Takeaways from Avs' loss to Wild: It feels like this is rock bottom

They zoomed out to start the season and, at one time, were the envy of the NHL – a young, talented team building on a previous playoff appearance, with the potential No. 1 pick in the draft coming and a couple other studs in the system.

The Colorado Avalanche goes into the All-Star break an object of pity, a skittering, bumbling team that has the worst record in the league since Dec. 3.

What happened? Honestly, it beats me. This extended Avs skid probably hit a new low Wednesday night, with a sluggish, passion-free 5-2 loss to the division rival Wild at the Pepsi Center.

These are my takeaways:

• The game turned on a couple of things: the tripping call Ian Cole took on Jason Zucker to give Minnesota  5-on-3, which they promptly scored on with an Eric Staal marker. The other was a double-minor for high-sticking to Tyson Barrie later in the second, which seemed to exhaust everybody to the point they gave up a goal with 23 seconds left in the second, giving the Wild a two-goal lead.
• The defense and goaltending were, to be charitable, very spotty again. Philipp Grubauer did nothing to re-establish himself as a potential No. 1 goalie. Tough to defend against two 5-on-3s, but some of the other goals it just seemed like Grubauer was a half-second slow in his reaction times.
• The biggest surprise for me in this slide? I’d have to go with how invisible Sam Girard seems most nights now. Seems like he’s lost the confidence to carry the puck as long as he used to. Where are the spin-o-ramas that always got him out of any potential harm’s way? Why does he seem a step slower than he once was? His giveaway in the first period led to a Wild goal.
• Avs only had 11 shots in the final two periods. For a team playing from behind, that’s embarrassing.
• What is up with this team’s discipline? So many penalties, and bad ones. The Avs entered this game as the team with the most penalty minutes in the NHL, at 486, an average of 10.3 a game. How does a team with no fighters, not many truly physical guys, have the most PIMs in the league???
• Why is it that every time an Avs player loses a stick, it’s in the back of the net, or so it seems? I didn’t know why Matt Calvert got rid of his stick on the first of those 5-on-3s. He blocked a shot with it, and apparently it had a crack on it. But the stick still looked good enough to play with – it wasn’t in pieces, but Zach Parise pointed out to the refs that it had a crack, and the rule is you can’t play with a broken stick. It’s now essentially a 5-on-2.5, and the puck winds up in the back of the net with Calvert unable to get a stick on the crossing pass in front to Eric Staal.
• Nathan MacKinnon just hasn’t been good enough. One goal in the six games before the break. Too many soft plays with the puck in the neutral zone. Taking too long to make decisions on the power play.
• Ryan Graves waaaay overstayed his shift on the goal that made it 4-2 at the end of the second. He was too gassed to move much toward the end of it, and the puck wound up in the back of the net partially because of that. Otherwise, I thought he was good.
• The whole Avs team was mostly on the same side of the ice prior to that Jared Spurgeon goal that tied it 2-2 in the first. Where is the discipline, to know you can’t all bunch up like that? Spurgeon had a clear lane down the other side when he got the puck.
• There are four other Western teams within one or two points of the Avs in the race for the spot the Avs still hold – the second spot in the Wild Card race.
• Someone on twitter pointed out that maybe the Avs’ own first-round pick might be a higher one than that of the Ottawa Senators – which they own. Hey, it might. Colorado only is nine points ahead of Ottawa. Forget about trading that pick, I’d say. I don’t think the Avs ever would have, but now you have to war plan for maybe that pick being the real lottery pick.
• Jared Bednar looks really frustrated. He seems to have lost something in his connection to his players. He seems genuinely mystified as to why his players seemingly just don’t care enough right now, or why they keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
• Has he “lost the room” or something like that? Oh, I’d doubt that. He’s not a ranter or raver in the room. A player currently on the team told me he rarely yells in the room. I don’t think he rubs players the wrong way with his actions. But right now, the players just don’t seem too inspired. Is this a coaching problem? I don’t know. But to me, Bednar does not seem like the problem. I think this is on the top guys, not doing enough right now, goalies not making saves and guys taking too many stupid penalties. The players need to get away and relax these next nine days. They also need to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they really want this bad enough entering the final 32 games..

