There’s always a fun vibe in the air when you’re at Ball Arena for a Colorado Avalanche game the night before a major holiday.
I can’t really describe it, but it’s kind of like the energy that everyone had for a “last day of school” assembly.
Add in the fact that the Avs were coming into their matchup with the Vancouver Canucks on a three-game win streak, after sweeping the most recent roadtrip, and all of that added up to an electric atmosphere inside a packed Ball Arena fro puck drop.
The Canucks have been struggling to start the season. So much so, that there has been a lot of chatter suggesting they could make a change behind the bench for a second consecutive season. It’s tough to know just how much stock to put into Vancouver’s early-season struggles.
This is a group that finished last year on a really solid note, has high-end scorers, solid defensemen, and what was supposed to be a strong tandem in net. Jared Bednar made sure to point all of that out earlier today after morning skate.
He mentioned that the Canucks are a top-five team offensively over the last 10 games, he made note of the fact that the Canucks’ roster features several top-tier skill players, and he made sure to warn that taking desperate teams lightly almost always leads to bad results.
Less than 30 seconds into the game, it looked like that was maybe what had happened.
It took Ilya Mikheyev just 21 seconds to make good on some sloppy puck work by the Avalanche down near their own, and he was able to lift a bouncing puck up over Pavel Francouz’s shoulder to jump-start the Canucks to a 1-0 lead.
It took the Avs a few minutes to get going. I mean, obviously if they were giving up a goal that quick, but even after that, it just took them a few shifts to really find their legs.
They were able to eventually start to settle into some version (an injury-riddled version) of the game they like to play and were able to tilt the ice slightly in their favor and put some pressure on old friend Spencer Martin.
Not long past the midway point of the opening period, Devon Toews showed great patience at the blue line and then set a beautiful tic-tac-toe goal in motion that was capped off by Mikko Rantanen for his first of the night.
Toews waited until his team had tagged up as onside, then walked the puck slowly into the zone and made a cross-ice dish to Artturi Lehkonen. Lehkonen ran the give-and-go with Toews, sending it right back, and Toews made a great play to kick the puck from his skate to his stick to set up a mini odd-man break with himself and Rantanen.
Toews threw the puck in behind Spencer Martin and Rantanen was able to get some leverage on his stick and punch the puck in. It was a great play all around, and the game was tied.
We were commenting in the pressbox about what a surprise by how entertaining the first period (and the whole game, really) had been. Between all the injuries to this Avalanche team, and the uninspiring start to the season Vancouver has had, we all thought it would be a relatively low event, somewhat boring hockey game.
Really I never felt like that was the case at any point tonight.
With time winding down on the opening frame, Vancouver’s Dakota Johnson got caught for high-sticking, and it gave the Avs a chance to carry a lead into the break.
After a couple of Grade-A chances, and even a double-post hit from MacKinnon, it was a chaotic sequence in front that put Mikko Rantanen in another prime scoring opportunity from the right-side circle.
MacKinnon put the puck to the net, and while falling down JT Compher had the wherewithal to find the puck and shuffle it to a wide-open Rantanen. Mikko had time, and basically an open net to shoot at.
He made no mistake, and it gave Colorado their first lead of the night. Two opening-period goals for Rantanen, and overall a pretty good period as the Avalanche continue to battle injuries.
Speaking of the battle with injuries, it claimed another victim in the latter stages of that opening frame.
At the time of me writing this, it still isn’t 100% clear what exactly happened to Rodrigues. Some thought it was an awkward fall on his knee or ankle, it looked to me like he maybe got slashed on the side of the leg where there is minimal padding, and there were even some folks (who I now think may be correct) who are convinced that it was an errant skate blade that caught Rodrigues in the knee/calf area.
Regardless of what happened, Rodrigues went down and really struggled to get to the bench before heading straight to the locker room. He did not return.
Despite being a man short on the bench, The Avs were able to maintain their lead for more than half the period. Canucks Captain Bo Hornet was finally able to break through with a great deflection in front, knotting up the score for the next few minutes.
Not long after that goal, Tyler Myers took a double-minor for high-sticking, followed by a J.T. Miller hooking call, and the Avs were staring down a 5-on-3 and a golden opportunity to regain the lead.
It took a few tries, but eventually, it was Cale Makar who slide into the circle and was able to absolutely hammer home a one-timer that beat Martin clean. The Avs were back on top.
The Myers high-sticking call was on Mikko Rantanen. It busted his nose up pretty good. He actually wasn’t on the ice for the 5-on-3 goal, nor did he return right at the start of the third period.
Rantanen ultimately did return to the game about five minutes into the final frame and give him a huge amount of credit. That looked very, very painful.
The Avalanche had the lead, but the game felt like it couldn’t end fast enough. It just seemed like the Avs were holding on a bit as they battled through an ever-changing roster size, and it finally caught up with them.
Former-Av Sheldon Dries won a net-front battle and was able to find a loose puck to bury behind Francouz. Tied once again.
The Avs just couldn’t ever put Vancouver in the rearview mirror. Every time it looked like they were starting to settle into the driver’s seat, something silly would happen to throw them out of their rhythm.
Cale Makar said after the game that the team had several “misfortunate” things happen to them tonight, but none quite as costly as what happened at 11:28 of the third period.
With the Avalanche on the man-advantage, Cale Makar began their normal breakout and dropped the puck to a streaking MacKinnon in the neutral zone. After leaving the puck behind, Makar continued up ice on his normal route before stopping at the blue line to wait for his counterman to catch up and enter the zone first.
After stopping at the line, Makar was run into by a back-checking Canuck forward. The ref’s arm went up, and Makar was heading to the box for interference.
I’m just going to be blunt. I think this is a horrific call. Not just this call on Makar specifically, but any time an official interprets the interference rule this way. If a player, who is STANDING STILL, doesn’t have the right to the ice they’re standing on, what are we doing here?
Makar told us after the game the explanations he got provided no solution for what Makar is supposed to do in that situation.
Right now, if I’m killing penalties, I would just be running into any and all stagnant players on the opposing team trying to draw an interference call. Because apparently if you’re on the power play, you do not have the right to any ice on the offensive side of the red line.
Obviously I’m being a bit tongue and cheek there, but really… I think the NHL needs to get that one straightened out. Again, take tonight out of it, and I still think it’s just a horrible interpretation of the rule.
To make matters worse, Ethan Bear scored 32 seconds into the 4-on-4. Meaning that the penalty negated Colorado’s power play, and gave Vancouver an opportunity to get an o-zone start and get the go-ahead goal.
That one was really all she wrote. The Avs made… somewhat of a push late with the goaltender on the bench, but it was never really anything super threatening.
I didn’t think the Avs were “bad” tonight. I agree with Jared Bednar in saying that their execution wasn’t great all night, but I really don’t think this is a loss you hang your head about. The team battled injuries off and one all night, had one guy making his NHL debut (he was fine. Nothing worth writing about honestly), and they just sort of ran out of steam at the end. It happens.
No rest for these guys though. They’re back on the ice tomorrow morning, before heading to Nashville for a Friday matinee.
I’ll be there in the morning, then it’s a day full of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, Mac and cheese, desserts, and adult beverages, before we’re back at it on Friday.
Gobble gobble.
