Avs should have learned a good lesson in Pittsburgh tonight

PITTSBURGH – In my mind, this was a great outcome for the Avalanche tonight. The Avs lost a game in overtime, and they fully deserved to lose it. Yet, they still got a point on enemy ice here at PPG Paints Arena.

Let’s face it, the Avs might have gotten away with at least one of their previous five wins on what had been a perfect season to this point. Another win here, one they wouldn’t have deserved, might have gotten the players’ heads bigger. Maybe they would have started thinking they were better than they really were.

The Avs of 2019-20 learned, two weeks into the season: the harder-working team still wins more often than not. And yet, they still got that point. They still haven’t lost in regulation yet this season. When these guys learn that hard work, and nothing but hard work, over 60 minutes is what it takes in this parity-parity-parity NHL, then they’ll become a real dangerous team.

“I said it a couple of games ago: we didn’t play great, but we found a way to get two points. I think today was maybe a bit of a reality check,” Avs goalie Phillip Grubauer said.

You definitely don’t deserve to win a game when you allow two odd-man rushes on a 4-on-3 power play in overtime. The Avs got away with the first one, on a great Cale Makar blocked shot, but not the second one. Gabe Landeskog, who had his worst game as an Av in quite a while, coughed up a puck in the Pens’ zone, got outskated down the ice by Sam Lafferty, then was caught reaching when Pens forward Brandon Tanev sent a crossing pass the other way as he and Lafferty criss-crossed. Landeskog got a stick on the crossing pass, but the problem was he was right near the goal line and he deflected the puck into his own net. That’s Landeskog’s second own-goal on the young season.

“I didn’t like our game tonight, to be honest,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Didn’t like our effort in the second. Not everybody, but I just thought too many guys were in and out. Just not good enough to get a road win.”

MORE NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:

• Nathan MacKinnon suffered a left leg injury after taking a check at center ice from Patric Hornqvist. MacKinnon kept playing – and scored a goal that tied it 2-2, after a pretty 2-on-1 cross from Mikko Rantanen – but he was slowed down some after the incident. He was not available for comment afterward. Bednar said, “I gotta be fair to Nate; he didn’t have a great night, but he was playing on one leg. He was hurting, there was no question. Stretching it after every shift on the bench and trying to grind through it. I give him credit for fighting through it.”
• Cale Makar’s point streak is over at five games. One more game and he would have tied the all-time NHL record for defensemen starting their career with points in at least six games. I thought Makar played real well, though, especially defensively. That last goal against was not his fault at all.
• Phillip Grubauer was hung out to dry a bit on the two regulation goals he allowed. Jake Guentzel walked around Ryan Graves on one goal, and Sidney Crosby was Sidney Crosby on a great first-period goal that tied it 1-1 after Matt Calvert scored early.
• Landeskog just had one of those nights. Just wasn’t his night at all. His puck-possession numbers were pretty OK actually, but that tells you about analytics in hockey. Much of the time, they are deceptive.
• Makar had 22 Corsi events for, 15 against.
• It’ll be interesting to see what Bednar decides for his defensive pairings Friday in Florida. I have a feeling you’ll see Nikita Zadorov back in the lineup – and I think he should be.
• For the first time on the season, it was something of a rough night for both Joonas Donskoi and Andre Burakovsky. Neither were involved in the play too much offensively, though Donskoi did hit the post with a backhander in the first period.
• Said Grubauer: “I don’t think we played great, but we found a way to get a point out of it. We’ve got to learn from our mistakes.”
• As the Heat Map, provided by Natural Stat Trick shows: the Penguins worked harder in the scoring areas close to the net: