This marks four losses in five games for the league-leading Colorado Avalanche, and their second regulation loss of the season at home. Not the greatest way to end a homestand, going 3-2-2 on the seven-game stretch, but some good did come out of this one, including two resounding wins to kick it off.
Joel Kiviranta returned to the Avs lineup, which Coach Jared Bednar announced following the optional morning skate ahead of the game. Tonight was his first game since 12/19, and he finished the night with just under 10 minutes of ice time.
Coming out of the lineup for him, though, was Ross Colton, who Coach Bednar said suffered a lower-body injury in the last game against the Anaheim Ducks and is classified as day-to-day.
Owen Tippett started off the scoring tonight. His initial shot was blocked by Sam Malinski, but he found the puck quickly and ripped it past Mackenzie Blackwood.
Denver Barkey made it 2-0 Flyers on the power play, courtesy of an interference penalty assessed to Nathan MacKinnon. With less than two minutes remaining in the period, the Avs can’t find anything, despite leading underlying possession numbers, and they head into the second frame on the losing end of this game so far.
The second period looked a lot better for the Avs, and some goals began to find their way past Samuel Ersson as a result. Parker Kelly, Victor Olofsson, and Cale Makar found the back of the net. With only a single goal from the Flyers, courtesy of Bobby Brink, things are tied by the time the zeros hit the board. Despite that, the Avs carried momentum going into the third period.
The third is where things began to fall apart. Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov both tallied a two-goal period, Tippett completing the hat trick and Michkov finding the empty net to cap off a three-point night.
Not Mackenzie Blackwood’s finest night
Mackenzie Blackwood has not played a game since 1/16 against the Nashville Predators – which, coincidentally, yielded the same 7-3 result as tonight’s game.
Something has seemed… off, with Blackwood since he returned from his recent injury, which kept him off the roster sheet for a week and a half. It’s a shame, too, considering the amount of belief this organization has in him long-term. They signed him to a five-year deal fairly soon after acquiring him in a trade from San Jose.
Tonight, he just looked stale. Though he said he’s feeling “fine” (his words, not mine), I can’t help but think there’s something more to his performance than simply “needing minutes,” like he claimed when he returned from his first injury this season.
This one was easily the one he’ll want back most tonight:
Special teams… stunk
The standings for special teams, as of before tonight’s game, tilted fairly comfortably in Colorado‘s favor.
Colorado:
- Power Play: 16.5% (26th)
- Penalty Kill: 85.0% (2nd)
Philadelphia:
- Power Play: 15.5% (30th)
- Penalty Kill: 77.7% (24th)
Tonight, both special teams units for the Avs dropped at least one goal to the Flyers. This is a problem for a multitude of reasons, the biggest of which being this: the second-best penalty kill in the league should be able to shut down the third-worst power play.
And I get it, hockey is a weird sport. Any team can have a great night on any given night, but given how well the penalty kill has performed throughout the season so far, not to mention how well the team was playing through the first forty minutes… I don’t know, it’s just depressing and disappointing.
That, and then there’s the obvious observation of the power play, and something needs to be done. The consistency is their biggest enemy right now. Not being able to rely on a hot game for their man-advantage is becoming a problem for the talent on this team.
