Takeaways from Avs’ 2-1 loss to Dallas: Keep playin’ that way and things will be fine

The regular-season record remains at 0-0-0. So no fretting here, OK?

Avs’ preseason record did fall to 0-2-0, however, after they lost 2-1 to the Kinda-Sorta Dallas Stars in front of what looked like close friends and relatives only at the Pepsi Center. Avs outshoot Dallas 47-23 but lose 2-1.

As they say in hockey: “If we keep playing like that, we’re gonna win more than we lose.” On the other hand, the Avs fielded pretty much a full lineup against a bunch of guys from the minors and lost it. Avs led 1-0 after two periods, but Philipp Grubauer was beat on 1. A semi-breakaway after Mark Alt was caught flat-footed near the blue line and 2. After Bo Byram’s  clearout attempt was kept in at the blue line, then a weird, screened shot somehow found its way past Grooby.

Not going to belabor this one, as it’s only preseason, but a few observations:

• Cale Makar looked splendid, I thought. He was called for a penalty in the third that kind of stalled the Avs a bit, but he had a lot of really solid moments with the puck. He makes quick decisions with the puck on the power play, which I like.
• Avs won 61% of the game’s faceoffs. That’s a good sign.
• Here’s a “final sheet” as they say in the biz:

• Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare scored the lone Avs goal and won eight-of-nine faceoffs. Not a bad start to his Avs career.
• Sam Girard had a pretty good spin-o-rama in this one:

OOPS#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/hcReHmS9Jd

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) September 20, 2019

• I wasn’t overly impressed with Andre Burakovsky in his preseason debut. Played a little more than 19 minutes on top line with MacK and Landy, two shots on net, -1.
• Nazem Kadri had five shots on net and won 10-of-19 faceoffs.
• Val Nichushkin started the game well, then I didn’t notice him much the rest of the night.
• J.T. Compher missed a couple shifts after a hard hit, but returned to the game.
• Long way to go, folks.