Avs come back for point, but again fizzle fast in OT

Semyon Varlamov had been looking tired. His play had been mostly mediocre of late. So why was Varly right back between the pipes again Thursday night, on the road against the Columbus Blue Jackets, while a rested and ready Jonathan Bernier was available?

That’s a question only Jared Bednar can answer. His decision not to go with worn-down Varlamov helped cost his team a valuable point in Columbus, where the Avs finished a highly frustrating two-game road trip with another overtime loss, 5-4 to the Blue Jackets. It was the Avs’ third straight OT loss, and it followed the same, tired script. Basically, the opposition scored again the first time they had the puck in OT, with Varlamov just looking too jittery to make any truly big stops.

Hey, the Avs did pull out a point in this one, when there seemed to be no hope of that. Down two goals in the final 10 minutes of regulation, they fought back on goals by Gabe Landeskog and Carl Soderberg, his second.

The Avs did last a little longer in OT than the previous two games, but not by much. Nathan MacKinnon won the opening faceoff and the Avs got a couple of decent chances on net. But as soon as Columbus got possession of the puck, they came down and scored. Seth Jones got the winner.

Some of the Varlamov apologists will no doubt trot out the “He didn’t have much of a chance” on some of the goals against him in this one. Whatever. The fact is Varlamov looked scrambly and too reactive, not proactive. He seems to have fallen into the habit of backing away shooters now, a defensive posture too much resembling a crab cornered somewhere out of its element.

The Avs staked Varly out to a 2-0 lead within the first eight minutes of the game, on goals by Tyson Barrie and Soderberg. But on the very next shift following Soderberg’s goal, a calamity of errors helped produce the Boone Jenner goal that got the Jackets right back in the game. Barrie, cutting away from forechecking pressure, skated right into oak-tree-sized teammate Nikita Zadorov and lost the puck. It came back to Jenner, who beat Varlamov on a shot that seemed highly playable anyway.

That was the first of four straight Columbus goals. Thomas Vanek got two of them, including a short-side stuff shot that made it 4-2, a goal that, as they say, Varly probably “would like to have back.” His saves percentage on the night: .886.

The comeback got them a point, but they’ve just kicked too much other gettable points away of late, starting with that disastrous goal Varlamov allowed in overtime Sunday to Nashville’s Filip Forsberg.

This isn’t all on Varly, of course. Zadorov had a terrible game, taking a couple penalties and losing pucks on his blade on a couple of good shot attempts. Guys like Tyson Jost, J.T. Compher and Alexander Kerfoot just didn’t much enough offensively. Those three just have to do more offensively these days, because teams are throwing their best defenders at Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

Landeskog was used on a second line with Kerfoot and Compher and, at even strength at least, the results weren’t encouraging.

The Avs come home in a must-win situation Saturday against Arizona. You’ll recall the Avs lost a game to the lowly Coyotes at home earlier this season, so don’t be counting anything in the bag just yet.

Those are another couple of points they’d sure love to have back now.