The Colorado Avalanche face off against the Nashville Predators on Saturday night at Ball Arena. Just a couple of nights ago, the two teams faced each other in Nashville and the most bizarre situation happened in the shootout. Scott Wedgewood got run over by Filip Forsberg on one of their attempts, and while Wedgewood faced another shot following that sequence, he was pulled by spotters, citing concussion protocol.
Mackenzie Blackwood took his place, and the Avs ultimately lost in the end.
Still the Avalanche failed to keep the game going, as they missed opportunities on their own attempts of the shootout.
The Colorado Avalanche have been bad on shootout attempts this season
Colorado has a 22-2-7 record, with that last column being overtime/shootout losses. They’ve got four shootout losses this season, thanks to the Dallas Stars, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild, and Predators.
They’ve really got to get past one of the only things that has doomed them this season. Either avoid shootouts altogether, or find a way to win those matchups. The Predators are dead last in the Central Division, so honestly, these games should not even head to extra time. The Avalanche have dominated in some games this year, and going to a shootout against a dead last team is not acceptable, and they know it.
Seven players have attempted at least one shot during a shootout this season for the Avalanche. Valeri Nichushkin and Martin Necas lead the team in shootout attempts, with three apiece. They are the only two players on the team to score on the shootout, as they both have one goal during the extra phase. The other players to have at least one shootout attempt are Nathan MacKinnon (two), Victor Olofsson, Cale Makar, Artturi Lehkonen, and Gabriel Landeskog (all with one attempt).
The Avalanche have fallen to 26 place in the NHL at power play percentages, having converted just 15.9 percent of the time. In comparison, the LA Kings rank dead last at 14 percent, while the Avs’ division rival Dallas Stars lead the league with a 33 percent conversion rate. Thankfully, the Avalanche are on top of the league on the penalty kill, at 86.4 percent.
I’m fully aware that any team can win any game any night. However, the Colorado Avalanche are the best team in the league right now, 31 games into the season. They have won some games pretty convincingly, but have also put up a couple of weaker games. Thankfully, their opponents have also typically put up some weaker games, resulting in the extra time, earning the Avalanche a point in those games.
However, the Avs have got to figure out how to get through regulations without allowing the games to get to overtime or a shootout. At this time, there’s no point in worrying, as they still are a quality team with very few weaknesses. If they can figure out how to score on the power play, their chances of winning more games will go up.
Once they get going on a hot streak in power play performances, they should be winning consecutive games and perhaps even beat the team’s overall win streak, which they were pretty close to doing very recently.