Reigning champs capitalize on Colorado's mistakes and keep them off the scoresheet in 7-0 win

Colorado managed to course correct against the St. Louis Blues with their 4-1 win on Wednesday. Their challenge tonight was certainly more difficult. The Avs took on the Vegas Golden Knights amidst their title defense season.

The Knights were off to a championship caliber start: 10-0-1 in their first 11 games. They haven’t lost in regulation and have been firing on all cylinders. Tonight was no exception. For the third game in the last four, the Avs were shutout. Vegas took the win 7-0.

The Avs went back to a familiar lineup. Alexandar Georgiev earned the start in net and Tomas Tatar and Jonathan Drouin came back in. Jared Bednar kept Logan O’Connor elevated to the third line and tested Tatar on the fourth line wing spot. O’Connor took extra shifts on the fourth line in Tatar’s place at times.

After some tough shifts from Val Nichushkin, Tatar got a look on the second line in his place as well. It really took hold after the fifth-allowed goal which came short-handed.

Drouin got a chance on the second line with Ryan Johansen and Nichushkin.

Their first period wasn’t catastrophic, but it didn’t set the Avs up for success. Johansen took a hooking call early in the period and put the Avs on their heels. Instead of establishing a rhythm five-on-five out the gate, they would test their penalty kill.

Colorado has one of the best penalty kills in the league right now, and fortunately it remained strong.

Shortly after their first kill, they were back on another. That damage to their momentum early on was evident when they received two powerplay opportunities of their own later in the period.

On their second chance, Nathan MacKinnon turned the puck over in the offensive zone and Vegas capitalized on it in transition. They managed to set up inside Colorado’s end.

Cale Makar lost an edge and took a hard spill on the backcheck. Brayden McNabb faked a shot on net and passed the puck to Mark Stone waiting at the corner. Stone knocked in it uncontested.

Vegas gained an edge in the shots battle. Colorado spent a good amount of time creating in Vegas’ end, but the Knights managed their lanes very well defensively and didn’t allow the Avs to generate much inside homeplate.

In the second period, the wheels came off and the Avs allowed three goals.

Midway through, Nichushkin dropped the puck back in the Knights’ end and turned the puck over to Alex Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo extended the stretch pass down ice to Jonathan Marchesseault who fed Jack Eichel skating in. Eichel set up at the right circle and wristed it far-side.

A few minutes later Nichushkin meant to rim the puck around the boards to clear, but it bounced off the wall straight to Chandler Stephenson. Stephenson handed it to Stone who tapped the puck from the slot over to William Carrier who gave it a slight toe drag and wristed it in.

That goal was particularly deflating. Ross Colton took an interference penalty and the Avs were down the man-advantage. 

Stone delivered a beautiful slot pass to Eichel at the left circle and Eichel dropped to one knee and one-timed it in.

Vegas registered 11 shots on net in the second period. Colorado actually created more with 12 shots of their own, but only one registered as a high-danger chance. Vegas had three.

The key difference was that Vegas didn’t make many mistakes. At least six of their seven allowed goals came from mistakes of their own creation. The other was came from just getting beat on the powerplay.

Ben Hutton took a high-sticking penalty in the opening minutes of the final period. On the powerplay, Bo Byram tried to settle the puck along the boards. He lost the battle and Nichushkin and Devon Toews got beat in the race back to the puck. Toews got a touch on his stick, but Stone was able to wack it past Georgiev on the second try. It was the second short-handed goal of the game.

Two minutes later, O’Connor went to the box for a pretty flimsy tripping call. If there were any positives inside a 7-0 shutout loss, it’d be the kill stopping three of four powerplay chances even with one of their best PK’ers in the box.

There weren’t many victories inside this game, however.

At 9:13 in the third period, Drouin was embroiled in a puck battle and shipped the puck behind him presumably intended for Byram up high. It ended up on Pavel Dorofeyev’s stick instead and he sent it up to William Karlsson. Karlsson slipped it five-hole.

With six minutes to go, Karlsson scored his second of the night. A turnover at the defensive blueline caused the Avs to scramble all over themselves. Dorofeyev threw the puck behind his back and Karlsson batted it in at the far-post.

At the mercy of the Colorado Avalanche, the final buzzer sounded. Vegas improved to 11-0-1 on the season with the 7-0 victory.

It’s not fatal for the Avs season as a whole, but it is disappointing. In a game that could have served as a preview for a Western Conference Final, the Avs missed the memo. It’s difficult to key in on goaltending on a night with zero goal support.

Certainly Georgiev probably could have had a better handle on the seventh goal, but it must be debilitating for a goalie’s confidence to get no support in his last three starts. That’s where the leadership of this Avs group can intervene moving forward.

Momentum shifts inside a game can be difficult to produce from thin air, especially when the conventional parts of the game aren’t clicking and pucks aren’t going in.

But tonight, the Avs didn’t play with enough intention. They were limited to the perimeter and struggled to get inside ice.

Cale Makar’s reverse-hit in the Carolina game allowed that game to change course and the team rallied around it.

That was a component missing tonight. The rally cry that would invoke a “never say die” sort of attitude.

Pulling it back into perspective: there are 72 more games left for the Avs to figure this out – that’s a significant amount of season. They’re currently one point out of the first place spot in the Central Division.

Colorado will return home for a three game homestand. It’s the longest they’ve been home to start the season, so hopefully the routine will help them return to some normalcy.

Their next game is on Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils and the Avs will get a second crack at a measuring stick game against a good Eastern team.