Mile High Sticking
Fansided

Colorado Avalanche destroyed in two key categories in loss to Devils

By Graham Tiedtke

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 28: Pavel Francouz #39 of the Colorado Avalanche makes the second period save on Miles Wood #44 of the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on October 28, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 28: Pavel Francouz #39 of the Colorado Avalanche makes the second period save on Miles Wood #44 of the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on October 28, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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The Colorado Avalanche dropped their east coast matchup to the New Jersey Devils on Friday by a score of 1-0. Colorado’s lone goal given up was, yes, on a Devils power play, something the Avalanche have struggled with this season.

The Avalanche failed to score, and had a man-advantage a massive six times. They just have not been able to get anything going on special teams this season and it’s crushing them. In their 3-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken one week ago, they were rewarded with two power plays but also were unable to capitalize. Against the Calgary Flames earlier this season, they were 1-of-4 on the power play. They lost the game 5-3.

It is quite the turnaround from their season-opener against the Chicago Blackhawks, in which they scored four power play goals on six chances.

The Avalanche greatly missed Valeri Nichushkin against the Devils. Nichushkin was absent from the ice because of a lower-body injury, but word is that it is not a long-term injury. Nichushkin leads the team with 12 points on the season, with Nathan MacKinnon second with 10.

The other glaring issue for the Colorado Avalanche on Friday evening was their face-off percentage. They won just 29 percent of all face-offs. Evan Rodrigues and Mikhail Maltsev each led the team by winning 50 percent of their respective face-offs. The next closest was J.T. Compher, who won 38 percent of his.

The shots on goal per period looked like this:

1st period: Avalanche: 4 | Devils: 8
Through 2nd period: Avalanche: 14 | Devils: 15
Through 3rd period: Avalanche: 23 | Devils: 24

It was basically even throughout the whole game, but all it takes is one goal to win a game sometimes and that’s exactly what happened this go-around.

The Avalanche need to be much better on the penalty kill and at winning face-offs.

The absence of Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog have been apparent lately. It’s a good thing Nichushkin should not miss much time.

Side note: It appears Martin Kaut could potentially be sent down again after head coach Jared Bednar basically stated that Kaut did not make a difference in the game. Kaut played for just 7:17 of the entire game.

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