Chaotic and controversial ending overshadows furious but futile Avalanche comeback

One of the many things I love about the NHL’s regular season is that every year there are a handful of games that you almost have too many storylines and in the ashes of the postgame scramble to pump out content you don’t even know what to make of it.

Tonight’s 5-3 final with the St. Louis Blues surviving the late-storming Avalanche is a great example of one of those games.

The Blues had inexplicably been sitting around as they watched the rest of the NHL get started and spent their week waiting around in Vail doing “team-bonding exercises” where I imagine they did a bunch of trust falls and escape rooms together.

On the other hand, the Avs handily won their season opener against Chicago but paid the price in both suspension and injuries as missing from the lineup tonight were Nathan MacKinnon (COVID), Gabe Landeskog (suspension), Val Nichushkin (injury), Jack Johnson (COVID), Devon Toews (injury) and I guess Pavel Francouz (injury) was unavailable to open the bench door so we’ll add him to the list, too.

Salary cap constraints meant the Avs were already going into this game down a skater and were playing with a 19-skater alignment (11F/6D/2G instead of the usual 12F). That was made even more problematic when Stefan Matteau, one of the call-ups from the Eagles trying to help the Avs survive shifts where their top guys were trying to catch a breather, only played a shade over three minutes before twisting his ankle and leaving the game.

Down to 10 forwards, it was obvious the Avalanche were going to struggle in this game, especially against an overly bored and amped up Blues team looking to exact revenge on the team that ended their season last year in an embarrassing four-game sweep that would hardly be considered a very competitive series.

The uphill battle going in only was worsened when Matteau went down and then the Avs got down 1-0 as Justin Faulk got a little retribution for the ugly concussion he suffered in Game 2 of last year’s playoff series. You might remember that as the play that ended Nazem Kadri’s availability for the remainder of the postseason. Kadri also had to fight Brayden Schenn 40 seconds into the game to answer for his actions, since apparently a suspension wasn’t sufficient.

Colorado was flat in the first period before finding their legs in the second period. While clearly lacking the finishing talent they normally boast, Colorado just kept leaning on the Blues but couldn’t get a save from Darcy Kuemper.

Kuemper, who stopped 32 of 34 shots in his Avalanche debut on Wednesday, struggled mightily as he was beaten cleanly time and time again. In the pivotal second period, Kuemper saw just five shots on goal but gave up two goals as the Blues built a comfortable 3-1 lead going into the third period.

Down and out in the third, Sampo Ranta took yet another avoidable penalty (this time in a game that actually counts!) and ended up in the penalty box and the Blues capitalized when David Perron scored his second goal of the game to make it 4-1 and essentially end the game.

That’s where the interesting storylines should stop. Instead, on the night when the team honored Pierre Lacroix before puck drop, you saw this group roar back with the heart of a lion, the kind of fight Lacroix would have loved to see from his teams.

The spark came from the penalty kill when Logan O’Connor pushed the pace and drew a penalty, putting the game back at even strength but at 4v4. With possession of the puck, head coach Jared Bednar pulled Kuemper to give Colorado the extra attacker.

The gambit worked as Tyson Jost tipped a bouncing puck past Jordan Binnington to close the gap to 4-2. Suddenly, life.

Not even two minutes later, Kadri fired a puck through traffic and hit J.T. Compher on the backdoor for a goal to make it 4-3. Just like that, a game.

Because too many good things at once give one the idea that the universe might not always be cruel and unjust, the Avalanche actually tied the game with another Jost goal, but a review of the play determined Jost had intentionally kicked the puck and it found its way in.

No goal and Colorado couldn’t muster the magic to score another one and Ryan O’Reilly, because of course, sealed the deal with an empty-net goal to make it 5-3. Gross.

Now, what to focus on here? My fiancee would be so proud to hear me say this, but let’s make a list.

• Undermanned Avs were climbing an uphill fight from the very beginning
• First game of the year for St. Louis, so it could either be a lethargic group that comes out of the gate slowly or gangbusters. This was more like gangbusters.
• Weak goaltending effort from Kuemper put Avs in an insurmountable hole
• That insurmountable hole was erased in a matter of minutes as the Avs unexpectedly roared back to life
• Controversy once again goes against the Avalanche. After Landeskog was suspended two games earlier this week in a punishment that clearly didn’t fit the “crime”, this time the NHL’s consistently inconsistent problems reared up when they disallowed the fourth Colorado goal because of what they ruled a “distinct kicking motion”, something that referees and video replay failed to understand earlier in the week when Vegas’ Chandler Stephenson clearly kicked a puck into the net that counted and was the game-winning goal, so that was extra nice.
• Major character shown in that failed comeback bid

That’s a lot of options. So I’ll just say they’re all true and that’s part of what makes this weird, sometimes dumb sport so beautiful. Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense and it is what it is.

TAKEAWAYS

• Thought it was clearly kicked in. I read through the rules and agreed with their assessment of the play based on what’s currently in place. The frustration is the league has already shown a lack of understanding of their own phrasing earlier in the week and, big shock, that helped decide a game this week. This is my shocked face. Welcome back, NHL.
• Through two games, J.T. Compher looks like a new man. I’m not sure if it was all just poor play last year or if something was going on emotionally or what the deal was but so far he’s looked like a totally different player. He has been fun to watch so far but it needs to keep going and he needs to find a way to finish some of the incredibly high-quality chances he found himself once again getting from his linemates.
• Simply put: Colorado is going to ask for more from Kuemper before they throw some serious dough his way. Game 1 was great but he needs to string together a handful of starts to begin proving he’s worth the team’s investment. Not to pin tonight’s loss entirely on Kuemper – that’s insane and not at all what I’m saying, just that the Avs are hoping for more from the big fella. That’s all.
• There’s plenty of time to get it all together and certainly the moving parts already have made it a mess, but both special teams units right now look…astray. Just not very good at all. Ugly.
• Make sure to check out both attempts at postgame podcasts tonight as we were joined by Michel Goulet, Adam Foote, Milan Hejduk and Eric Lacroix to remember Pierre Lacroix’s life and legacy in building the first major pro sports championship squad in Denver.