Colorado's seven-game winning streak stopped in disappointing shootout loss to Coyotes

All winning streaks eventually come to an end, right? Tonight, Colorado’s did in a 5-4 shootout loss at the Arizona Coyotes.

Having a seven-game streak end on the second night of a back-to-back with your second attempt at a third-string (does that make him fourth string?) goaltender against a team playing with more desperation than you are because they’re on the verge of falling out of the playoff race?

Well, it’s not ideal. You don’t ever like losing games. The point is to win, after all, but getting three of four points after going 7-1-1 on a nine-game homestand? It’s nothing to push the panic button about.

There was going to be a game eventually where the Avalanche’s dominant defensive play and overwhelming offensive output just…stopped being there.

What we’ve seen the last couple of weeks from the Avs has been the perfect marriage of high-end skill and unmatchable work ethic. Tonight, that work ethic was matched by the Coyotes and while Colorado’s skill certainly did enough at times to win the game (they scored four goals, after all, and the top line produced three of them), Colorado’s best players are also at the forefront of the failures that kept the game going.

The key points here are two power plays, the first coming in the final four minutes of regulation and the second coming in overtime.

The Avs got chances but failed to score on either and Cale Makar’s sloppy work with the puck and Nathan MacKinnon’s tendency to just be too cute with it both cost the Avs valuable opportunities with the man advantage.

Makar also was on the receiving end of a highlight-reel save by Arizona goaltender Adin Hill, who came across his crease and made a desperation save on Makar in overtime to extend the game. On replay, the save lost a lot of its luster as Makar missed all of the open net and fired it back into the heart of the goal where Hill’s body actually was. It was still a nice job by Hill to get across but Makar blew the big moment.

In the shootout, Nathan MacKinnon missed the net entirely as Colorado’s second shooter and Avs netminder Jonas Johansson was unable to make a single stop on any of Arizona’s three shooters.

That was just enough to get the Coyotes the second point on the night.

The Avs arguably played nothing more than their “B” game last night and tonight’s effort was a lot more of their “C” game.

It certainly wasn’t the stalwart effort we’ve become accustomed to seeing from Colorado but some of that was to be expected tonight as they were on the second night of a back-to-back. It wasn’t like Arizona was exactly their best self, either, as the legs looked totally gone from both teams as regulation wound down.

But the Coyotes gutted it out and survived. Facing the prospect of staying six points back of the St. Louis Blues and leading the division in games played, the Coyotes had a level of desperation the Avs simply didn’t. That’s going to happen sometimes.

For Johansson, his Avalanche debut wasn’t exactly very promising. Coming from Buffalo where a beat writer ripped him as the worst goaltender he’d ever seen in the Sabres organization in his 19 years covering the team, Johansson giving up two goals on the first three shots didn’t inspire a lot of confidence.

While he eventually settled down, the team in front of him did too, after a terrible first 10 minutes and gave him a 4-2 game to work with in the third period. He couldn’t hold it, however, as he completely lost track of the puck on Arizona’s third goal and then did the hard part in stopping a Phil Kessel breakaway and then lost the seal on his post on an inexcusably bad goal for the Coyotes to tie it.

Giving up four goals on 32 shots isn’t a mortal sin or anything. It was probably just one soft goal too many on this night. Then Johansson was unable to stop any of Arizona’s shooters in overtime and that was that. Not a good debut, not a total trainwreck either, especially when you consider he’s barely practiced with the team and probably doesn’t even know the names of the defenders he’s trying to communicate with all game, let alone the system they’re trying to play.

While you can certainly say the Avs need a little more from their backup goaltender, it’s absolutely fair to say whoever plays the next non-Philipp Grubauer game for the Avs also deserves better from the team in front of him.

On to Vegas.

TAKEAWAYS

• Loved MacKinnon for most of tonight but him forcing the puck to teammates is an incredibly frustrating habit when it doesn’t work. He’s a world-class player. On the power play in the final minutes of regulation, you want him to want the puck to make the play to get his team across the finish line and to get the win. That’s what you want from your best player. They didn’t get that tonight on either of the power plays and THEN MacKinnon missed the net on his shootout attempt. For a guy with a reputation for being a killer in the big moments, this entire night was a missed opportunity to enhance that rep.
• Similarly, Cale Makar was awful tonight. He had some jump early and I was excited for what was to come but he steadily got worse as the game wore on. By the time he got robbed in overtime, it would have been understandable had Jared Bednar pulled the plug and put Sam Girard in Makar’s place on the top PP unit. I understand that we’re talking about Cale Makar here but Girard has absolutely proven his chops this time and time again and has elevated his game to another level this year. It shouldn’t be benching Makar but taking advantage of having two high-end offensive defensemen by putting Girard in his place. This is probably some serious backseat coaching from my perspective but it was a thought I was having as it was happening so I can’t fully say it was about the end result. From the numbers, Makar was also awful.
• One coaching move I loved was having Joonas Donskoi go first in the shootout for the Avs. Under Jared Bednar, Colorado’s first three shooters have consistently been MacKinnon, Rantanen, then Landeskog with very little variation. Donskoi is north of 40% in the shootout in his career and easily scored on Hill tonight. Hopefully this is the last shootout the Avs are ever in (I admit I’m kind of over them) but that was a nice bit of growth from Bednar there.
• I’d give Johansson a few more games, especially because the Avs don’t have another back-to-back for a few weeks. Give Grubauer both Vegas games and one of the Anaheim/Arizona set next week with Johansson getting the other game. Then go from there. I just don’t know what to do at that position. They’re in a weird spot where teams aren’t actively selling goaltenders right now (let alone good ones) and the uncertainty of Pavel Francouz lingers over everything. They don’t need another starter or anything. Grubauer is their ride or die. They just need to keep sliding by in non-Grubauer games but you’d like to have a LITTLE confidence in your netminder instead of just hoping for the best every time out.
• I thought Jacob MacDonald looked like he came back to earth in a big way in this game. Total mess for him. Then I look at the numbers and at 5v5 he’s on the ice for 15 scoring chances for, just five against. Who the hell is this guy??
• Huge series against Vegas coming up. Can’t wait. It should be a legit playoff hockey atmosphere.