NOTES AND QUOTES FROM AVS PR

The Avs are now 1-2-0 against the Wild this season with one more game remaining in the 2018-19 series, on March 19 at Minnesota. The Avalanche finished 1-for-2 on the power play and is now 4-for15 (26.7%) with the man advantage over their last four games. Overall, Colorado is 47-for-187 (25.1%) on the power play this season, the
sixth-ranked unit in the league.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Carl Soderberg reached a new career high with his 17th goal of the season, surpassing his previous career high of 16 set both last season and in 2013-14 with Boston. He has tallied eight points (6g, 2a) over his
last eight outings and is tied with Mikko Rantanen for the team lead in goals in the month of January (6).
Tyson Barrie notched his sixth goal of the season and the 67th of his career. He’s just one goal shy of matching John-Michael Liles for second on the franchise’s all-time list of goals by a defenseman. Barrie’s 39 points in 2018-19 is tied for seventh among NHL blueliners.
Mikko Rantanen tallied an assist and now has 74 points (23g, 51a)
this season, ranked second in the league behind Tampa Bay’s Nikita
Kucherov (78 points). His 74 points is the most by any Avalance player
before the All-Star Break, surpassing Joe Sakic’s 72 points in 2000-01.
Matt Calvert tallied an assist and has recorded seven points (2g, 5a)
over his last 10 outings.
Patrik Nemeth matched a career high with six hits (also: Dec. 19, 2018
vs. Montreal).
Nikita Zadorov played a season-high 25:53.

QUOTES
Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog
On The Avs’ Performance: “Obviously, we’re not making any excuses, believe me, we need a whole lot
better from everybody to win hockey games, but it’s unfortunate when they get two 5-on-3s and they
miss that one. It ends up in the back of the net unfortunately. We need to be better. We have two leads
to begin the game and we can’t build on them.”
On Playing Against Minnesota: “Usually we play good against them and I thought we did tonight too
for two periods, and then there was nothing in the third for us. We weren’t able to get goals, we weren’t
able to generate any shots. Wild fans or not in the building, it doesn’t really matter to me. It’s a division
matchup and we have to be able to win these.”
Colorado C Carl Soderberg
On Tonight’s Game: “We have to look at it. Obviously, they get the third goal and then we have to chase
in the third and give up some chances.”
On The Timing Of The Break: “I think it doesn’t really matter. Maybe it’s good for us to get a break and
forget about all of the losses and come back fresh hopefully. But at the same time, I think we just have
to dig in and play a little bit better and that’s what we want to do.”
Minnesota C Mikko Koivu
On Shot Blocking: “We talked about it at intermission. Seels (Minnesota D Nick Seeler) first and then
Marcus (Minnesota LW Marcus Foligno) as well in the same shift, so I think the message in the room
was just, if that doesn’t get you going as a team and as a player, I don’t think there’s nothing better
than that. For sure that was a booster for the third period and brought this team together tonight.”
On Scoring After The Blocked Shots: “Well that’s why we scored. We block those shots and we go the
other way and we score. No one thinks about it that way, but that’s the story of the last two minutes
there.”

On His Shot Blocks: “Just kind of doing everything I can to get in front of it. Thankfully they hit me in
pretty decent spots, but we ended up getting the win which was most important tonight. Especially
going into break on a high note, feeling good about ourselves.”
On Tonight’s Game: “I think everyone was going tonight, everyone was doing their job and playing well
and playing for the guy next to him, so that’s how we’re going to be successful moving forward.”

• Happy break, people.
• And, hey, it’s Thursday. Get your $1 Dunkin’ iced or hot coffee using your Dunkin’ app. Avs fans get this deal every Thursday in the regular season.