Avalanche's top offensive players again MIA in 4-1 loss to Edmonton

Minus 36.

It wasn’t the temperature in Edmonton, Alberta, Saturday night. It’s the plus-minus number of Avalanche forward Matt Duchene right now. That’s cold.

It was just another awful night for Duchene and the rest of the Avs’ highly-paid young forwards in Saturday’s snooze-fest of a hockey game at Rogers Place, where the Edmonton Oilers won 4-1 to climb into a first-place tie in the Pacific Division.

In dropping to 20-51-3, the Avs got one goal on the night, from recent newcomer Sven Andrighetto. Duchene, meanwhile, dropped another goose egg onto his long list of zeroes on the recent game log. The Avs’ highest-paid player went 0-0-0 points-wise, with one shot on net and a minor penalty. And to answer your question: Yes, Duchene’s minus-36 is the worst of any player in the NHL.

Just get this miserable season over with already. That seems to be the modus operandi of Duchene and the other “core” players, who have been the team’s worst down the stretch. While Nathan MacKinnon has done some good things at times of late, and Tyson Barrie too, they were both MIA in this one along with the others such as Duchene and Gabe Landeskog.

The only players who seemed to care were the recent scrap-heap pickups such as Andrighetto and Mark Barberio, who nicely dished off to Andrighetto for an end-around goal that got the Avs on the board in the first period. After that? You could count the Avs’ good scoring chances on one hand. Or, maybe just flash a peace sign and get the same amount.

As always of late, the Avs stunk it up in the third period. Colorado was still in it entering the third, down only 2-1. But then Joe Colborne tripped Connor McDavid at 8:09, and Drake Caggiula redirected a shot past Calvin Pickard at 8:46 for an insurance goal the Oilers wouldn’t need. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored another power-play goal, after the Avs’ Rene Bourque was called for cross-checking right after his linemates, led by Carl Soderberg, fouled up a 2-on-1 break-in.

The Avs just can’t get anything out of Duchene and Landeskog right now. You might have thought one or both would have relaxed and played better hockey after the stressful time around the NHL trade deadline, but it hasn’t been like that. If anything, they’ve been much worse than prior to the March 1 deadline. The good news is both of them have only eight more games to go through the motions.

The Avs have now lost another five in a row after that home win over Detroit a couple weeks ago. At minus-104, they have, by a LARGE margin, the worst goal differential in the NHL.

Now that’s cold.

THREE STARS

1. Drake Caggiula
2. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
3. Connor McDavid

UP NEXT

At Calgary, Monday at 7 p.m.