Takeaways from Avs' loss in Anaheim: Why did they try to fix what wasn't broken?

CALIFORNIA – Remember last Saturday? No? Let me rewind:

That day, the Colorado Avalanche went into Nashville and shut out the Predators 5-0, not even 17 hours after they’d gone in to Chicago and beaten the Blackhawks in their barn. The Avs played aggressive, smart, team hockey, with a roster specked with some youngsters who really helped add to the cause. Guys like Ryan Graves. Guys like A.J. Greer. Guys like Andrew Agozzino.

Guys who had yet to taste much success in the National Hockey League, but who have all persevered for it in their own ways. It was a happy team, a team suddenly believing in itself again.

Then came Monday, trade deadline day. Out went Greer and Agozzino, in came veteran Derick Brassard. Then came later in the week. Out went Graves and in came veteran Ian Cole. Also in came veteran forwards Gabriel Bourque and Colin Wilson.

The record since that amazing win in Nashville: 1-2-1. Coincidence?

I don’t know, but I know what a lot of you out there think, when I posed this exact question on Twitter today:

Last Saturday, Avs shut out Nashville on road to go 5-1-0 with a lineup mixed more with eager youngters like Graves, Aggie, Greer. They are 1-1-1 since with vets like Bourque and Wilson and Cole, and down 2-0 to bad Anaheim team. Coincidence?

— Adrian Dater (@adater) March 3, 2019

Take a look at some of the responses. No, Jared Bednar’s latest roster moves have not gone over too well.

And look, I’m not a massive second-guesser of coaches. I’ve always judged things more on what I see in front of me, from the players, than what I might not see as much from behind the scenes, and a lot of that is coaching.

But, yeah, count me among the people who just don’t get it when it comes to playing a guy like Gabriel Bourque anymore. Gabriel Bourque played 4 minutes, 18 seconds today. He took a hooking penalty at 8:45 of the second period, which led to Cam Fowler’s power-play goal. That was also, it would turn out to be, the game-winning goal.

Bourque never played another shift after that. So, yeah, fair question: Why do you keep playing Gabriel Bourque, coach Bednar? Why was A.J. Greer sent down to make room for this guy? Or, Agozzino? Is it all about saving on the salary cap?

If so, OK then. You get what you pay for.

Because that penalty and subsequent PP goal was a major factor in the Avs falling further behind in the playoff chase, with only 17 games to go. A playoff appearance is generally considered to mean at least $1 million per game in pure profit for the owners, maybe a bit more now. So, that savings of Greer being down in the minors, in favor of paying the one-way ticket to Bourque?

Starting to look pennywise and pound foolish there, Messrs. Bednar, Joe Sakic and Chris MacFarland.

Even Sheldon Dries would have made for a better and more justifiable roster play today against Anaheim, than the non-producing, penalty-prone Bourque. But after what I thought was a pretty decent game by Dries in San Jose, out he goes in favor of Bourque.

You get what you pay for.

Look, I get why Graves got the short end of the straw vis a vis the return of Ian Cole. Cole is a veteran, a big-ticket guy who has won Stanley Cups. If he’s healthy enough to play, logic says you have to play him. But the fact is, the Avs are now 0-2 since the return of Cole, and on Sunday in Anaheim, No. 28 certainly did NO favors to the team with his play.

He only played 7:21 overall. Why? Because he chose to stick out a knee on Anaheim’s Devin Shore and send him tumbling to the ice in major pain. That earned Cole a 5-minute major game misconduct. While the Ducks didn’t score on the PP, the Avs had to play the rest of the game – from the 13:52 mark of the second period on – with only five defensemen. That’s never good. especially for a team playing from behind.

I think Cole will be suspended by the league for this one. So, that will probably get Graves back in the lineup. But that’s not how you want it to have happened.

The re-insertion of Colin Wilson to the lineup has done absolutely nothing for the team. He’s too slow, period, end of story.

In short: Avs management and coaching tried to fix what wasn’t broke. They didn’t realize well enough, probably, that some of the resurgence had to do with youngsters, hungry for success, bringing new energy to the team. But when the older guys came back? It looks like they’re just punching a clock.

At this point, the Avs just look like a team that doesn’t deserve the postseason. The players don’t seem to want it bad enough.

And the coaches/management don’t seem to have a handle on what their best options are.

OBSERVATIONS AND OTHER NOTES

• You just have to watch this clip of Anaheim’s first goal to see how poor puck decisions by Avs players in the neutral zone continue to haunt them. Alexander Kefoot here tries to make a risky backhand lead pass into the Anaheim zone, only to see it intercepted and fed to Jakob Silfverberg, who skates past a flat-footed Kerfoot and beat Philipp Grubauer for the first goal of the game:

An example of the kind of poor hockey sense Avs have had all day. Kerfoot makes bad lead pass, then caught flat-footed when puck goes other way pic.twitter.com/2L6gcWuYhH

— Adrian Dater (@adater) March 3, 2019

• There was word before the game that Nathan MacKinnon was nearly scratched because of the flu. Avs PR, though, denied it was that close of a thing that could have happened.

When the opposing team’s scoring chances in close resemble an avocado on the heat map? You know it was a bad day. So it went for Anaheim’s close-in chances compared to Colorado’s.

• Sam Girard made a great play late, breaking up a breakaway by Daniel Sprong, to keep it a 2-1 game.
• Is it me, or does Tyson Barrie seem kind of tired? Where are the big rushes through the neutral zone? Where is the creativity with the puck off the rush or on the power play? He’s gone 16 straight games without a goal.
• To me, this look from Jared Bednar on the bench today said it all: