Chaotic season series against Senators ends for Avalanche with overtime loss

Who knew the season series against the Ottawa Senators would provide so much drama?

After Colorado’s 7-5 home win against the Sens last week, the Avalanche visited Ottawa’s barn and another roller coaster ensued with Ottawa getting a 6-5 overtime win this time around.

It was a game full of controversy, however, as Ottawa’s third goal is the kind that made the hockey world stop and wonder aloud, “How did that goal count?” Later in the game, Colorado had a game-tying goal called back because the puck appeared be just millimeters outside of the blueline, making it offside.

The Avs overcame both of those tough calls, however, en route to erasing a 5-2 deficit that saw Jonas Johansson pulled and Justus Annunen make his NHL debut.

It was a tough go for Annunen, who came in and had Tim Stutzle rip a puck by him as a rude welcome to the NHL that made it 5-2 and ultimately had Brady Tkachuk beat him in overtime for the game-winning goal but was solid overall in his debut.

We should have known we were in for a chaotic night when nobody could seem to even figure out the Avalanche lineup as Cale Makar was announced as a late scratch with an upper-body injury and Jacob MacDonald was both reported to be both on and off the ice during the warm-ups.

Nazem Kadri and Bowen Byram both missed the game and are, along with Makar, considered day-to-day with what appear to be minor injuries. The absence of Makar and Byram forced Colorado to play both MacDonald and Kurtis MacDermid on defense, which really meant more minutes for Devon Toews, who played more than 30 minutes.

No Kadri put the pressure on others to step up and help shoulder the scoring load and it was a surprising couple of names that helped contribute as Darren Helm and Tyson Jost scored and Alex Newhook had arguably the highlight of the night when he danced Ottawa’s defense and scored to get the Avalanche some life to make it 5-3.

Jost’s goal made it 5-4 on a deflection of a Nathan MacKinnon wrist shot from the point, the second of three assists for MacKinnon.

About him. Nothing seems easy for MacKinnon this year as he had three assists but also made the costly turnover in overtime that turned into Tkachuk’s breakaway game-winning goal. He sits on just one goal this year and after ringing a puck off the post early in the first period, seemed to lose confidence in his shot a bit as he looked to pass to teammates a bit more.

With 15 assists on the season versus just one goal, it feels like MacKinnon is lagging behind despite 16 points in just 11 games. He has 34 shots, too, so it isn’t like the confidence is lacking too much in his shot as he’s averaging over three shots per game once again. It’s the 2.9% shooting that needs to come up but you’re not genuinely worried he’ll stay in that range.

Given all the chaos with the lineup and the extremely questionable officiating that landed heavily in the favor of the Sens, Colorado should feel proud in erasing a three-goal deficit and getting out with a point. They should feel less proud in being down three goals in the first place.

The single point is the perfect middle road between euphoria over a great comeback and disappointment in losing to such a poor team and starting 1-2 on the five-game road trip. It’s fine. It’s acceptable. It’s survival.

At some point, you’d love to see what a truly healthy Colorado team could actually accomplish but after 21 games and endless random injuries here and there, you can’t help but wonder if that’s ever in the cards. It’s a weird year full of weird results.

I’m not sure there can be much weirder than what we saw tonight.

TAKEAWAYS

• I felt terrible for Jonas Johansson tonight. I’d have loved to see him make a save on the first goal against but that’s a good shot from a good shooter. The rest of the goals, however, were a combination of terrible defense and a very iffy interpretation of the rules from the officials on Ottawa’s third goal. His pulling felt a lot less like “we have to get you out of the net” than “we need to change the momentum here” from Jared Bednar. Annunen played well enough, however, that I think he should at least be in consideration to play on Monday in Philadelphia if Darcy Kuemper still is not quite ready to return.
• That third Sens goal…I’m just not sure about it. I read the ruling from the league that said Jack Johnson was at fault for the goal being removed from its moorings but the interpretation relies entirely on the premise that the puck would have entered the net no matter what. My issue there is without Stutzle barreling into Johansson, there’s a pretty good chance the puck wouldn’t have crossed the line because no shot attempt was ever actually made. The natural momentum of the puck carried it across the line, which was vacant only because Stutzle’s momentum carried Johansson into the net, which then came off its moorings. It feels very much like a rule intentionally written vaguely to be open to interpretation but there isn’t anyone outside Ottawa that seemed to think that was how that rule should be used. For my money, it’s pure fiction and the Sens were given a free goal.
• The Avs really need Erik Johnson to play better. Andre Burakovsky, too. Even with Burakovsky registering another point, his individual play is seriously lacking right now. Losing tons of battles, making poor decisions with the puck, and he’s downright detrimental on zone entries on the power play. Johnson (both of them, to be honest) just has to be better. He has more to give and anytime a defender gets hurt, EJ’s role expands and he has to start rising to that occasion better instead of reminding the world why he’s more of a role player at this point in his career.
• Alex Newhook was great tonight. A jolt of life to a team that was on life support after it got down 5-2, Newhook earned his two-point night. He’s been a steady point producer since his recall and you have to be encouraged about the early returns on his development.