Connect with us

Game Review

Nothin’ Bruin for Avs in Beantown Embarrassment

Published

on

Winslow Townson/AP

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln…

Yeah, it was that kind of day for the Avs in Boston, my old stomping grounds. I have a couple of wicked Bruins fan friends who rode me unmercifully throughout the game, a 5-1 loss to the Bruins. In the parlance of their wicked Mass. accented tongues, “You guys were a disastah out theyahh.” 

Yeah, pretty much. But, hey, I replied, at least we didn’t choke a seventh game at home in the Stanley Cup Finals to the ST. LOUIS BLUES three years ago.

They didn’t like that much.

And, nobody cares who wins games in February. And, you can’t win ’em all. And, those guys get paid too.

But, yeah, that was probably the worst game of the season for the Avs.

“We were sloppy coming out of our zone…O-zone, we weren’t able to sustain much pressure…but we’ll get back on track,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said.

Next game is Wednesday in Detroit.

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

  • Social media was whirring after the game, of this overhead shot showing Nathan MacKinnon slashing a linesman, Michel Cormier, after a faceoff:

  • First off, MacKinnon didn’t talk after the game. The only player who did was Landy. I personally believe this is a case where MacKinnon was trying to give Tomas Nosek of the Bruins a slash, after taking something of an elbow/forearm to the head after this faceoff. But, as the video clearly shows, he slashed toward the linesman instead. Was there actual contact made? Hard to tell. Nosek was skating away, and MacKinnon clearly showed his frustration over the forearm, and tried to slash him. I just have to believe that MacKinnon really meant that for Nosek, not Cormier. The angle might have looked very different from ice level, from MacKinnon’s vision, than that overhead shot. I doubt anything will come of this from the league. Maybe a fine, but that’s all, I bet. (UPDATE: nothing will come from it).
  • So, Joe Sakic was at the Islanders game yesterday in New York, and my colleague from NYI Hockey Now, Stefen Rosner, reported, via a source, that Sakic was taking a hard look at veteran Cal Clutterbuck as a possible trade-deadline pickup.
  • Clutterbuck has some decent playoff experience and has long been one of the league’s better agitators, though he doesn’t play quite that same style as much anymore. I mean, he has only 10 penalty minutes on the season. But he’s tough, plays hard defensively and can help on the PK. We’ll see what happens.
  • The way guys such as Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Tyson Jost and Darren Helm played today, rumors involving Clutterbuck as a potential upgrade as a depth forward probably won’t dissipate right away.
  • The guy whose play concerns me the most of late, though, is Andre Burakovsky.
  • Burky has gone 16 straight games without a goal. He still has 33 points in 46 games, which is still good. But that’s a long goal drought now. He can be a UFA after this season, making $4.9 million now, so you wonder if some of that pressure to perform for a bigger ticket is getting to him. Or, maybe the trade rumors for a guy like Claude Giroux are getting to him? I don’t know, but the Avs need more goals from a top-six guy like him.
  • I thought Darcy Kuemper did all he could to keep his team in it, but the damn finally broke in the second period. The Avs were terrible after they cut the lead to 2-1, and Kemps couldn’t stop everything.
  • Bednar wasn’t happy with the two penalties Kubel took in the game. “One in the neutral zone, one in the offensive zone against one of the best power plays in the league. It’s discipline,” Bednar said.
  • Or, lack thereof.
  • The Avalanche’s season-long road winning streak was snapped at seven, tied for the longest in the league this season (Toronto, Vegas) and tied for the second-longest road winning streak in franchise history.
  • Cale Makar registered an assist for his 51st point of the season, setting a new career high in his 46th game of the campaign. Makar’s previous best was 50 points in 57 contests during his rookie season in 2019-20. He moves into a tie with Roman Josi for first in the league in scoring among defensemen and ranks first among all blueliners in points-per-game (1.11).

Colorado's premier coverage of the Avalanche from professional hockey people. Evan Rawal, Editor-in-Chief. Part of the National Hockey Now family.

This site is in no way associated with the Colorado Avalanche or the NHL. Copyright © 2023 National Hockey Now.