The dog wins again as the Avs fall short in their Duck hunt

• When Lazlo Holmes went showed up and said “Let’s do that hockey”, one team in the Pepsi Center actually seemed to listen to him.

And it wasn’t the Colorado Avalanche.

Following a 6-1 destruction of the Vegas Golden Knights, the Avs returned home to the Pepsi Center for their first home game in two weeks and got beat up in a 5-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

The loss is their first at home this season but now their second in the last three games following a 7-0-1 start. Cause for concern?

Not yet.

But this does mark the second time the Avs have come out with a very lackluster showing following a big win. Beyond that, however, tonight’s game didn’t really resemble the loss to the Blues earlier in the week.

The Ducks got on the board just 50 seconds into the game and then eventually built a 3-1 after two periods but Colorado was still outshooting and out chancing the Ducks. It was merely a matter of a team capitalizing on opportunities and another not.

Heading into the third period, one the Avalanche has owned this year, Colorado got a power play immediately and Nathan MacKinnon scored a nice backhand goal after an excellent controlled zone entry from Cale Makar created chaos in the Ducks penalty kill.

That made the game 3-2 and give Colorado plenty of life. They simply didn’t do anything with it.

Anaheim’s dagger came at the 6:42 mark when a mad scramble in front of Pavel Francouz left bodies on top of him, making him helpless to do much about Max Comtois poking the loose puck into the net.

From there, Colorado had some chances but didn’t do too much with them as Ryan Miller eventually earned first star honors with his 35-save performance.

The Avs are in the middle of a bizarre schedule quirk following a stretch of three days off followed by two games in two days in two different cities. They now have three more days off but at least get to stay at home during the major snowstorm heading to most of the country this week.

Colorado returns to action on Wednesday when they take on the Florida Panthers for the second time in two weeks.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• There are nights where teams fight themselves as much as the opponent. Tonight was definitely one of those types of nights for the Avalanche. In their loss to the Blues, they just got dominated all over the ice. That wasn’t the case tonight against the Ducks as they were finding shots and creating chances, they just weren’t burying them for whatever reason.
• This was a classic “scheduled loss” with the Avs traveling after playing yesterday and the Ducks sitting in Denver waiting for them. Despite that, I didn’t really think fatigue played a major role in the outcome of the game. The Avs seemed to have plenty of legs and just didn’t use them very well.
• There were times last year when the Avalanche offense was clearly misfiring and you could always tell because they were settling for tons of shots from the point instead of working the cycle more effectively. Tonight that old habit reappeared as every Avalanche defenseman had at least two shot attempts.
• The defenseman who didn’t mind shooting tonight was Cale Makar, who looked like he was on a different planet tonight. His aggression with the puck was evident throughout and this was definitely a game that showed what a special player he’s going to be. The guy he was tonight is the guy he is capable of being nearly every night. When that happens, he’ll be in the Norris conversation and the Avalanche will be no-doubt Stanley Cup contenders. Now just to build off two very good games in a row…
• Gabe Landeskog had a rough go of it tonight with multiple penalties and a puck he slammed off the post on the PP that would have made it 2-1. It just wasn’t the kind of performance we’ve come to expect from 92 and if we’re being honest, there have been too many of those lately. Bednar broke up Landeskog and MacKinnon in the third and think it might be worth taking a look at next Wednesday against Florida.
• I can’t help but wonder if the Avalanche is coming to a moment of reckoning with Nikita Zadorov. At some point you have to stop believing that a young player will continue improving simply because he’s young. He will have four full season’s worth of NHL games played in the next few weeks. The problems that have long plagued him (inconsistency and penalties) still do and the upside that once tantalized (rare skating ability for a player his size and a booming shot) now only appears on the rarest of nights. Mostly, Zadorov is the player he was tonight – a low-impact player who makes one or two big mistakes per game (and I don’t mean penalties, which have been very iffy this year) and might make a highlight-reel hit along the way. Ultimately, he’s settled in as a third-pairing defenseman who presumably is looking for a raise at the end of this year. I don’t think he’ll go anywhere right now but as the year goes on and Ryan Graves (much cheaper) continues to be rock solid and Conor Timmins (younger and cheaper) continues showing he will be NHL-ready sooner than later, I wonder where that leaves Zadorov in the organizational hierarchy.
• That isn’t to say this was a terrible night from Zadorov. It wasn’t, just one that has become all too common for a player who many believed had top-pairing potential just a few short years ago. What do you do with a young player who has proven he belongs in the NHL but who might become a luxury in your organization because the talent around him simply passes him up? It’s a difficult question and one with no easy answer but this is what I found myself contemplating late in the third period as I watched Jared Bednar run out Makar and Girard to try to kickstart some offense.
• Just a small quirk I also found myself thinking about in the third period. When the Avalanche scored their second goal and Anaheim failed a goaltender challenge, the Avs were awarded a power play under the new rules this year. Instead of putting Kadri out there for the faceoff, they had Compher take it. Compher is right-handed so they obviously liked that matchup but Compher is a 39% faceoff guy in his career. Kadri, on the other hand, won 12 and lost six tonight (67%) and has been one of the top faceoff guys in the NHL so far this year. Why let Compher take that draw? Why not let Kadri take it despite handedness? It seems stubborn for the sake of being stubborn. Compher predictably lost the draw and the Ducks killed the first 20 seconds of the power play with ease because the Avs put themselves in a bad position. Just seems unnecessary is all.