Colorado Avalanche sluggish in 3-1 loss to Wild

The Colorado Avalanche fell to the Minnesota Wild 3-1 on Monday afternoon. It was a game that this team really wanted to win, the Wild being in the same division as the Avs and all. However, it was Marc-Andre Fleury’s day. The Avalache lost by a score of 3-1.

Mackenzie Blackwood looked really good especially on a couple of shots by the Avalanche, making highlight-reel saves, and one that happened in the closing seconds of the first period caught the eyes of the NHL’s official X account.

The issue for the Avalanche on Monday was their lack of energy. I suppose when you play an early afternoon game when you are used to playing many hours later—at night—it can actually wear on a player, especially mentally. Having 11 shots through two periods is not good hockey whatsoever though. They also had several power play opportunities—which they’ve scored nine goals in that scenario this season—but came up short every single time Monday.

As Avalanche star defenseman Cale Makar said after the game, the team absolutely needs to help Blackwood out more. It is extremely frustrating that now that we have a goaltender in net the team can rely on on a regular basis, the team just felt flat. Nathan MacKinnon was the lone goal scorer for the Avalanche. It would have been nice to have some depth scoring on a day like today, but it kind of shows something (in a negative way) when your top players aren’t getting the job done.

Now, the Avalanche will need to rebound in a huge way as they are currently out of any playoff spot. The Stars have leapfrogged Colorado, with the Avs staying with 57 points and Dallas with 59. Obviously there are many more games to be played, but something needs to give. They can’t afford many more sluggish games like they had Monday. If they do have more of those games, it could spell very bad news for this team.

The Avalanche play the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday. Colorado is 1-2 against Winnipeg this season. Their lone win came against the Jets’ backup goaltender.