Lethargic Avalanche fall in Seattle in a game that definitely happened

We knew the Colorado Avalanche were going to struggle with a bout against complacency in the final two weeks of the regular season after clinching both the division title and top seed in the conference last weekend.

What we’ve seen since that surprisingly scintillating win over Carolina is a Colorado team that has shifted into the mindset of making sure dinged-up players get to prioritize their health while the team plays out its schedule.

Nazem Kadri returned to the lineup tonight in Seattle but the absences of Devon Toews, Gabe Landeskog, and in a last-minute change Mikko Rantanen were noticeable as Colorado badly to muster offense in a 3-2 loss to the Kraken.

The Avs didn’t set themselves up for success by giving up two goals just 5:23 into the first period. J.T. Compher got beaten badly by Kole Lind on a set play from center ice and then Ben Meyers just left Jordan Eberle alone who went over Pavel Francouz’s shoulder and got some love from the posts.

A puck that wasn’t even really shot towards Francouz bounced off the skates of both an Avalanche and Kraken player before ending up behind Francouz and the Kraken were off to a surprising 3-0 lead.

This is usually the part of the game where Colorado wakes up and roars back to life and even if they don’t complete the full comeback, at least dominate play to the point where you can nod to the opposing goaltender for locking it down.

Former Avs netminder Philipp Grubauer wasn’t asked to do too much, however, and made mostly routine saves along the way to keep Colorado’s lackluster offense (tonight anyway) at bay.

Grubauer got beaten by a brilliant individual effort from Cale Makar, whose shimmy down the wall turned into a give-and-go with Kadri and then a beautiful finish by Makar to make it 3-1 after the first period.

The second period then definitely happened. Shots favored Seattle 12-7 and the Avalanche power play looked, well, terrible. The Kraken were definitely in their element as they tried to protect that three-goal lead for 45 minutes.

Things got a little interesting near the end of the game when Artturi Lehkonen banged home a puck in a goalmouth scramble to make it 3-2 with just 3:20 left in the game, but everything after that was the same as it was before: Colorado couldn’t generate any kind of sustained push and the Kraken closed the game with relative ease.

This is part of the game story where I talk about how this felt like a preseason game, both with the lineup the Avs chose (except for Rantanen, who was a late scratch due to a non-COVID related illness) and in the energy they spent on it. This is exactly what a team playing not to get hurt looks like.

Outside of Makar and occasionally Bowen Byram, there were very few guys who were completely locked in and it would be unfair to dog Kadri too much given it was his first game back after missing eight.

Kadri missing an open net on the power play was a big moment in the game, but in the end this game simply doesn’t matter all that much outside of the President’s Trophy race, which Florida is now in control of based on the game in hand they hold.

It’s certainly disappointing anytime the Avs lose to a lesser team, especially a bottom-tier team whose front office is probably hoping they stop winning games to protect their draft lotto odds, but it just isn’t that deep. They didn’t play well, no doubt, but it’s okay for tonight.

Colorado leaves Seattle just as healthy as when they arrived (barring any surprises) and that was the true goal of the game. I’ll be writing that a lot this week, so I apologize if you tire of reading it.

The only real “concern” I’d have right now is that the Avs are running out of road to get their lineup back and playing together. There are still a lot of moving pieces and with Toews and Landeskog not even on the trip, which goes to Edmonton on Friday and into my stomping grounds up here in Winnipeg on Sunday, it means they’ll have a maximum of three games to get everyone into the lineup and knocking some of the rust off.

We don’t even know if Landeskog will be ready by that point because he and Ryan Murray are back in Denver doing light skating work. Unless that ramps up significantly as the week goes on, and it absolutely could, it seems at the moment like a longshot for the Game 1 lineup to have even played a single game together by the time it gets here.

That would be an interesting dynamic going into the postseason. Anyway, the Avs lost to Seattle tonight and I guess that was the point of today’s existence.

TAKEAWAYS

• I’ll start with thoughts on Colorado’s side. I love a lot of what we’re seeing from Byram right now. He is jumping into play and activating with all the confidence of, well, a Cale Makar. He’s moving pucks well and creating chances. He isn’t afraid to shoot his shot, as evidenced by him leading a short-handed rush and then missing the net entirely (not a great decision, but the confidence is great!) and by tapping his stick on the ice for a backdoor feed when the Avs had the puck in the corner. He sees openings and jumps into it. When those chances start to fall, Colorado’s defense is that much more dangerous. Where Byram’s play has concerned me the most is specifically in front of his own net. I’ve liked his engagement on defense, but I see Byram losing a lot of his battles in front. Some of this is experience because veteran forwards have a lot of tricks in the bag to win positioning. The only way for Byram to learn to defend that is to do it; right now it’s a struggle in results, but the effort is this. The real question I have is whether or not his learning curve can be accelerated enough for it not to be something opposing teams purposely attack in a best-of-seven series. We’ll see, but the way Byram has been a sponge and taken to learning through doing, I would never count him out.
• I’m curious just how banged up Erik Johnson really is because he’s missed a handful of games now when I thought we’d see more of a true rotation instead. I thought EJ was really riding the strugglebus his last few games in the lineup so hopefully this refresh helps him reset and get back on top of his game. At his best, he is a clear upgrade over Jack Johnson. At his worst, it’s much more of a dealer’s choice.
• From Seattle’s perspective, this is just me gushing about Matty Beniers. I’ve been watching Beniers since his age-16 season at the USNTDP when he was on the stacked U18 club that saw 14 players drafted that season (and 28 of the 32 who appeared for the 18-19 U18 team eventually got drafted, an incredible number) and he was the youngest guy on that club to get consistent burn. He’s all motor right now but he snagged an assist tonight and has points in his first four games for the Kraken after leaving Michigan following their Frozen Four loss to the Pios. He’s the future face of the Kraken and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up being their first longtime captain. He’s the kind of person and player an expansion team is meant to build around. For all the fantasy hockey people out there, have him on your darkhorse list for next season. He could make some real noise in the Calder race.