, but the Avs looked sluggish from the start, and that was all the Coyotes needed to step on their throats. After the first period, they sat back and let the Avalanche shoot from the outside whenever they wanted, knowing their goaltender would stop everything he could see.

Special teams were a huge part of this one, as the Coyotes got on the board early with a power play goal just a six and a half minutes in. They would add another even strength goal by Phil Kessel later in the period to take a two-goal lead into the intermission.

After the intermission, the Avs came out with some energy, but it was clear the Coyotes were sitting back a bit. The Avs failed to score at even strength when they had momentum, but the real issue was three failed power play opportunities in the second period alone that killed any chance they had at getting back in the game. While it didn’t actually go down as a power play goal, the Coyotes were able to add a third goal as insurance just two seconds after Erik Johnson came out of the penalty box, and it was smooth sailing from there for the Coyotes.

The Avs now have a few days off to recover before they head to Dallas for a rematch with the Stars on Tuesday. Having now lost five of their last six games, the Avs desperately need something good to happen soon before this spirals out of control.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• Without Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog, the Avs have needed some of their depth scorers to pick up the slack in increased roles. They have not done that. J.T. Compher has no points in his last four games and hasn’t scored a goal since opening night. Andre Burakovsky has just one point in his last seven games. Tyson Jost is pointless in the six games since his hat trick. There is still no timetable for either of the Avs star wingers to return, so they desperately need some of these guys to pick it up.
• Pavel Francouz is probably going to want that second goal back, as it came at a very poor angle. Other than that, he was solid and tried his best to hold down the fort until the Avs figured some things out.
• Nathan MacKinnon’s point-scoring streak ends at 13, as he obviously didn’t extend it in this one. You can tell he’s feeling the pressure to shoot a ton and maybe isn’t trusting his linemates a lot at the moment.
• With the forwards struggling to score at the moment, it would be nice if the defense could chip in here and there with a goal or two. As of right now, the Avs defense only has four combined goals, and one of them was into an empty net.
• Matt Calvert was easily the best player on the ice for the Avs and did everything he could to create havoc in the Coyotes end.
• It was not Ian Cole’s night. He lost the puck and his man on the first goal, he lost his edge in the first to create a breakaway, he gave up the cross-ice pass on the Coyotes third goal, and to top it all off, just when he thought he was going to get a nice scoring chance, his stick exploded.
• The Western Conference is so tight that the Avs red hot start barely even matters now. The Avs have 18 points, and there are already nine teams in the conference with at least 17. It’s going to be a battle all year long.