Avalanche Locker Room: Rantanen Furious, Makar Tired of Slow Starts

Mikko Rantanen was as heated as you’ll ever see him after the Colorado Avalanche fell 5-4 to the Florida Panthers.

A missed high sticking call sent the star forward on an angry tirade after the game. The Finnish winger’s penalty in the third period gave the Panthers a late powerplay, where they would score the game winning goal. He was not the only one upset with the missed penalty call.

Check out what Rantanen, Cale Makar, and Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar had to say after the loss.

Rantanen on the missed high sticking call:

Can’t be a more clear high stick. We got called on the exact same play two games ago or something. I’m not saying anything about the refs, I’m just saying it’s a high stick. He hits the guy in the face. But, I can’t say anything about the refs so I’m not going to.

Rantanen on the game:

That first period we give up three goals right away. That’s tough. It’s tough to comeback and we did. It sucks, the end there. We almost got a kill and 10 seconds left they score. It is what it is. It’s tough.

Makar on playing from behind of late:

It’s not fun. You don’t want to play from behind every single game. It’s a good learning curve now for us, I guess, but we have to learn to get off to better starts.

Makar on the late comeback:

We know we have it, but why is that not in the first and second period? We should be like that the entire game because we know we’re capable of it. It’s just figuring out how we can do that. You see glimpses of it, we just have to figure out how to do that in the full 60.

Makar on the third period:

We were just attacking. We had that attack mentality. We weren’t on our heels, especially even myself on the backend. I felt like we were breaking pucks out, working harder in the corners and getting pucks up to our forwards, giving them opportunities to get into the offensive zone.

Bednar on the game:

We didn’t play well enough for 40 minutes. Just not good enough. I think we get some more shooting luck and intensity to our game in the third, and it starts to turn around for us. Didn’t manage the puck good in the first, didn’t like the way we checked in the second.

Bednar on the Avalanche’s shooting:

The ones that frustrate me, I felt like first period and at times in second and third, we missed the net on some of our best chances of the night. We didn’t force him to make a save. When we executed and got into scoring areas, we missed the net too much.

Bednar on if late comeback alleviates anything:

No, it’s too late. I like what we did, but the message has been recently we have to play a full 60 to win. It’s a tough league. It’s on all of us.

Bednar on the missed high sticking call:

I didn’t like the sequence at all. Compher takes on in the face in the neutral zone and they let it go. 30 seconds later, we’re getting called for one where I think the player embellishes a little bit. I’m just thinking let the players decide it.