Dater: Thoughts and observations from Colorado Avalanche loss to Flames (+)

Listen, first off, I thought it was a great game tonight. If that’s the Western Conference final matchup – Colorado Avalanche vs. Calgary Flames – we would be in for a real treat. It was a hard-hitting game with some nastiness, a great heavyweight fight between Kurtis MacDermid and Milan Lucic and some sensational plays.

But the Avs found a way to lose the game, 4-3 in overtime. A soft play on the puck by Mikko Rantanen turned it over, leading to a Johny Gaudreau breakaway on Pavel Francouz. That was that. Calgary gets two points, Avs get one. Avs still have a 12-point lead on Flames in the battle for the Western crown.

The bad part about this game for the Avs: Darcy Kuemper didn’t seem dialed in tonight, and was pulled early in the second period. Kuemper slammed his stick against the bench and stomped down the hallway before regaining his cool and watching the rest of the game from the bench.

And, the Avs played giveaway with the puck a few too many times. They took two one-goal leads earlier in the game, but got sloppy on ensuing shifts and the leads vanished.

“I thought we battled hard, played well,” captain Gabe Landeskog said. “But it was a breakaway in the end.

Landeskog said of Kuemper being pulled, after allowing a third Calgary goal by the early part of the second: “Most of the time, it’s not because the goalie’s playing bad. It’s to give the team a spark, basically saying to the whole group, ‘let’s start over, let’s start fresh.’

Said Jared Bednar: “I didn’t feel like Darcy was real sharp. At that point, I thought we needed a little something. It was a tough call to make.”

About Kuemper’s show of emotion after being taken out, Bednar said, “I wouldn’t be happy either.”

Bednar said, “I liked our checking game last two periods. I liked our third period, a lot.”

But, in the end, the Avs just weren’t quite sharp enough with the puck – and Kuemper couldn’t bail them out this time.

THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Nathan MacKinnon was flying tonight, getting a goal and nine shots on net. He also took some criticism from the panel on “Hockey Night in Canada”, with Kelly Hrudey at one point saying MacKinnon is “crossing the line” with his temper lately. Elliotte Friedman reported that some NHL officials are mad that MacKinnon wasn’t suspended for that slash on a linesman in Boston a couple weeks ago. Kevin Bieksa criticized MacKinnon for not having good “game management” with his fight in Arizona at the end of the contest the other night.
• Valeri Nichushkin returned tonight and played pretty well I thought, although he seemed a tad off with some decision-making with the puck at times.
• Tyson Jost took a puck to the face and didn’t return. Prior to that, he lost five of six faceoffs.
• J.T. Compher, a minus-1 with only 40-percent success rate on faceoffs. Avs as a team won only 38 percent of the draws. Not good enough.
• Tough night for Sam Girard. Minus-1 and a couple of giveaways.
• Darren Helm was a scratch for Kurtis MacDermid. But Big Mac only played 2:03 in the game. He did have that heavyweight fight with Milan Lucic, though, which fired up the crowd – and the Avs I thought. I thought Big Mac won the fight on points.
• Nikita Zadorov actually played a pretty good game against the Avs, I thought. He had an assist and laid a couple of hard hits on guys, including MacKinnon and Girard.
• I dropped my phone at the game, and it is completely toast. Like, it’s got just some weird, purplish hue to the screen now.  Doesn’t do anything. I hope my schmoozing skills are on point with T-Mobile clerks tomorrow.
• Rantanen just got knocked off the puck by Lindholm of the Flames, then everybody just watched him hit Gaudreau with a long lead pass. Not like Mikko to get separated so easy from the puck like that.