Colorado Avalanche: Surprises in Anaheim Ducks Game

The Colorado Avalanche’s loss may not have been so surprising, but a lot of the details of the game were.

The Colorado Avalanche fell to the Anaheim Ducks. That wasn’t one of the surprises for me, to be honest. They’re on the second game of a back-to-back after a six-game road trip. And they had the dominant game after losing a star to show they can still win without him. And it was time for them to regress.

Plus, as Jared Bednar pointed out, they’re developing a tendency to follow a dominant game with a flat one. They beat Tampa by 6-2 then fell flat in St. Louis, losing 3-1. They then beat Vegas 6-1 only to drop tonight’s game.

Tonight’s game represents the first time Colorado has lost at home and only the second time they’ve lost in regulation. It’s Game 11 on the season.

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So, I wasn’t overly surprised to see Colorado have a lackluster game, but there were still some surprises, both good and bad, from tonight’s game.

By the way, Bednar’s salad shooter approach to line construction was not a surprise, but he came up with some doozies.

• Nathan MacKinnon extended his points streak to 11 with a goal tonight. He’s recorded a point in every game this season, and he has 15 (6 goals, 9 assists) on the season so far.
• Tyson Jost randomly leads the Avs in penalties drawn with six. He should have gotten a penalty shot in the second period when Cam Fowler hooked him down, but it turned into a simple power play that Joonas Donskoi capitalized on, so we’ll take it.
• Valeri Nichushkin had the fewest minutes (7:27) of any Avalanche player, but he made a brief, weird appearance on the top line. That was a weird salad shot.
• JT Compher played the most minutes (20:38) of any forward not named Nathan MacKinnon despite being demoted from the top line.
• Sam Girard and Cale Makar were reunited as a defensive pairing. They weren’t quite as magical as they were in the playoffs, but I hope to see the pairing again.
• Speaking of Cale Makar, he’s ridiculous. He just oozes talent and skill. Then, you’re sitting there watching his skill play and… BOOM! He levels an opponent. Watch how awesome he was in this game:

• Ryan Graves and Nikita Zadorov got benched for large parts of the third period. They… did not look great on the ice.
• Between unwarranted penalties and Bednar’s benching, Zadorov is beginning to fear playing his game. That’s a crying shame. He’s most effective when he plays his game with confidence, even if that costs the occasional penalty.
• Pavel Francouz looked human tonight. At one point, he’d allowed three goals on, like, 14 shots. Tonight was only his third-ever NHL start — let’s hope he can put the game behind him.
• Francouz may have let in a couple soft goals, but the fourth goal could well have been goalie interference that, for some reason, Bednar refused to challenge:

Yes, challenging and losing would have resulted in a penalty, as the Ducks discovered earlier. However, that goal was the game-killer.

All in all, almost everyone from the coach to the third defensive pairing looked off their game. They seemed to be fighting the play most of the night. It wasn’t a terribly fun game to watch, but you can’t win them all.

The Colorado Avalanche don’t play again until Wednesday. So, they’ll have some time to rest and regroup.