Good & Bad: Avalanche Fall Behind Early, Lose 5-2 to Tampa Bay

DENVER — Missing six of their top 10 forwards, the Avalanche probably didn’t have much of a chance on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. But rather than give it a go and see if they can at least make a game of it, Colorado folded right from the start and surrendered three goals on five shots before the game was even six minutes old. The Bolts went on to win 5-2 at Ball Arena.

It was a brutal start, and the Avs never recovered. Even when they started to find their legs, they couldn’t get more than one goal past Andrei Vasilevskiy before the third period. And despite an exceptional amount of movement on several power plays in the second period, their inability to find a scoring lane kept them from making the game interesting. Instead, Matt Stienburg was assessed a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct later in the period on a boneheaded play. Already down to 11 forwards, Colorado had to play with 10 the rest of the way.

Why did it start with just 11? Without Ross Colton (broken foot, out 6-8 weeks) and Miles Wood (upper body, out 7-10 days), the Avs called up T.J. Tynan to replace one of them. The last remaining spot was given to Oliver Kylington. Anytime you have to play a defenseman at forward due to the lack of healthy options, it’s a problem. But if that blueliner also starts on the third line, it’s an entirely bigger issue. Colorado’s third line, which included Parker Kelly and Nikolai Kovalenko, gave up the first two goals, both against Tampa Bay’s dominant top line. Kylington was later relegated to the fourth line.

Ivan Ivan and Cale Makar had Colorado’s goals. The assists for Ivan’s tally were given to Nathan MacKinnon and Makar, extending both of their season-opening point streaks to 11 games.

READ MORE: Cale Makar Nears Bobby Orr’s Record Point Streak

There wasn’t a lot of good to take from this game. At least not from the Avalanche’s side. So let’s start with what didn’t go well.

Bad: The Avalanche’s start

The energy was sucked entirely out of the building at the 1:01 mark of the first period. Truly, it was a gut punch. After goalie Kaapo Kahkonen made a routine stop on Tampa Bay’s first shot, the netminder, in his Avalanche debut, let in three goals on the next four shots he faced.

And after the first goal, you can tell there was a sense of “uh oh” among Avs fans. They’d been waiting three weeks for Kahkonen to come in and potentially be another option in goal, and instead, it looked similar to what they’d seen from several of Alexandar Georgiev’s starts.

First, Nikita Kucherov wired a one-timer past Kahkonen off a feed from Brayden Point. I wouldn’t entirely pin this one on Kahkonen. Kucherov — one of the NHL’s most elite talents and the reigning Art Ross Trophy winner — was all alone in the slot. Not a defenseman or backchecking forward in sight. And it’s not that this goal was Kahkonen’s fault. It’s just the feeling of letting in an early goal on one of the first few shots of the game, a common theme from the early parts of this season.

Tampa continued to press and Guentzel scored at 3:36 before Conor Geekie added another at 5:32. When you look up and down the lineup, it’s no contest. The Avs’ injuries were probably way too much to win this game. But the most frustrating part about the Avs’ early performance was seeing even the top line get outplayed. No matter what the injuries look like, Colorado had a handful of shifts early that had Mikko Rantanen, Samuel Girard, MacKinnon, and Makar on the ice. And even in those instances, Tampa Bay was toying with the Avs early.

Credit to Colorado for dominating the third period. One or two extra saves in the first could’ve made this more interesting.

Bad: Matt Stienburg’s hit on Erik Cernak

At the time of his match penalty, Stienburg already had a clean hit earlier in the game on Zemgus Girgensons. And the outcome of it was a power play for his club. I guess Stienburg was trying to replicate his effectiveness in the second period but did it in about the worst way possible. With an official just a couple of feet away, Stienburg charged at Cernak, jumped into a hit with speed, and caught him in the head against the boards. Bad, bad hit.

Lightning center Anthony Cirelli came in to stick up for his teammate and ended up getting two minutes for roughing. It was somewhat of a gift for the Avs, as Cirelli probably had every right to jump in. The teams played 4-on-4 for two minutes before the Avalanche successfully killed off the remaining three minutes of the major, which carried into the third period.

Read More: Artturi Lehkonen Aiming To Return Next Tuesday

Good: Jon Cooper

Starting with Tampa Bay, head coach Jon Cooper deserves to be praised for how he handled the line matchups in the early going. Colorado was the home team, which means Bednar gets the last change. But on both of the first two goals, as soon as the Avs sent Kylington, Kelly, and Kovalenko over the boards, Cooper called his guys off and sent out his dominant top line. Excellent coaching that led to quick results for his team.

“It’s awareness mistakes young players make,” Bednar said of what led to Tampa Bay’s early goals. “Just not reading it quick enough and not getting quite in the right spot.”

Fun side note: When I was leaving Ball Arena after morning skate, I ran into Cooper and MacKinnon having a private 1-on-1 conversation in the loading dock. You have to imagine it was about the upcoming 4 Nations Faceoff, where Cooper will coach Team Canada and MacKinnon will be a crucial piece of their roster.

Good: The Avs’ power play

I might be grasping at straws here, but I do want to give a little bit of a hat tip to Colorado’s power play despite its inability to capitalize in the second period.

Pretty much all season, the PP has led the way in at least keeping the Avs at or near .500. And the most impressive part of it, which we saw again today, is their ability to continue to produce even as players go down.

MacKinnon, Makar, Rantanen, and Casey Mittelstadt have made up four parts on the top unit all year. Opening night had Jonathan Drouin as the fifth man, but after his injury, Ross Colton replaced him and currently sits tied for the lead in power-play goals with four. Ivan only got an opportunity today because Colton went down. But it wasn’t the first time. When Colton left last week’s game in Utah in the second period, Ivan joined the top unit and scored his first career goal on the power play. Then Colton came back and scored again on the PP before breaking his foot on Monday.

No matter who they put there, the goals are coming. It’s only a matter of time before Valeri Nichushkin returns and elevates it even more.

“They did a nice job. They went 1-for-4 and we could have had a couple more in there,” Bednar said. “We definitely had at least two [chances] in the slot that got through and at least one other one, where we found the slot but they just get a last-second deflection.”