Colorado Avalanche: Thoughts on the Spanking by St. Louis

The Colorado Avalanche lost again against their Central Division rival St. Louis Blues. The Blues are becoming a problem for the Avs.

The Colorado Avalanche didn’t exactly get spanked by the St. Louis Blues. In fact, at one point in the second period, they were not only dominating but leading the game. But, when a team loses 5-2, you can say they got spanked.

The goal scorers for the Avalanche were Nazem Kadri (11 on the year so far) and Mikko Rantanen (9 on the year so far). One of the Blues players, David Perron, scored a hat trick — the third goal was into an empty net, but it counts.

Colorado has had a tough time against the Blues since that thrilling Game 82 that decided which team went to the playoffs two years ago. Last season, Colorado went 0-4 against the Blues.

They also struggle specifically in the Blues arena. Their record is 20-24-4-2 (ties) all time. They haven’t won in St. Louis since March 15, 2018. They dropped the last four games in Enterprise Center, including tonight’s game.

Speaking of, let’s look at tonight specifically.

Random Thoughts

• Colorado gave the puck away more often than they took it away (9:6), while St. Louis was the opposite (3:10). That was a big difference-maker in the game. The Avs also kept giving the puck away in the defensive zone, which eventually cost them.
• Hockey is a team sport, and I don’t want to throw any players under the bus. However, Nazem Kadri took a double-minor late in the second that the PK was not the equal of — St. Louis scored on both to take the lead.
• Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo apparently had Tyson Jost as his assignment, and he took to plaguing the smaller, younger player. However, justice was ultimately Jost’s when Bortuzzo took a high-sticking penalty on one of the plays.
• We missed Gabriel Landeskog. Once the Blues players started showing they wanted to hit hard and often, our captain returned the same in their direction.
• Philipp Grubauer made some killer saves, but he couldn’t steal the game for the Colorado Avalanche.
• Joonas Donskoi did this, and it was funny:

He looked like he was trying to hatch an egg.

• The only line the coaching staff didn’t toss into the blender was the third line. The blending wasn’t successful.
• Sam Girard took a puck to the face that the Altitude announcers thought had split his lip. Nope, he just had a bloody nose.
• Speaking of, when are we going to see more of the patented spin-o-rama and electrifying puck moving.
• We miss Erik Johnson and Cale Makar, neither of whom made the trip but who are working with trainers on their own.

The Colorado Avalanche are en-route to Chicago to face the Blackhawks before returning home for the second game of a back-to-back. They’re still second in the Central, which means second in the entire Western Conference.

However, the Arizona Coyotes just pulled the trigger on the trade many Avs fans wanted — they acquired Taylor Hall. This should be fun.