Not Good Enough: Takeaways from Avalanche’s Surprising loss to Anaheim

Looks like everybody, most especially Avalanche players themselves, got a little too big-headed after that win in Vegas Friday. I called it their “best game in years” and there were many other virtual love notes written about the previously 8-1-1 hockey club.

The host Avs played like a team that thought maybe it could just throw their sticks out there be good enough against a mediocre Anaheim Ducks team dressing a 39-year-old goalie. Anaheim outworked the Avs too much of the time and did the little things better in pinning a 5-2 loss on Colorado in front of a disappointed sold-out crowd of 18,039.

It’s not like the Avs were terrible at all. They outshot the Ducks and carried play for a good chunk of the second half of the game They just showed up a little too flat-footed, got behind early and just played -kind of a less-than-relaxed, catch-up brand of hockey that just wasn’t good enough in the end. If the Avs were starting to fall in love a little bit much with their press clippings, this kind of game should swiftly disabuse them of any notion that there is such thing as an easy night in the NHL. Of course, the Avs should have known that already coming in.