Colorado Avalanche: Spooky Observations from the Overtime Loss

The Colorado Avalanche blew a 3-1 lead in the third period and lost to the Florida Panthers in overtime.

Halloween came a day early in the form of a horror story for the Colorado Avalanche. Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but the team did blow a 3-1 lead in the third period to go on and lose in overtime.

Yeah, that’s never good. And despite Jared Bednar’s flippant, “If we only blow a lead every 12 games, I’ll be happy.” you hate to see the Avs blow a 3-1 lead.

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Not in a game they really needed to win, as an answer for last game and to show they can win even without their two big stars.

Yeah, this loss bites. Hey, Colorado still got a point, and that strong start set them up good. But you don’t want to see a backslide.

Ok, let’s look at some observations from the 4-3 loss against the Florida Panthers.

• Matthew Nieto had himself a heck of a good game. He started off the scoring with a goal on the first period. He had at least two more solid attempts, including a breakaway. He nearly got beheaded by a Panther, but he also had four Corsi For events, and I’m told that’s good.
• Speaking of the assault on our Long Beach Native, the referees were up and down again. They let blatant penalties go then called weak ones, including a questionable one on Ian Cole.
• And speaking of penalties, let’s address the Big Z in the room. Nikita Zadorov is a physical player. And after the Panthers took liberties with first Nieto and then our star rookie, Cale Makar, it was absolutely his job to address it. I have zero problem with the final penalty that earned him a game misconduct no matter what Bednar says about it. Z lives and dies by physicality, and that’s a part of hockey, Jared.
• Here’s Big Z ready to take on the entire Florida Panthers bench:

• Speaking of hockey plays that aren’t for tea parties, Nazem Kadri got in his first fight as an Avalanche player. Dryden Hunt tried to kill our prize rookie, Cale Makar, and Kadri answered with this:

• • Something really spooky: Nathan MacKinnon lost the overtime faceoff, and that kind of lost the game for the Colorado Avalanche.
  • But that’s on Bednar. That man needs to look in the mirror instead of beating on his favorite whipping boys. While MacK was 54% on faceoffs tonight, he’s not a clutch faceoff guy. Designate Kadri for the OT faceoff. Because you know what? The team that won the OT faceoff won the game.
  • No offense to Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who is a warrior on the ice and who wore the A for alternate in tonight’s game, but his losing the faceoff in the final push of the game for the Cats let them score the game-tying goal.
  • So, faceoffs aren’t important, except when they are — in the waning minutes of the game when you’re defending and, especially, in overtime.
  • Back to MacK — he has points in every single game so far this season. That’s 12. He’s on a 12-game points streak with seven goals and 10 assists on the season so far.
  • Side note about Ryan Graves: He was scratched. It was thought he was scratched because he was late to the arena. But the man himself put paid to that:

• His replacement, Mark Barberio, almost own-goaled, which resulted in Philipp Grubauer’s most spectacular save on the night:

Interesting injury update. After the OT loss, both Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog walked out of the Avs dressing room. According to both Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic and A.J. Haefele of DNVR (formerly BSN), Landeskog was wearing a boot.

Broken foot is the thought. So, it sounds like he broke his foot a couple games ago, tried to play through it, and discovered he is not, in fact, Thor.

"Well, Happy Halloween, Avs Nation. Let’s hope Day of the Dead, when the Colorado Avalanche host the Central Division rival Dallas Stars yields a happier result."