The Colorado Avalanche returned home from a four-game road trip and immediately lost to the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2. These were the Avs studs and duds.

Studs

Team defense

This is the number one reason that makes me shake my head that the Avalanche lost this game. It wasn’t like Mackenzie Blackwood played poorly (the second goal was obviously a tough one, but the other two? Come on), but the Avalanche completely started to take over the game.

A Gabe Vilardi wrist shot was deflected by Blackwood and put into the netting with 10:44 to play in the second period. The next Jets shot on goal came with 11:03 left in the third period. That’s a dominant defensive performance. The Avalanche allowed only two 5v5 shots on goal and two scoring chances in the third period, although there were multiple instances of 4v4 as well as two Winnipeg power plays.

In total, the Avalanche allowed just five high-danger chances on 18 scoring chances at 5v5. Those are both low numbers and gave Blackwood what should have been an easy enough day. Two tip-in goals and one terrible play by Brent Burns undid all of that good work, but that’s how hockey is sometimes.

Overall, this was a solid performance by the Avalanche in the prevention aspect of that game.

The fourth line

The Parker Kelly-Jack Drury-Joel Kiviranta line has been spectacular for weeks now and I’ve written about it a few times, but they just kept doing their thing yesterday. The one notable omission from their work yesterday compared to recent weeks is they didn’t much in the way of dangerous offense. They outshot the Jets in their 4:40 of 5v5 ice time together (4-2), but they created only a single scoring chance and no high-danger chances.

That’s okay because that’s, you know, your fourth line. They also didn’t allow any high-danger chances and only gave up two scoring chances. They locked it down defensively once again. While this wasn’t the line that got the second Avalanche goal (Kelly was with Nazem Kadri and Val Nichushkin at the end of a shift), Kelly was still the guy who made the play that tied the game.

It seems as if every game, it’s one of these guys (mainly Drury and Kelly, but Kiviranta might be in the process of stealing a spot in the lineup from someone with his reliable play) who is making a high-impact play.

You love that the fourth line is contributing, but you don’t love that it is consistently outplaying the other lines. Those guys need to get it together.

Duds

Coaching

I don’t have any issues with head coach Jared Bednar using different combinations at this point in the season, with a nine-point lead in the standings to see what he might find. You also can’t just do it for three shifts and draw a strong conclusion, but it was frustrating to see the Avalanche not getting anywhere with the combinations yesterday and then wait so long to make the switch.

See if you can spot in the gameflow chart (measured by shot attempts at 5v5) when the Avs decided to go to their more familiar lines.

If you’re thinking it’s right around that time the Avalanche started taking over the game, you’re correct!

Once Artturi Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon were joined by Martin Necas, the ice tilted completely. In the limited 5v5 time they got together, shot attempts were 8-1 in favor of the Avalanche and they generated three scoring chances (two of which were high danger). That was clearly the combination that was breaking down the stingy Jets defense because when Landeskog was there instead of Necas, the MacKinnon line got punched in the face to the tune of being outshot 8-5.

Bednar just waited too long to go back to combinations he knew worked. Experimentation is fine, but the season isn’t over yet.

Colorado’s stars

Cale Makar had a nice assist to Brock Nelson for a power-play goal (awesome goal, by the way), but otherwise that was it for Colorado‘s big three stars (MacKinnon, Necas, Makar). Those guys went quietly into the good night.

For Necas and MacKinnon, it’s an off-day. For Makar, it’s a quiet continuation of what has been happening for three months. Since January 16, Makar has just 19 points in 27 games, a 57-point pace. For 95% of the defensemen in the NHL, that’s a fantastic pace. For Makar, that’s a cause for concern.

While the power play has begun to tick up and giving a little boost to that part of his production, Makar only has 11 even-strength points in those 27 games. The eyes tell the story of a player struggling, but the numbers are also there.

I’ve talked a bit about the Avs exposing Brett Kulak a bit more than he should be on the top pairing alongside Makar and we saw it again yesterday. The problem is that when Makar got slotted alongside longtime partner Devon Toews, it didn’t get any better. Makar wasn’t part of the solution as the Avalanche failed to breakthrough the Jets defense; he was a main part of the problem.

MacKinnon and Necas aren’t getting off the hook, either, as those two combined for just four scoring chances (two each) as each played over 22 minutes. That’s unacceptable from your two highest-paid forwards (even if the Necas deal doesn’t start until next year, I know). Those guys need to be piling up pressure and making life hard for the opposition. Against the Jets, they didn’t.

It was a pedestrian evening for the top dogs and that’s a major reason why the two points went to Winnipeg and not Colorado.

The unpredictable things

Two of Winnipeg’s goals were all-world tips (as were both of Colorado’s) and the only non-deflection goal scored in the game came from Cole Koepke, who flubbed his breakaway opportunity so badly that it fooled Blackwood because Koepke was trying to make a move, forgot the puck, and it slid under Blackwood’s pads and he was trying to stop the shot that Koepke was trying to make.

That’s obviously frustrating, but the game-winning goal came with a bit of controversy. The Avalanche challenged for goalie interference and when I watched it through, I thought it was likely going to be pulled off the board. Landeskog had pushed Jonathan Toews into Blackwood to start the initial contact, but after Blackwood had a chance to reset and Landeskog stopped pushing him, Toews made contact all on his own while still in the crease.

The rub is that the shot came in such a way that the contact didn’t really prevent Blackwood from doing what he wanted to on the attempt and that’s why I think the league ruled it a good goal. I get it, but that hasn’t been the standard they’ve spent all season trying to establish. They’ve gone out of their way to make it clear that contact in the crease without the aid of a defending player is interference. Now, all of a sudden, there’s nuance inside of it?

The whole thing was frustrating. Had they pulled the goal off the board, the opposite of this conversation would be happening in Winnipeg because nobody in the hockey world knows what goaltender interference is anymore.

The second Jets goal

It’s a predictably lazy chip in the neutral zone that gets turned the other way and became a rush opportunity for Winnipeg that started it all. Had the Avs just dumped the puck and forechecked, the goal never happens. Then Burns does whatever the hell that was at the blueline and gets torched by a player who had six goals on the season before that moment.

Then Koepke’s move was so poorly executed that it became the perfect move because Blackwood certainly wasn’t expecting that.

What a mess.

Avs Unsung Hero

Sam Malinski

Another strong day at the office, Malinski was willing to keep firing pucks toward the net when the Avalanche occasionally got bogged down into stubbornness and cuteness. His pairing alongside Toews was very good again and he continues to thrive in true second-pairing minutes.

His growth is one of the most fun subplots of the Avalanche season. The Avs got a good one.