Byram’s debut overshadowed by offensive futility as Avs split series with Kings

The way winning always papers over flaws is one of the more charming aspects of sports to me. When the outcome is what you set out to achieve, how you got there ends up being a justified journey, even if it wasn’t perfect.

See Tuesday night’s win against Los Angeles as a good example of that for the Avalanche. They had a comfortable 3-0 lead at one point before having to hang on to an uglier-than-it-should-have-been 3-2 win.

Instead of getting on top of the issues that helped the Kings climb back into the game two nights ago, the Avs repeated those mistakes after getting up just 2-0 this time as they entered the third period tied.

It was the third time in the four games this year the Avs were the worse team in the final period. It’s a troubling trend that harkens a bit back to last year when the Avs were a dominant team in the second period but experienced a great deal of variance in their third period performances.

That was on display again tonight as the Avs blew their two-goal lead from the first period in the second period thanks to two great shots on separate Los Angeles power plays. No excuses in this one. Hunter Miska, Philipp Grubauer, your preferred deity, it wouldn’t have mattered who was trying to stop those shots.

Tie game entering the third period. The Avs, Stanley Cup favorites and a team trying to create the kind of success the Kings franchise managed in the last decade, wilted in the moment.

It wasn’t that Colorado didn’t generate any chances, they simply couldn’t get anything on goal. Despite 25 shot attempts in the third period, just four made it on net. While Jonathan Quick has pretty thoroughly owned the Avalanche in his career (his record moved to 20-6-2 in 29 GP against the Avs), making him stop just four shots is certainly a way to make his life a hell of a lot easier.

It wasn’t even that the Kings generated a ton against Miska and the Avs because they didn’t. They had just 15 shot attempts, eight of which made it on net and had the lesser of the quality of chances. But it’s not meaningless that the shots actually on net was double what the Avs were able to get.

The quality for Colorado was there, too, as they had the advantage in the third period in both scoring chances (12-7) and high-danger chances (6-4). They had their shot. They just missed all of them and the Kings managed one sneaky play in front of Colorado’s net and that was all they needed for the two points.

The come-from-ahead loss by the Avs is frustrating to see. They are expecting more of themselves and right now their even-strength play is letting them down. The majority of Colorado’s forward corps hasn’t shown up through four games, either, as everyone not named Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen has a lot more to give (though Gabe Landeskog and Matt Calvert have absolutely had some great moments, they each have another level in them).

How inept has Colorado’s forward corps been?

Top line – 14 SOG
Defense – 8 SOG
9 other forwards – 4 SOG

Losing Andre Burakovsky cannot be that critical to your depth scoring.

The Avs head 40 minutes down the road to Anaheim to continue their SoCal swing against the Ducks tomorrow.

TAKEAWAYS

• The power play looks good. It scored again, was dangerous throughout, and generally looks like it is in a good place. The penalty kill was also fine tonight to my eye. They simply got beaten by two excellent shots from Drew Doughty and Gabe Vilardi.
• As an aside, I’m happy to see Vilardi having success. He had quite the future when he was drafted by the Kings back in 2017 but a series of back injuries threatened his career and he fought all the way back from that to earn big minutes for the Kings. A great guy who has worked his way through real adversity in his young career, he is the kind of person you can root for regardless of what jersey he wears.
• While Miska didn’t have the injury issues Vilardi did, his career was in jeopardy, too, when the Arizona Coyotes decided to move on from him and he couldn’t get an NHL deal two offseasons ago. Miska landed an AHL deal with the Colorado Eagles, eventually worked his way to being their starter, landed an NHL deal, and his hard work and improvement put him in position to be Colorado’s third goaltender this season. Pavel Franvouz got hurt during practice earlier this week and Miska got his first NHL start. It didn’t end the way he wanted but he put the Avs in a position to win the game in the third period and there’s nothing more you’d ever ask from your third goaltender than that. The team in front of him let him down, not the other way around.
• The other debut tonight was, of course, that of Bowen Byram. He played just 11:19 but didn’t look too out of place, finishing with one shot on goal. He took a penalty on his first shift but rebounded nicely as he ended the game with 12 CF/7 CA, 8 SCF/5 SCA and a high-danger split of +4/-2. He played with confidence with the puck and wasn’t shy about activating when he saw the opportunity to make a play. His all-around game is still a work in progress, of course, but he showed enough to get another crack at the lineup. The Avs have five games left to decide what to do with his contract this season.
• It was a step back for Conor Timmins tonight with the big pockmark being him getting beat badly by Andreas Athanasiou. Skating is always the concern for Timmins, especially on this Avalanche team, and Athanasiou is among the league’s most explosive skaters so he’s done it to a lot of guys over the years but that play really stood out to me. Timmins struggled badly tonight overall and had the kind of game that usually makes it easy for a coaching staff to replace him, especially when they are apparently content to roll seven defensemen.
• Greg Pateryn was as advertised but he simply cannot take the penalty that put them in an extended five-on-three penalty kill. That goal helped give the Kings the momentum they needed to push and helped turn the game around. If you’re going to be the no-offense, defense-only PK specialist type, you simply cannot take penalties. You lose all value in the box.
• Time for the Avs to move on to Anaheim a team they have a little better luck historically against. The Ducks didn’t play tonight, however, and is one of the only games on the schedule for the Avs where they’re the tired team playing a rested team on the second night of a back-to-back. I imagine that’s why Bednar saved Grubauer for tomorrow.