Studs

The schedule

That was an embarrassing showing that isn’t going to leave the minds of either fan base for a long time, but the reality is that the game only counts as one in the standings. The Avalanche finish their first ten-game stretch at 7-3 and return home for the next week of games, which will be nice because they are currently tied with the fewest home games this season at just three (if anyone is curious, Vegas leads the league with eight).

As Colorado has frequently done so far this year, they have the next two days off to sit and think about the shelling they just received in front of their moms. They also catch a personnel break because their next home game is Tuesday night against New Jersey, which is slated to be without Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier.

That makes the Devils a wounded duck walking into Denver to play what should be an angry Avalanche team. Should be, but after tonight, who knows?

Colorado’s third line

So, no, there wasn’t any production to speak of but I still walked out of the game feeling that Miles Wood, Ross Colton, and Logan O’Connor played really well as a group. They were the only line that was generating sustained offensive pressure when the game was still competitive on the scoreboard and their physicality and intensity met the moment until things got out of hand.

We’re at the point where all the talk about good process but no production is going to have to come to an end because you need goals to win games and the Avs have failed to score any of them in three of their last four games. That isn’t entirely on this line, obviously, but at some point you have to turn the chances into goals.

This group looked great together. It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence to me that wherever Logan O’Connor plays right now becomes a line that sees an uptick in their play. He doesn’t cheat the game and on this team right now, that’s a needed component.

Duds

Composure

We have already spent so much time this season talking about how the Avs have that championship swagger back, that late-game mettle that says no matter how the first two periods have gone, Colorado knows it can close games and find a way.

Giving up three goals in four minutes in the second period to turn a 1-0 game into a 4-0 deficit largely because of significant breakdowns by the Avs (and great finishing by Vegas), it’s a meltdown. Then it was as if the Avs were trapped in quicksand from that moment on because the more they struggled, the worse it became. They were simply in over their head in what should have been a clash of titans.

Blowouts happen and bad nights are a part of the game (even this behemoth of a Vegas team will have theirs), but after what happened in Pittsburgh and Buffalo, it’s very disappointing to see them pack it in like this. It turned into another night where the lack of Gabe Landeskog was glaringly obvious to me.

Special teams

They have up two shorthanded goals on just three power plays and Vegas hammered the game home with a power play goal of their own. Usually, when we talk about losing the special teams battle, it’s one unit or the other having a tough night. This was a total failure of everyone involved, which is particularly frustrating because the two penalties early in the first period were killed off and the Avs built their first momentum of the game from that. Then it all went sideways and never recovered.

Valeri Nichushkin

This was, full-stop, no doubt about it, the worst game I’ve ever see Nichushkin play. He is often a two-way wizard that leaves me confused at the end of games because I go and look at the shot metrics after a game and he will be on the plus side of things no matter how well his line played. He is consistently the guy who gives the Avalanche more than what he gives up on the defensive end.

That’s what makes his play tonight so shocking. Again, bad nights happen and everyone goes through them, but goodness gracious this was one for the books for a guy who is so steady and reliable. He has nothing to do with the first goal (we’ll get there, believe that) but as the game got out of hand, he was the one guy you could point to and say that they needed more from him.

Let’s watch his role in these.

In order, here are my problems here:

• The first goal is simply Jack Eichel outworking Nichushkin. They start at pretty much the same spot and Eichel never really gets flying, but somehow Nichushkin never fully stays with him and by the time Eichel gets the puck coming in, there’s way too much space for him to pick a corner. It’s a great shot, but there’s no reason Eichel should have had that much space.
• This is the one that really bothers me the most. It’s not a great pass from Colton to Nichushkin in trying to clear the zone, but when Nichushkin goes to retrieve it, he has light pressure, a ton of space, and safe options for moving the puck. The option he chose was to very casually move the puck back into the player forechecking him and predictably it gets stolen and turned into a goal. Devon Toews is in the area and you can see what Nichushkin is trying to do in moving it into space where Toews can take it from there, but the Avs are changing so Toews can’t fully commit without abandoning the middle of the ice. If Nichushkin is going to make that play, he has to do it with his whole chest and not so casually.
• This is not entirely on Nichushkin as Cale Makar probably should have stepped up on Eichel there, but the high pressure in the zone from Nichushkin creates the space that Eichel steps into and Nichushkin doesn’t make a serious effort to get back into the passing lane. Of the three, this is the one that I can equally point to Makar and say he probably should have done a little more to help because the man he was marking in front of the net was already covered by Toews.

Nichushkin’s game is defined by strong, smart two-way play and this was a complete collapse of that identity. A nightmare game.

Nathan MacKinnon’s role in the first goal of the game

The Avs PK got off to a good start by killing two penalties early and the Avs settled in and started turning up their own game. It was all going pretty well and then Colorado got a power play. It all seemed like it was trending in the right direction. Then this happened.

He misplays the puck at the blueline, which happens, but his recovery attempt actually made it worse and created the two-on-one the other way. Even then, things are fine as Vegas doesn’t convert on the chance and MacKinnon gets to the puck first.

He blindly fires it up the wall, which has zero Avs in the area to make that play. I’m assuming that someone is supposed to be there but I don’t know that, and MacKinnon clearly didn’t know that nobody was there because he doesn’t appear to check at any point and gives the puck right back.

The Avs survive this, too, as the Knights can’t quite convert again. As this was all unfolding, Makar had toe-picked and appeared to hurt himself in the process and wasn’t moving at all. As MacKinnon goes with Mark Stone behind the net to pressure him to move the puck,

Makar clearly can’t move and MacKinnon isn’t recognizing that his teammate is not going to be adequate help in this situation, which compounds all of the previous problems when MacKinnon doesn’t go with Stone to the front of the net and Makar can’t move well enough to get involved.

MacKinnon skates in the general direction of the puck, removing himself completely and Vegas scores.

I’m not solely pinning this on MacKinnon because Makar’s injury complicated it and there were three other Avs on the ice who made absolutely no difference whatsoever, but MacKinnon makes three (!) poor plays with the puck that create or extend chances for Vegas.

It was a disaster of a sequence and Stone and Chandler Stephenson are far too good of players to be handing them multiple chances like that in front of the net.

Alexandar Georgiev

He got absolutely hung out to dry on the first four goals of the game. The first goal is Stone alone on the backdoor as his teammates watch it all happen and goals two through four are all great finishes on wide-open looks. I’m giving leniency there, but Georgiev never really bounced back and battled. That was the only part that wasn’t a fan of as the snowball got rolling downhill and swept him up with it. A week of rest for him to get lit up is pretty disappointing. That dominant start to the season feels like a long time ago.

Unsung Hero

Adversity

If you watched that entire game and are now reading about it, you’re the real hero here. That was a night we’d all like to forget, but adversity is the greatest teacher in the world. Nothing reveals character like the way we handle it and the Avs have gotten themselves into a weird spot right now.

The 7-3 start on paper is great, but the way the three losses have happened feels awful and the team doesn’t even seem to have answers for it. It’s likely just one of those bad stretches of the season, but three shutouts in four games has only ever happened once in franchise history. This is not common and when you have the talented lineup the Avs do, it is completely unacceptable.

On the flip side, all of the fancy stats say the Avs are still a pretty good hockey team. They create quality chances at a high rate and their finishing has been shockingly low. That aforementioned talent is among the very best in the world and will pull them out of this.

A 6-0 start turning into a 7-3 record doesn’t feel good, though, and the Avs are on a bumpier road right now than their record would indicate. You’d rather be the Avs than the Edmonton Oilers, of course, but this will still be a revealing next ten games.