Avalanche top scorers faltering when needed most

Gabe Landeskog thought the puck was in. So did the goal judge, apparently, who pressed the red light. All the Philly -transplant fans at the game on their Stubhub tickets, dressed in orange, were ready to stay seated. All the slowly woke Avs fans in mixtures of burgundy and white, were ready to leap for joy.

But there would be no joy in what is otherwise becoming known as Mudville of late, the Pepsi Center. In easily the most frustrating loss of their otherwise feelgood season, the Avs lost 2-1 to a tired Philadelphia Flyers team playing the second of back-to-back games.

The Avs, who so desperately needed these two points to retake a spot in the Western Conference playoff picture, remain just outside the velvet rope. Five games remain on the season, and it’s starting to feel like they might have to win them all to get in. That’s probably a bit much (they are one point behind “eighth” place Anaheim, with the same number of games left, including one head-to-head Sunday in Orange County), but it just feels that way.

The Avs, who have said all the confident things in this run-up to the playoffs (remember Landeskog’s proclamation a week or so ago that “we’re feeling as if we’ve already made it”) are now shuffling quietly away from their lockers, trying to explain why they’ve now lost three of the last four games, including two at home, where they came in 26-10-2.

Nikita Zadorov sat stone silent at his locker afterward, chin in hand, almost looking like Rodin’s famous sculpture.

“It’s just bad timing for us,” the big Russian quietly said.

It sure is, especially the sudden offensive drought of the Avs’ top line – Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Landeskog. For the Avs to win without consistent offense from those three is a little like Led Zeppelin trying to go out and put on a good show without Robert Plant on vocals and Jimmy Page on guitar.

Even through 59 minutes and 40 seconds of hair-pulling frustration, the Avs looked to have tied the game 2-2 in the dying seconds. MacKinnon spotted Landeskog in front, put a nice pass through a crowd right to his forehand stick and Landeskog went through with a shot that everybody, including that poor goal judge, thought was in. But it wasn’t.

“I just missed it,” Landeskog said. “I thought it was in.”

The hard truth is: the Avs have just missed their top line of late, period. They haven’t shown up in the biggest games of the season. Are they coming close, are they working hard, are they still dangerous a hell of a lot of time out there? Yep, yes and yeah. But that and $1.39 will get you a giant Slim Jim at a gas station convenience store. All that matters right now are goals and results, and right now, they’re not happening for the Avs.

MacKinnon, heavily in the Hart Trophy conversation a week ago, now has gone five straight games without a goal.

“Our line goes cold and we lose games,” MacKinnon told BSN Denver. “We’ve been getting rest. Our legs are there, but I don’t if we’re a little tighter maybe and squeezing the sticks at this time of the year. We’re not exactly an experienced team.”

Well, that excuse only goes so far. While the Avs are the youngest team in the league, two of their top guys – MacKinnon and Landeskog – have been through a playoff race before, in 2014. They have to be the ones to produce in these games, and in the last few it hasn’t quite been there – Landeskog’s shootout winner the other day an exception. At even strength, though, pucks aren’t going in and it’s hurting a lot. This was the fourth straight game the Avs only scored one goal in regulation.

Not good enough. Not even close.

What hurt so much about this latest loss was the Avs wasted a pretty good performance from a guy who hasn’t played all season – Andrew Hammond. If you had said before the game that “Andrew Hammond will keep the Flyers to just two goals in regulation”, I’d have bet the mortgage the Avs would have found a way to get at least a point.

But no. The Avs got stymied by a goalie (Michal Neuvirth) making his first start since Feb. 18. Then, he reinjured himself, bringing Petr Mrazek into the contest for the third. He wound up looking like Georges Vezina in that third, stopping all 12 shots he faced.

Look, there is still hope. The Avs are one point back of the Ducks, who play Friday night against Los Angeles. The Avs get a non-playoff team at home Friday, the Chicago Blackhawks and their StubHub transplants. A win against the sputtering Hawks, a Kings win over Anaheim and the Avs are…back in. It can happen.

But it certainly won’t happen if MacKinnon, Landeskog  and Rantanen don’t start putting pucks in the net again.

Marc Crawford always said, “Your top players have to be your top players.”

It all sounds so simple, doesn’t it?