The Avalanche still have some learning to do before getting to the bigger stage

I’m not sure I buy into the old “X-Y-Z team doesn’t know how to win yet, X-Y-Z team needs to go through more of a learning curve before they can win, It’s not quite X-Y-Z’s turn to win just yet.” A lot of the time that’s just armchair media hogwash, pundits looking for an easy angle. Lots of young teams have come out of nowhere to win championships in pro sports.

All that said: the vast difference in playoff experience between the San Jose Sharks and the Avalanche was writ large in Game 3 Tuesday night, and stands to reason why the Sharks could well go on to the Western Conference finals against a team that probably has a bit more speed and talent.

The Avalanche came out to a blizzard of white pom-poms at the Pepsi Center, with many in the fandom convinced this might be an easy night. It’s not a sin for them to have thought that way, as the Avs won Game 2 going away in San Jose and blasted a supposedly better Calgary Flames team in the first round.

But the savvy, cagey Sharks taught them and the younger Avalanche a lesson they probably won’t forget anytime soon: Experience still matters in the NHL playoffs.

The Avs were quickly shown by the Sharks that they won’t be able to just dance around at home like they could against the Flames. San Jose took advantage of a team that started curiously flat, as if this were a game in October and not on the brink of May. Despite a valiant comeback and portions of a game in which they outplayed the Sharks, the Avs in the end just made too many mistakes to beat such an experienced team.

No one knew that more than Avs coach Jared Bednar, who was very critical of his team in a few areas, all relating to hard work and communication.

“The story of that game, for me, is: we didn’t consistently work for the puck, we didn’t talk to the puck, our execution was poor and we made some bonehead decisions with the puck,” Bednar said. “The bulk of their scoring chances come off turnover plays and mismanaging the puck and just poor execution.”

Nowhere was that more evident than on the biggest goal of the night, scored by Logan Couture with 7:10 left – just 1:05 after Matt Nieto had scored to tie it 2-2, a goal that made the house explode.

But one of hockey’s oldest buzzsaws “the first shift after a goal is the most important shift” burned the Avs. Gabe Landeskog, who had a rough night in all aspects, tried to chip a puck up the wall on his forehand from deep in the left circle. Teammate Mikko Rantanen was cherry-picking too far up the ice, stand near the red line, and he couldn’t therefore do battle with the Sharks’ Gustav Nyquist, who intercepted the puck inside the Avs’ blue line. He fed Timo Meier, who fed Couture, who beat Landeskog and Nikita Zadorov to the side of the net and roofed a shot past Philipp Grubauer. That was your game. That was one of your “bonehead” decisions with the puck.

It wasn’t just Landy’s fault there. Rantanen (minus-3) was slow and suspect positionally all night. He and Landeskog weren’t in communication, be it spoken or unspoken. It was one of many scrambly moments the Avs had overall and you can’t do that in a playoff game against a smart, veteran team and expect to get away with it.

“They work and they check and they track pucks,” Bednar said of the Sharks. “They defend hard. That’s what they do. All of our dumps were soft and cute. They must have knocked down six or eight of our dumps at the tops of the circles, and their D don’t have to turn and we didn’t get a chance to forecheck consistently enough. Then, we’re forcing plays and getting cute with it in the neutral zone…even at the end, we tie it, we’re goin’ at it, we’re emptying the tank and we tie it. Then they shoot a puck down the ice and one guy goes back for it and everybody else watches him work and it ends up in the back of our net. You can’t do that.”

This series ain’t over. The Sharks are not a powerhouse team. This could well be an even-steven series going back to San Jose on Saturday. But the Sharks have home-ice advantage back in a series that is now three games in. These Sharks are probably, in my mind, like the veteran pitcher: you gotta get them early, or else the experience and smarts become too big a factor to overcome.

The Avs learned that lesson the hard way Tuesday night. How fast they can speed up the learning curve from here on in will be the story.

