Avs-Jets Game 80 Studs & Duds

Studs

The clock, I guess

I’ve done this bit a few times this year but it applies to this game, too, so I’m going back to the well. The Avs were so awful in this game and got their ass kicked so thoroughly that they were never really into it. They were down 2-0 before they registered their first shot on goal and 4-0 at the end of the first period.

The only true stud in this game was the clock, whose reliability was key and whose willingness to hit 0:00 at the end meant everyone could move on from this disaster of a game.

Duds

The Avs

Things were so ugly for the Avs today that both goaltenders they threw out there were terrible. This is usually where someone says, “But the defense was bad!” and those people would also be correct!

Winnipeg’s first two goals were on the same exact cross-ice backdoor feed but to different players. One was at 5v5 and the other at 5v4, but the play and results were the same. That’s awful from the Avalanche defense and it never got better.

The Jets were free on odd-man rushes thanks to lackadaisical backchecking from Colorado’s forwards in particular and bad pinches by the activating Avalanche defensemen. Nothing was good and the Avalanche goaltenders provided no meaningful resistance.

It’s all concerning. This was a de facto play-in game for the home-ice advantage in Round 1 as these two teams will play each other beginning next weekend as the Stanley Cup Playoffs open.

Given the stakes, and how mediocre Colorado has been on the road for much of this season, the Avalanche coming out with this kind of performance is disconcerting at best and extremely worrying at worst.

How can a team with the championship pedigree of the Avalanche come out so flat? Their entire lineup was weak. There isn’t a single skater I saw that I felt was any good today. The best they had to offer was maybe a guy wasn’t horrible, which in Game 80 simply isn’t good enough.

This is the kind of game that has not happened much in this era of the Avalanche, at least in the regular season. They have consistently risen to the moment and been killers in the lead-up to the playoffs.

Seeing the losses to the Dallas Stars last week and today’s no-show against the Jets makes you wonder if this is a team with the right ingredients but the wrong cookbook.

I’m not sure what else to say other than one team looked like they were locked in for this game and the other team was the Colorado Avalanche.

Unsung Hero

The afternoon start

Look, there just isn’t much for me to say about this game, okay? That’s why I have the unsung hero today as the early start time. It allowed all of us to move on with our days and go watch the Denver Pioneers win their record 10th national championship behind the utter brilliance of goaltender Matt Davis (and Sean Behrens maybe just finished his college career? Could we see him with the Colorado Eagles soon?).

The back-to-back afternoon starts is not something I can recall seeing in the NHL very often and we always talk about how starting this early can produce some really weird games and I guess today’s fiasco would also count as weird.

Anyway, it was a bad day for Colorado Avalanche hockey. On to tomorrow.