Takeaways: Avalanche Winning Streak Ends Against Visiting Habs

The Colorado Avalanche turned in their first truly lackluster performance since the trade deadline on Tuesday as they welcomed the Canadiens de Montréal to Ball Arena. A rough combination of missed opportunities and off-nights saw an Avalanche team that didn’t seem to ever really wake up in the 2-1 loss.

Here are the key takeaways from Tuesday’s game:

Jumpstart

The first minute of Tuesday’s game was the only really exciting part of the affair. Nathan MacKinnon scored on a lovely one-touch pass from Mikko Rantanen just 43 seconds into the game. The goal extended MacKinnon’s home point streak to 35 games, second only to Wayne Gretzky‘s all-time mark of 40.

On the following faceoff, however, Samuel Girard lost track of the puck, and Montreal’s Nick Suzuki streaked in for a shot that beat Justus Annunen five-hole to tie the game. A few minutes later, an apparent covered puck between Annunen’s pads was not blown dead. Joel Armia picked the puck from behind the Colorado goalie, resulting in a wraparound goal.

That was all the goals that the Avalanche would get as the game progressed.

The Sludge

From the second Montréal goal onwards, this game became one of the more unwatchable efforts this season for the Avalanche. A string of missed connections, turnovers, low-effort dump-ins, and off-target shots plagued the entire second and third periods. It can be hard to pinpoint exactly what the Avalanche did “wrong.”

For the most part, their game was just generally beneath the high standards that we’ve come to expect. Passes seemed to go skate-to-tape instead of tape-to-tape routinely. Rantanen found himself with six high-danger chances to fire on a mostly open net with one-timers or slot-wristers. However, he found three posts and fired three shots wildly off-target.

Some nights, the puck does not go your way. Call it what you want. That said, the Avalanche could definitely do more to control their own destiny by tightening the transition defense and passing game.

Walk(er) it off

Tuesday was Sean Walker’s first bad game since the Avalanche traded for the right-side defenseman. He was routinely caught behind the rush as he cheated up into the offensive zone, leading to some ugly odd-man rushes. Most unfortunately, he took not one but two killer penalties in the final ten minutes of the game, which dissolved any chance of momentum for a comeback.

The hooking call was arguably a “must-take” penalty when a turnover creates a breakaway, but the double-minor penalty with just 5:03 remaining on the clock was devastating. Nothing about Walker’s game should Avalanche fans running for cover, but the screws needed to be tighter on Tuesday.

Justus is served…up on a platter

Rookie goalie Justus Annunen earned himself a two-year extension. Tuesday’s game continued to show why he was worthy of the new contract. The first goal against was one Annunen would like to have back, getting beaten five-hole on the first shot faced. From there, he JUStified (no pun intended) the faith general manager Chris MacFarland showed in extending him on a one-way contract.

It was not a night that Annunen will write home about: a loss with 21 saves on 23 shots for a .913 save percentage. However, digging into the details shows why the 24-year-old is potentially the Avalanche’s goalie of the future. The defense made Annunen work on Tuesday with far too many high-danger chances against.

I was particularly impressed with Annunen’s cross-crease movement. He really dialed in and prevented this one from getting ugly. The Avalanche should be very happy with him in net moving forward.

Looking ahead

The Avalanche will look to bounce back after one day off as they welcome the New York Rangers (48-20-4) to Ball Arena on Thursday, March 28, at 7:00 p.m. MT.

Highlights