Good & Bad: Avalanche Fall To 0-3 After Glaring Mistakes From Top Star

DENVER — It’s been a brutal week of hockey to start the season for the Avalanche. And you could argue that Monday’s 6-2 loss to the New York Islanders is the worst effort of the bunch.

Colorado scored the first goal but that was about the only positive highlight of the evening. The Avs are 0-3-0 for the first time in 16 years.

Bad: Cale Makar

There were a lot of options to choose from. But without Devon Toews in the lineup, Cale Makar was a shell of the superstar defenseman we see on most nights. And I’m not giving him a copout by mentioning Toews’ absence. One of Makar’s more glaringly bad shifts I’ve seen in years happened on the PP.

Already trailing 2-1 in the second period, Makar made two mistakes on two different plays which both ended up in the back of his net. He even lost Anthony Duclair in the third period, which directly led to another Islanders goal.

But back to the second period: On the third New York goal, Makar had an opportunity to get the puck out of the zone and failed to do so. New York instead kept cycling the puck, and the Avs’ five-man unit was gassed by the time Brock Nelson broke in on Alexandar Georgiev all alone. He dangled Colorado’s goalie to score his first of two goals. Makar, at the end of an extended shift, was nowhere to be found in front of the goal when Nelson scored.

On the following goal, Colorado had about the worst power play sequence they’ve had in years. It all started when Chris Wagner and the fourth line drew an interference call.

Like he always does, head coach Jared Bednar sent his first unit onto the ice to start the game’s first power play with the faceoff deep in the Islanders zone. Within 12 seconds, the puck went from a faceoff nearly 200 feet away from Colorado’s net to a scoring opportunity for the Isles at the other end after a misplay from Mikko Rantanen.

In a rare move, Bednar pulled his top unit off the ice and sent the second unit out after those 12 bad seconds. Bednar later turned back to his stars with 59 seconds remaining on the PP. Colorado controlled the puck deep in the zone. When a pass was made to the point, Makar fumbled the puck, and the Avs PP needed to re-group. Moments later, Makar, in his end, made a pass that was picked off by Nelson, who fired it past Georgiev for a shorthanded goal.

It was a sequence to forget for the top stars and a period to forget for Makar. Colorado was missing a lot of firepower when the season began. And the injuries to Jonathan Drouin and Toews in the first two games made matters worse. But in the past, Colorado relied on its superstars to keep them afloat during tough times but that just isn’t happening through the first three games.

Nathan MacKinnon, Rantanen, and Makar are producing points. But their all-around game isn’t nearly where it should be.

Good: Calum Ritchie

Calum Ritchie has shown flashes of the type of player he’s going to be in the NHL. In his early-to-mid 20s, he’s going to break out as a star for this team. But right now, the 19-year-old is still getting his feet under him with the big club.

His first two shifts on Monday were far and away the two best we’ve seen from him in this short time. On the opening shift, Ritchie scored his first career NHL goal — collecting a beautiful feed from Josh Manson from the opposite wall and tapping it in past goalie Ilya Sorokin. Moments later, Ritchie came out for his second shift and nearly set up another goal.

This is the type of confidence Bednar was referring to when he spoke about the young forwards’ game over the weekend. Ritchie came into camp with a lot of confidence but it hasn’t always been there since the games started mattering. Getting a look in the top six on a Cup-contending team missing several offensive pieces comes with a lot of pressure.

Ritchie still hasn’t had a complete 60-minute breakout game. But if those first two electric shifts he had Monday were a sign of things to come, then he’s going to be a lot more comfortable sooner than I originally thought.