Against the Blues, what I saw on the ice was very sloppy. I did not like the intensity early on; I didn’t like the team’s efforts in terms of passing the puck around. There were just too many instances where guys were out of position or not where the passers expected their teammates to be.
This is something that Devon Toews talked about recently in a postgame interview after a loss. I initially thought that Toews should not have gone to the media and said what he said. Right now, it feels like I should be eating a little bit of crow. This game by the Colorado Avalanche was downright sloppy.
I do not expect the Colorado Avalanche to win every game by a three or four goal margin. That’s certainly not reasonable. What I do expect is for the team to show better effort and communication. Far too often in this game was the lack of efficient passing and the lack of shots on goal after the first period was extremely glaring.
Since the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, they have been pretty underwhelming at times. You can absolutely counter that sentence with the fact that they’ve won quite a bit this season and I’m not taking anything away from them for that. A win is a win. However, if you’re a team that is expecting/expected to make it far into the postseason, which the Colorado Avalanche should be, they need to play a lot better.
The Avalanche will be getting Sam Girard back after his absence at some point in the near future. Maybe that will create a spark in this team as we head deeper and deeper into the regular season. I don’t know if this team will end up falling flat by the season’s end, but what I do know is that Jared Bednar won’t be happy with Friday’s performance, and it’s becoming a trend.