Late goal sinks Avs ahead of long roadtrip

The early part of the schedule for the Colorado Avalanche has featured multiple emotional reunions with members of last year’s Stanley Cup Championship team, and we got one more tonight before the team heads out on the road for more than three weeks.

Andre Burakovsky made his first return trip to Ball Arena after signing with the Seattle Kraken in the offseason, and had a nice little surprise waiting for him when he arrived to the rink this morning. Ok, well I suppose it probably wasn’t a “surprise”… but still a pretty cool moment. 

The Avs presented Burakovsky with his Stanley Cup ring today, and as it has been each time they’ve done it so far, it was a nice way to acknowledge a teammate that left in the offseason, but walks with them forever as a champion. 

As much love as this group still has for Burky, once the clock hit 7:00, and the puck dropped, the Avs were all business. 

Like I said at the top of this, this was the last game at Ball Arena until November 10th, and you could tell right from the jump that the team wanted to hit the road on a high note. 

They had some great jump early on, Alex Newhook in particular. The whole team seemed to be moving just a bit fast than their northwestern counterparts. Newhook had a couple of chances in tight that old-friend Philipp Grubauer got the better of, and I thought the offense as a whole was clicking pretty well. 

The period ended with the first Avalanche fight of the season, with Kurtis MacDermid giving Jamie Oleksiak the business. Seriously, he just straight beat him up. 

No goals in the first for either team, but that would change quickly at the start of the second, and after a strong start to the opening period, the Avs found themselves chasing early once the middle frame got going.

Less than a minute into the period, Andrew Cogliano got caught reaching and went to the box for hooking. One of Colorado’s best penalty killers to the box, which you knew wasn’t going to be good for the league’s worst PK.

Sure enough, the Avs got caught chasing out high and Jaden Schwartz found himself wide open in front of the net, and he was able to punch home a one-timer from about 7’ out. 

Continuing to see these types of breakdowns while down a man is disappointing, you know it will work itself out as the season goes on, but wow is this tough to watch right now.

Just 22 seconds after Schwartz opened the scoring, Kraken forward Jared McCann found a loose puck in the crease and was able to get a couple whacks at it before it slipped through both Pavel Francouz and a sliding Sam Girard. In the blink of an eye, it was 2-0.

Not an ideal start to the period, and the Avs were just never really able to fully find their game after that. 

That second goal woke the Avs up a bit, as we saw a nice little push back from them immediately after, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for one guy in particular. 

After an extended shift in the zone, Val Nichushkin walked out of the corner and found Evan Rodrigues wide open on the back door, and Rodrigues made no mistake for his first as an Av. 

You could tell by his celebration, that there was quite a bit of relief. Rodrigues has never been known for piling up the goals until his breakout last year, but he knows what is expected from him while in this role. He needs to produce, at least to some extent. 

I really thought the Avs pushed the pace to start the game, but the latter half of the opening period, and good chunks of the second (if I’m being honest, most of the game) were really controlled by Seattle. I wouldn’t say they “dominated”, but the Kraken definitely got the better of the play.

Francouz stood tall, and Grubauer matched him when called upon. Setting up a one-goal game into the third period.

The Avs for themselves in penalty trouble all night, which typically means trouble for a team struggling to kill penalties as much as Colorado is. 

After surrendering one early, this may have actually been a game where they can build some momentum off of the success they had a man down. So much success in fact, that it was the PK that got the Avs back into an even game.

With Nathan MacKinnon in the box for hooking (a penalty that probably saved a goal), Logan O’Connor and Val Nichushkin raced up the ice for a quick odd-man break. Bo Byram joined the rush late, called for the puck, and hammered home a one-timer off the Nichushkin pass. We were all tied up.

Of note here, after the puck hit the net, Kraken goaltender Philipp Gubauer stayed down on the ice and it looked like he had maybe pulled something in his leg. It looked like he was trying to skate it off, but couldn’t. 

He went to the bench and had a quick chat with backup goaltender Martin Jones, then returned to the crease. Grubauer stayed in the game until the next TV timeout, before taking himself off the ice. He was done for the night. 

I think the Kraken rallied behind their backup goaltender a little. Because my honest first thought when Grubauer left the game was “they’re in trouble”. I thought the Avs would be all over a cold Martin Jones.

Just minutes after change, Karsen Kuhlman drove down the right-side wall and was able to get an awkward-looking shot towards the net that somehow evaded Pavel Francouz.

After clawing their way back into the game, that was a tough one to see them give up, especially since that ended up being the goal that would decide the outcome. 

I think “clawing” is the right word to use here. It’s not that the Avs were “bad”, but that was just nowhere near their standard. 

“I don’t think that game is acceptable for us, to be honest”

– Andrew Cogliano after the Avs lose 3-2 to the Seattle Kraken #Avs

— Jesse Montano (@jessemontano_) October 22, 2022

Cogliano wasn’t impressed, and neither was Jared Bednar. When I asked Bednar if he agreed that the team’s performance wasn’t acceptable, all he said was “not even close”.

Yeesh. 

It’s not the way they wanted the first five games to go, and it’s certainly not the way they wanted to leave Denver, but this is a mature group who understands that this is a marathon, and not a sprint. 

They have the chance to flip the script in a big way tomorrow, when they make their first visit of the season to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to take on the Golden Knights. 

It was a frustrated vibe in the locker room after the game, let’s see if they can get things back on track as they head out on a (very) long road trip.