Penguins get one more save than Avs in overtime decision

60 minutes of hockey and the outcome can come down to something as small as one shift, one decision, one save made.

Or in Colorado’s case, one save not made.

Again.

Entering another third period with a lead in front of their home crowd, the Avalanche once again found their way to a loss, this time 4-3 in overtime to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The teams played an intense, fast-paced game and thanks to a laugher of a goal allowed by Matt Murray, Colorado led 2-1 after two periods. They had some good luck. They played pretty well against a very good team.

And in the end, it still just wasn’t enough.

Pavel Francouz got the start after watching Philipp Grubauer flounder with his opportunity to cement the job and all Francouz did was further muddy the waters as two of the four goals he gave up were nothing short of terrible.

This loss is really only half of that as the Avs did manage to get a point out of it and even that felt like a victory given their season-long problems coming from behind.

Trailing 3-2 with under a minute to play, Colorado finally scored with the extra attacker this year and pushed a game they had lost into one they would only sort of lose. Matt Calvert’s deflection of a Cale Makar shot injected a little life into the Avalanche but it didn’t carry into the extra period.

Neither team really generated much in the way of quality chances in overtime and the game-winning goal wasn’t anything outside of Francouz giving up another soft goal. It’s a hard life when you play okay in overtime (not good, not bad) and lose on a weak goal.

That’s Colorado’s problem right now. At least one thing is majorly misfiring every night and too often that thing is stopping pucks.

Colorado finally got on top of the special teams battle, keeping the Penguins from scoring on their PP chances and scoring on their own PP in the first period. They won special teams and then lost even strength.

That’s just how the cookie is crumbling once again for Colorado as they are repeating their December/January struggles of recent years. Now, their struggles this year haven’t quite been on the level of previous seasons but in a hyper-competitive Central Division, any opening will be filled by one of their division rivals.

After watching the Avalanche put themselves in position to scratch and claw until the final week of the season just to make the playoffs the last two years, this midseason swoon once again is betraying a strong start that positioned themselves for a more leisurely run to the postseason.

Instead, Colorado has lost second place in the division and sit just five points over Vancouver for being out of the playoffs entirely.

With four more home games this month before the All-Star break, Colorado badly needs to get back into the win column.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• Let’s just start with goaltending. It’s not good enough. Grubauer, Francouz, it hasn’t mattered. It just hasn’t been good enough from either of them lately. Francouz has now gotten two starts (Minnesota, tonight) when Grubauer was struggling and he gave up soft third period goals in each of those games and gave up a combined nine goals in those two games. Each time the Avs have opened the door a little for him to steal more playing time, he’s botched the opportunity. At some point, those opportunities will stop coming.
• I just don’t see where even the most ardent of goaltender defenders can have no problems with what Francouz put on the ice tonight. There are always things players can do better on goals against but you literally pay a goaltender to be back there when mistakes happen and keep the pucks out. No team in the NHL is going to clear the puck every time or flawlessly handle a great forecheck or avoid making a mistake when making split-second decisions. You have to get help from the guy in the back end wearing all that extra gear.
• At the same time, it took the Avs getting the break of all breaks and a desperation, late-minute goal to even get to the three goals to get to overtime. That isn’t going to be good enough most nights but the offense has been so steady this season that I’m not going to make too many waves about it.
• This game was very tightly-contested at even strength and despite the loss, it once again shows Colorado can absolutely hang with the best in the NHL. Even without Sidney Crosby, the Penguins have been rolling along easy peasy. They’re one of the best in the league once again and the Avs finish their season series 0-0-2 against them. Two of four points with two overtime losses isn’t the worst outcome against a very good team but the points left on the board are starting to add up very quickly.
• Going back to last month, the home losses to Carolina, Chicago, Minnesota, and now Pittsburgh were all games in which they had leads in the third period. For them to walk out with one point from those four games badly stings. Add in a road overtime loss to Dallas in which they also gave up a third-period lead and you’re looking at two out of ten points gained with eight left on the board. That’s a real problem! Colorado has to get back to finishing games.
• While these struggles continue, Sam Girard has been nothing short of a superstar the last five games. He casually added a couple more assists tonight and looks awesome moving the puck. He played in his 200th career game tonight and it’s wild to think he’s already appeared in that many given how young he still is. I think it’s easy to take for granted where Colorado’s defense is now but there’s still such a bright future on the horizon for that unit. Just get through this season and get to the growing pains with Bowen Byram (and maybe Conor Timmins?) and see what these guys can do. Girard and Makar each had game-changing moments in this one. I don’t know how the Avs lose in OT with these cats. They should figure that out. Anyway, mad appreciation for Girard again tonight.
• Shoot the puck, Burakovsky. He got just a little too cute in overtime and eschewed an open look trying to make a crazy play to Makar on the backdoor. If it works, he’s a genius. If it doesn’t, I’m writing this bit about him needing to shoot instead. That’s life when you have an odd-man rush in overtime and fail to register a shot on goal.