It was right there for the Colorado Avalanche. Right there. But like many of the passes they made on the evening, something was just a little…off.
Colorado had plenty of opportunities to take a stranglehold of Game Three on Saturday night. Three powerplays in the first 22 minutes, outshooting the Stars 23-13 through two periods, and facing a Dallas team that for 40 minutes, looked pretty fatigued.
They managed to take advantage of almost none of those opportunities.
Dallas, the best road team in the NHL this season, found another gear in the third period, generating more offense than they did through the first 40 minutes, while stifling a “stubborn” Avalanche squad that refused to dump the puck in and go to work. If Colorado had better execution through 40 minutes, this could have been a very different game.
They didn’t.
“I think the story is earlier in the game,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said after the game. “I felt like we carried some long stretches of the game for the first 40 minutes. My one take would be we’ve got to make it a little bit tougher and Oettinger, getting traffic there.”
Traffic in front wasn’t a problem against the Jets, as they made life miserable for Connor Hellebuyck. There wasn’t enough of that against Jake Oettinger, who saw a lot of the shots he faced on Saturday night. Most goalies will stop what they can see, and a goalie as talented as Oettinger will definitely be able to.
While Mikko Rantanen scored the lone goal for the Avalanche, I would hardly call that a bounce-back performance. I’m not sure he looked any better than he did in Game Two. I asked Jared Bednar after the game if he was happier with the performances of Nathan MacKinnon and Rantanen after both struggled last game.
He liked one of them, at least.
“Yeah, no question,” he said. “I thought MacK was really good tonight. I thought he was working both sides of the puck, he had jump early in the game, obviously to make a great play on our goal. So yeah, I thought he was dangerous and controlling play.”
MacKinnon did most of the work on Rantanen’s goal, although he does deserve credit for winning that battle with his defenseman. There’s a lot more for him to give, and the Avalanche will need it on Monday night.
He’s not alone, though. Artturi Lehkonen, who has been fantastic all postseason, got moved to the top line and looked really off with his passing. The new-look second line didn’t really click, and Zach Parise is starting to look a little out of place in the top six. Not exactly a huge surprise for someone pushing 40. A Jonathan Drouin return would provide a real boost for this team, and I do believe there’s a chance that happens on Monday, but we’ll have to wait and see.
For now, Colorado find themselves down 2-1 in the series. A little more execution through the first 40 minutes on Saturday and we’re probably talking about a completely different story.
That execution wasn’t there though, and that’s why this feels like a missed opportunity for the Avalanche.
More must-reads: