The Avalanche are back home in Colorado for a tilt against the New Jersey Devils. With the fact that they have not played since Sunday, the team has no excuses not to come out strong against New Jersey, who played last night.
There is no denying that the Devils are red hot as the literal devil. They’ve won their last four games to cruise to an 8-4 record. Colorado, meanwhile, fell flat against Nashville, losing 6-2. Their defensive game has been below average as of late and even though there are still a ton of games left in the season, it’s a bit of a concern right now. That’s not to say it will remain that way, but the team is not doing itself any favors for the end-of-season standings.
One of the things that was highlighted the most in the game against the Predators was the fact that Nashville came out strong despite playing the night before, while Colorado had a day off in between games. You look around social media and that subject has been brought up an ample amount of times. Nashville had 14 more shots on goal than Colorado (35-21). While that doesn’t figure in shots that didn’t reach the net, it’s a red flag because the Avalanche are typically the team that either just leads in the category or dominates it. To get destroyed in that aspect was concerning and embarrassing.
4 forwards finished the game with goose eggs in the shot department. That means they finished the game with zero shots. Those players are Gabriel Landeskog, Parker Kelly, Martin Necas and Fedor Svechkov. There were more players overall, with Sam Malinski, Josh Manson and Devon Toews also finishing with zero shots. That’s not as glaring as the forwards’ stats. You need to have more contributions than what Colorado had on Sunday.
Colorado is 7 points behind from leading the Central Division, with the Minnesota Wild currently leading with 20 points. Like I said, it is not time to worry, but seeing that caught me off guard. The Avalanche are much better than what they have shown. There just needs to be a light switched on and, well, it should have been switched on much sooner. I know many people have mentioned how the Avalanche always have a slow start to the regular season, discounting last season, when they won the Presidents’ Trophy. It would be nice to see them catch up to the Wild and keep it competitive for the division title.
I’m not saying I want them to win the Presidents’ Trophy again. In fact, due to the Presidents’ Trophy curse, let’s hope they do not win it ever again. Making it to the Stanley Cup Final and winning the Stanley Cup is what this team’s goals are. They’re what they should be. It’s a matter of getting their heads on straight and be ready to play most of their games. Every team has off games, but fans are tired of seeing a Stanley Cup calibre team fit into that category. Enough is enough.
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