Before the puck even dropped between the Colorado Avalanche and hosting Los Angeles Kings, the Avs had been mathematically eliminated from the playoff race when the Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks earlier in the day. The dream was officially dead. Everyone knew it was a matter of time as the Avs had consistently failed to capitalize on the weak schedule leading up to the stretch run of the regular season but when the hammer finally dropped it left everyone in kind of a daze.
How did they get here? How could a team that won the NHL’s best division, the Central Division, a season ago with a 112 point season suddenly be staring down the barrel of a dark postseason in the Pepsi Center? What went wrong? As fans and pundits alike spent the afternoon musing on what eventually doomed this Avalanche season, there was still the matter of the team having 4 games remaining on the schedule. Someone probably should have let the Avs know.
During the much-maligned Joe Sacco era, his postgame interviews became notorious for him consistently blaming the most recent Avs loss on the team “failing to start the game on time.” After last night’s win over the Anaheim Ducks that looked an awful lot like last year’s Avalanche team, tonight’s loss to the Kings felt much more like a Joe Sacco-led Avs loss as the team completely no-showed for the first two periods of the game. Even with some late life, the Avs would remain stifled throughout and fell to the Kings, 3-1.
The Kings, still fighting for their playoff lives, came out of the gate as sluggishly as the Avs but slowly began to impose their will as the game wore on. Dwight King opened the scoring 13:56 into the game as the Kings took advantage of a bad Avs line change and Jeff Carter’s initial shot was stopped by Semyon Varlamov but the rebound bounced to a wide open King and he easily deposited the puck into the net for a 1-0 Kings lead that would roll over into the second period.
Looking to spark their team, the top line of the Avs would strike quickly in the second period as Ryan O’Reilly tapped home a puck that deflected off Jonathan Quick’s glove from a Gabriel Landeskog slap shot and just like that the Avs had tied the game at 1 on O’Reilly’s 16th goal of the season.
The goal left the scoreboard even but the flow of play was still decidedly in the Kings favor as they continued to dominate the Avs and their hard work finally paid off at 10:09 into the second period as Alex Martinez went top-shelf to beat Varlamov and give the Kings a 2-1 lead they would take into the 3rd period.
Despite being outshot 19-7 after two periods, the Avs would come into the 3rd period breathing a little fire and get the momentum on their side early but failed to beat the sturdy Quick. A late Marian Gaborik goal as Varlamov was preparing to leave the net to give the Avs the extra attacker would make it 3-1 and the Avs would finish the game being outshot 26-10, tying a Kings franchise record for fewest shots given up in a game.
One night after the Avs raged against the dying of the light, they would finally go quietly into the good night.
3 Stars of the Game:
- Jeff Carter – 2 assists, 5 shots, 1 hit, 16:10 TOI
- Alex Martinez – game-winning goal, 2 shots, 2 hits, 17:57 TOI
- Robyn Regehr – 2 assists, 6 hits, 19:43 TOI
