Colorado Avalanche: 3 Reasons for the Game 3 Loss

The Colorado Avalanche need to address some of the problems from Game 3 in order to win Game 4.

The Colorado Avalanche dropped their first home game in nine tries to the San Jose Sharks. No, really, the Avs had eight straight wins in the Pepsi Center going into last night’s game.

The Stanley Cup playoffs are a best-of-seven grind. So far, Colorado and San Jose have played three games. The Sharks have a 2-1 advantage, but you need four wins to advance.

The Avalanche are perfectly capable of advancing. However, they need to address some key issues in their game first. Here are three reasons the Avs lost Game 3. If they fix these issues, they can take Game 4.

Ineffective Power Play

The referees were atrocious last night. I mean, I get they’re going to miss calls, but they were letting the Sharks have their way with the Avalanche. Here’s an example:

Meanwhile, Ian Cole got high sticked, Nathan MacKinnon got elbowed, and both Cole and Erik Johnson got tripped. Geez, refs, what’s more obvious than a 6-foot-4, 220-pound man flying through the air?

Anyway, I don’t know that the referees calling more penalties would have improved the Avalanche’s chances anyway. They were 0 for 4 on the power play. They even had a late power play during which they pulled the goalie for a 6-on-4, but no dice.

Of course, power plays didn’t help their shot metrics much because…

Too Much Passing

I was at the game, and at one point I screamed out, “Not every goal has to be from a tip-in.” I get that teams have set plays, but, man, you’ve got to have more than one.

And one of the reasons the power play was so ineffective is because the Colorado Avalanche were back to their old ways of passing the puck like a tray of cookies at a garden party. As I’ve said from the dawn of time — ugly goals count the same as pretty ones.

Just ask Matthew Nieto. His goal from Game 2 was about as ugly as it gets, but it counted just the same as Mikko Rantanen‘s beauty.

Inconsistent Effort

What really killed the Colorado Avalanche’s chances last night was their lack of game management. They came out buzzing at the beginning of the first period, and there were times during the third period that they played a tight game. However, the effort throughout the night was inconsistent.

Indeed, here’s what Jared Bednar had to say during his post-game presser:

“To me we didn’t consistently work for the puck, we didn’t talk to the puck. In turn our execution was poor. We made some boneheaded decisions with the puck, too, at times.”

I’m not going to lie — I didn’t think old stolid Bednar would come up with a whimsical turn of phrase like “talk to the puck,” but I also didn’t think he was much of one for idioms. Yet here is more from his presser:

“Even at the end, we tied it and we’re cooking with gas, we’re going at them and we empty the tank and we tie it and then they shoot a puck down the ice and one guy goes back for it and everyone else watches him work for it and it ends up in the back of our net. You can’t do that.”

Well, there you go. You can’t do that. You have to play a full 60 minutes or a playoff-experienced team like the Sharks will make you pay.

I don’t want to be a negative Nelly, so let’s look at some Nikita Zadorov smashes to make us feel better:

Our Big Z is a brat, and I, for one, am here for it. He had 11 hits tonight, and Evander Kane seems to be his special whipping boy. Like I said, I’m here for that.

Anyway, Cinderella rule is in effect. Today is a new day. Game 4 is tomorrow. Time for the Colorado Avalanche to get back to their game — which will ultimately defeat the San Jose Sharks.

The next game is at Pepsi Center again at 8 pm MT. Go Avs.