Postgame Avalanche-Stars: A point gained, but another blown third-period lead

I was going to go glass-half-empty tonight, with the Avalanche blowing yet another third-period lead, then losing in a shootout to the Dallas Stars. The final from American Airlines Arena: Dallas Stars 3, Avs 2.

But I’m going to try and accentuate the positive here. Well, I’ll try anyway.

First off, the Avs were the better team in regulation. They should have won it in those allotted 60 minutes, but they didn’t. Still, they controlled play for large stretches of the game, on enemy ice, on the second of a back-to-back.

As soon as the game went to overtime, though – and especially to the shootout – I thought the Avs would lose, and they did. They are just not a good overtime/shootout team – still. In the Jared Bednar era, good regulation performances seem to go right out the window, with the team doing weird, dumb things, almost like a completely different-looking team altogether.

In this case, Nathan MacKinnon tripped Stars D-man John Klingberg with a little more than two minutes left in OT, putting Colorado fully on its heels the whole time, with only the work of Philipp Grubauer getting his team to a shootout.

When it went it the shootout, it ended quick. Grubauer had no answer for shots by Joe Pavelski and Alexander Radulov, while MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen both elected to go with difficult backhanders, to no avail, and thus the Avs lost the extra point.

Colorado’s record now in the last seven games: 2-4-1.

Yeah, they lost another game when having a third-period lead, but this one wasn’t quite as egregious as the last three at home. It was just a 2-1 game entering the third. But some of the same alarm bells went off in this one as the ones at home, such as: the Avs’ penalty kill sucks right now. It’s bad. Really bad. They can’t clear pucks, they can’t get control of pucks and they can’t keep pucks out of their net.

They give up a power-play goal almost every single game. It’s the No. 1 thing wrong with this team right now, and until this team figures out a way to fix it, it’s going nowhere in the spring.

That said, I liked the rest of their game, for the most part. They put 40 shots on net in regulation, many of them high-quality chances. MacKinnon hit the post with one shot, Cale Makar hit another post with a shot. They probably deserved a better fate in regulation.

I think the Avs’ top line has been a little bit off of late, despite individual guys getting points here and there. But that line should be better than it’s been. Rantanen hasn’t been very good, and MacKinnon – while still flashing lots of times – just has seemed a bit too helter-skelter for me lately. He is at his best when he’s a bit more under control with his movements offensively if that makes any sense. I guess I’m trying to say that I feel like he’s been rushing things a bit too much, with that shootout attempt tonight being one example.

Hey, the Avs got a point tonight and got to the 50-point mark, in game No. 39. Things are still pretty positive overall, in the big picture. Are there some worries? Oh hell yes, especially this third-period-lead thing. And, the PK.

But overall, my attitude almost always is: a point on the road is a decent night’s work, so just count the blessings and move on.

Here are the analytics numbers for the Avs: