The Colorado Avalanche took on the Seattle Kraken for the second time this year, the first being in October. Colorado took the first round in Seattle 4–1, but on Thursday night, the Kraken came out looking for blood. Seattle plays a very aggressive style of hockey, let’s just say it is…very in your face. They are always on top of the loose pucks and attacking, which is what the Avalanche are not used to.
Quick hits
— Seattle collapsed the middle of the ice. Any time the Avalanche tried to go up the center of the ice, the Kraken were there on the blue line waiting for them. It forced Colorado to work around the edges and took away the angle on the shot.
— Seattle took away the shooting lanes. The Kraken did a great job getting in front of shots throughout the entire game and blocked 22 shots. Colorado could only block 11 shots. Seattle did a much better job of taking the shooting lanes away and reducing the scoring chances.
— The physical game: Both teams brought the hits to the game, but Seattle was bordering on dangerous. Jamie Oleksiak pushed Artturi Lehkonen into the boards in the second period and he had to leave the game. Lehkonen is in a local hospital, and there is no update on his status.
— Just like their affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, the Avalanche failed to connect on the power play and it cost them the game. Colorado had three chances to get a goal on the power play, but did not convert on any. The Kraken converted one of their four chances.
— The top players for the Avalanche have stepped up offensively. Nathan MacKinnon said that the top players all needed to do a better job of getting the puck in the net. He, Bowen Byram and Valeri Nichushkin were all able to find the twine on Thursday night.
The Avalanche are now 8–4–0 after the 4–3 loss on Thursday. For some, that would seem like an impressive record, but for the Avalanche, they want more. When they lose a game, they are beating themselves up over the loss when they should step back and taking a breath to re-examine the loss. It is still early in the season, but every point will count later in the year. They are fighting back, but always seem to come up short.
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