Colorado Avalanche Falter on Objectives

The Colorado Avalanche set three objectives for themselves before the New York Rangers match seven games ago. Though they lost that game, they came close to meeting their objectives:

Earn 30 shots on goal
Move their feet throughout the game
Maintain puck possession in the offensive zone

They looked like a really good team in that game — like the team we expected all season and that we saw flashes of. And, hey, even really good teams lose sometimes.

The Avalanche went on to dominate in the next two games, beating the Dallas Stars 4-1 and the Arizona Coyotes 5-2. In both those games they met all three of their objectives.

The game against the defending Stanley Cup champion LA Kings did not go as well. They went up early, but the superior goalie won out the night. Kings goalie Jonathan Quick faced 43 shots and only let in the one. Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov only faced 25 shots and let three in. The Kings earned an empty net goal, and they beat the Avalanche 4-1.

However, there was a lot to appreciate in that game. The Avs got 43 shots on goal! They played the entire 60 minutes, they moved their feet, and they maintained puck possession for long stretches. Again, sometimes a good team loses even when they play well.

Luckily the Avalanche didn’t seem to let that loss get to them. All last season they maintained the “Cinderella Rule,” meaning they wouldn’t dwell on a game beyond midnight. They played a solid game against Chicago. They got their 30 shots, moved their feet, dominated in their own zone.

The Avalanche even got two power play goals. Suddenly it looked like everything was coming up Avs — like they really could make a run for the playoffs.

Their fortitude began to falter in the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lost in the tumultuous delight at center Nathan MacKinnon‘s first NHL hat trick was the reality that they didn’t meet all of their objectives:

Not all the Avalanche players kept their feet moving consistently — Tampa had a lot of chances, including 32 shots on goal.
Play was back and forth — and the power play whiffed on their chance.
The Avalanche only got 18 shots on goal.

That last fact is what worried me. The other two objectives are, actually, subjective. However, the shots on net are a statistic you can measure very easily. The pucks were going in — maybe the score could have gotten ugly in the Avalanche’s favor instead of scary in the last minute as Tampa almost tied the score.

However, the Avalanche got the two points in regulation, and why look a gift horse in the mouth?

Too bad the Avalanche didn’t look that gift horse in the mouth. They played the same lackadaisical hockey they’ve been playing off and on all season against the Nashville Predators.

And the Predators went in for the kill. They exposed all of the Avalanche’s flaws. The objectives that had worked so well seemed to have been forgotten completely.

And never mind that the Predators are a good team. The LA Kings are the defending champs and desperate for points. The Rangers were the team the Kings had to beat to win the Cup, and they’re excellent, too. The Avalanche played their best against both those teams but just couldn’t win.

The Avalanche did not play their best hockey against the Predators. At certain points, it barely looked like they were playing any kind of hockey. For example, late in the third, all five Avalanche skaters were standing still in the defensive zone while the Predators danced around them. Definitely no movement of feet.

MacKinnon scored early, and Varlamov made 25 saves on 29 shots. Captain Gabriel Landeskog got into another captain fight.

In the end, center John Mitchell got a power play goal for the Avs. Avalanche writer Ryan Boulding pointed out the importance of that statistic:

With that Mitchell tally, the #Avs are now 4-for-14 (29%) on the power play in the last 5 games.
— Ryan Boulding (@rboulding) February 25, 2015

However, those were the highlights of the game for the Avalanche. They fell to the Nashville Predators 5-2. It could have been worse — both Varlamov and backup Reto Berra played, and they faced a combined 41 shots on goal.

The Avs only recorded 19. They went whole stretches in their own defensive zone.

Time to employ the Cinderella Rule and hope the team comes out better against the Dallas Stars in Dallas. They’ve got to return to their objectives — those are the only things that have consistently worked for them.

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