Takeaways from Colorado's frustrating loss to Arizona

GLENDALE – That, folks, is exactly how you blow an opportunity to make life easier for yourself. Given a four-game homestand with three games against teams on the outside of the playoff picture, Colorado went 2-2. They finished up their extremely mediocre week by laying an egg in Arizona in a 6-4 loss to the Coyotes.

Sure, they made this one interesting with three third-period goals that brought them back from being down 4-1. But against a team that’s likely already playing for draft position, why in the world were you down by three to begin with? What is it about this team that just doesn’t seem ready to handle sustained success yet?

There’s a lot of talk about culture in the world of sports and when the Avalanche shifted their mindset ten years ago under Francois Giguere’s leadership to more of a draft-and-develop organization, everyone knew they were in for a bumpy ride.

Fast forward a decade and you find an Avalanche organization that has made the postseason just three times in that time span. They’ve failed to make the postseason in consecutive years since their current GM was still playing for them.

It hasn’t been the most successful time is what I’m saying. Weeks like what the Avs just put up are why fans are so hesitant to believe this team is for real. They fight through slumps better than they used to as the 4-1 fight they showed was non-existent just two years ago. They would’ve lost this 8-1 back then. But they still lost. And that’s the whole point.

Every time you’re ready to believe this organization might be ready to turn the corner onto something bigger, they give a stretch like this and you throw your hands up in confusion. How can any of us tell who they are when they clearly haven’t figured it out yet?

Takeaways from the game

• Let’s just start here: Philipp Grubauer should never have started this game. I don’t care that Pavel Francouz was a late arrival, flying in after they learned Semyon Varlamov was too sick to play. They’ve had Grubauer as the backup all season and tonight was his third game in four nights. He doesn’t have the starter’s stamina to suddenly take on that kind of workload. History is against goaltenders playing both ends of a B2B anyway but in situations like this, you’re just failing your team by not going with the other guy. Francouz eventually found his way into the game and was great. I asked Bednar after the game if this performance will give him more confidence in Francouz moving forward and he said it definitely did. We’ll see.
• Francouz was exceptional, though, and his performance overall should not be forgotten because the goal he gave up was so unfortunate. He just never saw it until it was way too late and that’s a really tough spot to be in. He needed to make that stop, obviously, but let’s not overlook the great work leading up to that, including two stops on the same breakaway. He was awesome in his NHL debut.
• The decision from Landeskog to fight fourth line and otherwise no-impact Lawson Crouse right after the Avalanche tied the game was extremely questionable. Colorado was rocking and rolling and Arizona was the deer caught in the headlights. The fight, even though Crouse got the Christmas spirit beat out of him, ended up a boon for Arizona as they were energized by the one-sided tilt and most importantly took Landeskog off the ice for five crucial minutes. I get a guy wired like Landeskog isn’t going to hesitate to throw down when stepped to but in a situation like that you’d maybe want to see him make a different choice. Maybe.
• With Nikita Zadorov on the shelf due to injury, he has a whole menagerie of pets he’s made around the league just running wild without him there to tend to his flock. In his absence, I was curious if anyone on the Avalanche was going to step up and bring that big-hitting presence to the game. Enter Nathan MacKinnon, whose shift in the third period is the stuff of YouTube sizzle reels, as he turned Clayton Keller into his new pet before scoring the game-tying goal on an absolute laser of a shot.
• That MacKinnon can simply decide to take over a shift like that is what makes him one of the NHL’s elite. It’s also what makes the rest of his game SO FRUSTRATING TO WATCH sometimes. When you know he has that in him and he plays so far from that level. He hasn’t been near as special lately as he’s been coasting on doing all the little things that add up to combine with his talent to make him the molotov cocktail of elite that he has been since last year. But holy smokes, what a shift!
• This team is still very much lacking a true identity. When wild variance in play becomes your identity, it’s very hard to break out of that rut. Bednar and the leadership group needs to make sure the second half of the season sees them at least give more consistent effort than they finished with the last couple of weeks.
• I’ve long criticized the way Bednar has utilized Carl Soderberg the last two seasons but Soderberg himself seems to have really taken to the role. I’ve been doing some digging on Soderberg’s impact on the game and Bednar might have actually found a diamond in the rough with his rugged Swedish center.
• Alexander Kerfoot continues to prove he’s Colorado’s best scoring threat outside of the top line. Instead of slick passing, Kerfoot set up shop in front of Arizona’s net and worked his way to two rebound goals. Given his lack of size, his willingness to go into those areas and take a beating to make those plays is what gives you hope this Colorado team can be special in the future. Kerfoot and J.T. Compher are both cut from the cloth of maniacs where they just don’t care about their size.
• Sven Andrighetto is like that as well but his effectiveness waxes and wanes like cycles of the moon. His decision to just throw a puck on net instead of making the perfect play created Colorado’s first goal and is an attitude that would make a significant difference if more of his teammates bought into it.
• Tyson Jost’s struggles continued and today was one of the worst games I’ve seen him play in a while. With the power play riding the struggle bus, he made it worse by essentially clearing a puck for the Coyotes when he took a low-risk shot that missed the net entirely and rimmed around the boards and out of the zone. Colorado’s biggest problem on the PP lately has been mental breakdowns like that. We saw it on the first PP of the game when Compher blindly threw the puck to nobody in particular and it ended up at center ice. Not great, Bob.
• Speaking of PP woes, it was nice to see Barrie replaced by Girard on the top unit as the top group has stagnated so hard it looks like they’re skating in tar. Of course, Girard’s own issues immediately cropped up when he was unable to get his shot through traffic and on goal multiple times. Colorado has the talent to have one of the NHL’s highest-scoring bluelines but they just can’t seem to all put it together at similar times.
• Anton Lindholm might want to reconsider the next time he goes to steal a puck from his goaltender who is actively trying to cover the puck. His swipe from Grubauer meant he had to make a follow-up decision and his was to pass to Kerfoot, who was covered along the wall. Kerfoot then lost the puck battle and it stayed in the zone, leading to Arizona’s first goal shortly after.
• That was the story of Colorado’s breakout all game. They couldn’t generate much on the rush because their breakouts lacked fluidity and cohesion. With no days of practice between games due to the Christmas break, Avs players will need to right the ship on their own before taking on Vegas next week.
• Colorado has been a great opponent for hat tricks and first NHL points against this season. Conor Garland snagged his first NHL goal today and Ilya Lyubushkin grabbed his first NHL point on Garland’s goal.
• Lyubushkin tried to lay a huge hit in the third period but ended up being trucked over by Gabriel Bourque instead. It was an amusing moment to me at least.
• Brad Richardson will be remembered for his game-winning and empty-net goals tonight but his backcheck right before his GWG broke up an excellent scoring chance for Colorado and maybe have been the actual turning point of the final few minutes. It wasn’t the sexiest play but looking back on it, boy was it a huge moment.