NOTES AND QUOTES FROM AVS PR

TEAM NOTES
Tuesday’s loss snapped an eight-game home winning streak for the Avalanche.
Colorado had not lost at Pepsi Center since March 15 vs. Anaheim and is 13- 3-1 in its last 17 outings in Denver dating back to Feb. 18. The Avs are 6-9 all-time when losing two of the first three games of a best-of-seven playoff series, including a 4-4 record since moving to Denver.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to seven games, the longest
postseason point streak by an Avalanche player since Peter Forsberg (also
seven games) in 2004 and the longest point streak of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
MacKinnon has registered 12 points (5g/7a) in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the most points in a single postseason since Joe Sakic produced 12 (7g/5a) in 2004. He now has 28 points (10g/18a) in 21 career playoff contests, the highest points-per-game average (1.33) among active players and the fifth highest in Stanley Cup Playoff history among players with at least 10 points.
Logan Couture netted the sixth playoff hat trick in San Jose Sharks franchise
history and first since Devin Setoguchi in Game 3 of the 2011 Western Conference Semifinal.
Samuel Girard recorded his first career postseason point.
Matt Nieto notched his fourth goal of the playoffs and is now ranked third on
the team in goals this postseason and tied with Gabriel Landeskog for fourth in points (6).
Nikita Zadorov’s 11 hits is a postseason career high and the most by an Avalanche player in the playoffs.
QUOTES
Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog
On The Third Period: “We fight back to tie it up with six or seven minutes to go,
to be honest with you, the whole third period I thought we were pushing and
we had some good looks. You know, it comes down to a mistake and turnover and ends up in the back of our net.”
On The Bounces Tonight: “I thought we worked hard. Yeah, maybe the bounces
just weren’t there, but [in] playoffs, I feel like you work for your bounces and really all year. I mean, you create your own luck and create your own chances. Even when they scored to get ahead there, 3-2, Willy (Colorado C Colin Wilson) has one on the post, a nice tip, you know, could have gone the other way too.”
On The First Period: “We just didn’t have a good start, turning over so many pucks in the neutral zone. Whatever we were trying to do, it wasn’t working. I mean, forwards are standing still on the blue line and D were trying to find targets and just wasn’t happening for us and it ended up costing us a good start. Because, I felt like the first five minutes, we were going, and then a couple fifty-fifty calls go against our way and then they get all of the momentum. But like I said, we fought our way back. You know, a tied hockey game with six minutes to go at home, you got to get it at least to overtime.”
Colorado C Nathan MacKinnon
On Tonight’s Game: “It wasn’t great. They took it to us in the first period, like they did in Game 2. We did a good job battling back and then we threw it away late.”
On The Third Period: “We tied it up 2-2 and then they score with five minutes left to go up 3-2, so yeah, we definitely blew it.”
On The Avs’ Performance: “We just couldn’t find it. They outplayed us. We were turning a lot of pucks over, big turnovers, costly ones. You know, we started to find our momentum in the second half of the second period and in the third period – 15 minutes of the third period – and then we lost it again. It’s unfortunate. We were feeling great, thinking about OT, maybe could have got another one with the momentum with Nietsy (Colorado LW Matt Nieto) tying it up, but it didn’t happen.”
San Jose G Martin Jones
On His Team’s Defensive Play: “I thought we played really well. They had a couple good pushes right at the start of the game and a little bit in the second period there, but I thought we defended really, really well. The only time was the (Colorado C Nathan) MacKinnon goal that they really had a lot of time and space. It was good, I thought we defended well.”
On Colorado’s Early Push: “I felt great. We knew they were going to come hard. That’s always the case when you come home after a couple road games, so again, did a great job defending all night.”
San Jose C Logan Couture
On Tonight’s Game: “This is what you play hockey for. This is what you play 82 games for. I’ve been fortunate enough to play on some very good teams and we’ve only missed the playoffs once since I’ve been in San Jose, and these games are so much fun. You’re playing for the ultimate prize, it’s just a lot of fun playing hockey.”
On The Mood After Colorado Tied The Game: “Same as it has been all year, that’s the positive about our team. Probably the best attribute we have is promise. When we give up a goal, there’s no panic, just stick with our game and that’s what we did. We had a couple good shifts and then I was able to pot one there.”