Sleepy Avs never wake up as Blues topple them in series finale

Sometimes you can just feel a stinker of a game coming up. It’s been a while since the Avalanche really had one (the 8-3 loss at Minnesota to end their point streak certainly qualifies) but tonight’s 4-1 loss was the first time since maybe opening night where it felt like they weren’t even competitive.

There were those few minutes in the first period when neither team had scored and the Avs held a small advantage in shots on goal but when the Blues scored their first goal, it wasn’t a particularly large surprise.

When Colorado didn’t mount any kind of meaningful pushback, falling down 3-0 before scoring on a power play and then immediately getting scored on to make it 4-1 and erase all momentum of scoring, it was a lot more surprising.

You look back at all of Colorado’s worst losses this year and this was the only time they felt truly incapable of coming back and at least making it interesting. From the 8-3 loss to the Wild to the twin 6-2 losses to Minnesota and San Jose, even the 3-0 loss to Vegas on home ice, all of those had moments and stretches where Colorado dominated stretches of those games and either got shut down by great goaltending or self-inflicted mistakes.

None of that happened tonight. Colorado got down and seemingly just accepted their fate. There’s no doubt the losses to three of their top forwards (Brandon Saad, Mikko Rantanen, Joonas Donskoi) played a role in some of their issues. Jonas Johansson got hung out to dry but he certainly wasn’t at his best, either.

Okay, some personnel issues played a role in those struggles. Why the all-around awful effort from a defense that’s mostly healthy?

The only player not in Colorado’s lineup right now that likely will be come the start of the playoffs is Bowen Byram, who is likely set for a third-pairing role when he gets back into the thick of things.

Yet, the blueline was terrible. Cale Makar had his second straight poor defensive showing but didn’t have three points on offense to serve as some sort of a counterbalance. Both Sam Girard and Devon Toews looked tired and, just in general, terrible.

About the only two players who looked like they had any life at all were Val Nichushkin and Tyson Jost. That’s not going to get it done.

This is usually where I revert to the big picture and point to everything being all good (it still is, they’re in the playoffs and such) but after such a poor performance it doesn’t feel like the night for any pick-me-ups. Sometimes it’s just better to wear the scarlet A for a day and that day is today for the Avs.

Now, this is a group that has had a fierce attitude in the face of plenty of adversity this season between a rough string of injuries and multiple COVID pauses so I’m not pushing any kind of panic button. The Avs play Vegas twice the rest of this year but otherwise have eight games against the Sharks and Kings. They will have all the opportunity to eat greedy against the weaker teams and get their mojo back.

They didn’t have it today and the Blues did. The back-to-back losses against the Blues dropped the Avs to a final season series record of 5-3.

TAKEAWAYS

• The Avs are facing kind of a weird situation with Cale Makar. Given that Ryan Graves really hasn’t broken out of his season-long funk, there’s clearly a desire from the coaching staff to find a more consistent partner for him to play with but there are two complicating factors here making it tough. One is that Devon Toews and Sam Girard have been outstanding together more often than not so breaking them up feels unnecessary. The other is that if you look at the results produced by Graves and Makar together and apart, they show that both players are benefitting from this pairing. It hasn’t been Makar propping up Graves the way the common narrative has gone. Rather, it’s a symbiotic relationship where no matter who Makar plays with, he doesn’t see quite the same level of success as he does next to Graves. I have no idea why that is but it’s where they are right now. If I’m Jared Bednar and the staff, I’m looking to find an answer to the Makar partner question before the postseason begins. If it ends up being Graves, so be it, but I think I would make that a focus for the final 10 games of the season.
• The deadline was a really safe and efficient one for the Avs as bringing back two players familiar with what they want to do as a team in a COVID world where practice time doesn’t exist was a smart play. The low costs to acquire Soderberg and Nemeth also helped make them palatable decisions that made perfect sense. Great. Now that it’s come time for those guys to actually do something, however, they have not rewarded the Avs’ faith in them. Soderberg has been the better of the two simply by not being an active detriment to the club but he hasn’t done anything offensively and looks slow and out place at times. Nemeth’s reunion has been a disaster so far. I know we’re only talking a couple of games here but we’ve seen all of the familiar negatives from Nemeth’s game (poor puck everything, from execution to decisions, especially in his own zone) and none of the upside (PK ability, shot-blocking acumen, some physicality) the Avs were hoping to get. Apparently, Jacob MacDonald somehow got hurt over the last COVID pause so the Avs are down to relying on Conor Timmins, Bowen Byram, Dan Renouf, Keaton Middleton, Kyle Burroughs in that sixth D spot. They simply need more from the established veteran they went and got in Patrik Nemeth. Graves, too, since we’re here.
• I’m not sure I get what’s going on with Logan O’Connor. He practices in a regular jersey with the team, Bednar says he’s a candidate to play on the trip, and they roll out three straight games with Liam O’Brien on their fourth line. Is LOC healthy and a candidate to play or what’s up? This isn’t a criticism of anyone, I just personally miss watching him play. He would have been the exact kind of candidate to spark this Avalanche team tonight with a hard-working shift or a big hit or something. O’Brien is that guy in theory and he once again provided absolutely nothing of substance.
• I like Kiefer Sherwood. I would be interested in the Avs running it back with a guy like him in future years.
• First two back-to-back regulation losses since February 24 when they lost to Vegas and Minnesota.
• Loss has the Avs clinging to second place in the West with Minnesota trailing by just one point with now just one game in hand. Minnesota has five games against the Blues and two against Vegas left on their schedule so it’s certainly a tougher road remaining for them than the Avalanche.