Good & Bad: MacKinnon Frustrated? Avalanche Fall to Edmonton, Lose on Back-to-Back Nights

Even the Hart Trophy winner goes through slumps. Last year, MacKinnon put up an insane 140 points but had stretches where his production stalled for his standard.

The superstar center is going through one of those ruts now. In the Avalanche’s 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday — the Avs’ third defeat in four games — MacKinnon again was unable to produce. He has three assists in his last seven games and hasn’t scored in nine. MacKinnon once led the NHL in points and had somewhat of a cushion on the rest of the league. But after Saturday’s games, he was tied for third.

Colorado fell to 13-12-0 on the season and will embark on a five-game road trip starting Tuesday.

As for the rest of the Avalanche, the loss to Edmonton was more of the same frustrating hockey the team endured the prior night in Dallas. Colorado has been one of the strongest back-to-back teams over the past several years and doesn’t usually lose on consecutive nights, especially in regulation. The one-goal effort at home against Edmonton continued a stretch of poor offensive play. After lightning up the Florida Panthers with seven goals last Saturday, Colorado has seven goals in four games (1-3-0).

They defended well when they got the lead,” Avs star forward Mikko Rantanen said. “Then they got a two-goal lead and had five guys above the puck all the time. We couldn’t create.”

The team has struggled to find its stride offensively since losing Jonathan Drouin, who last played in that game against Florida. Drouin scored two goals and was part of Colorado’s fully healthy top-six, which lasted just four games.

The lone goal scorer against Edmonton was Nikolai Kovalenko, who was elevated to the top six in Drouin’s absence. Kovalenko’s goal came on Colorado’s first power play and opened the scoring. The Oilers controlled play the rest of the way and, as Rantanen noted, they shut down the Avs upon taking a two-goal lead early in the third period.

Alexandar Georgiev got the nod in goal for the second consecutive night and made 28 saves. Colorado was outshot 32-29.

Read More: Avalanche Acquire Goaltender Scott Wedgewood for Justus Annunen, Draft Pick

Bad: MacKinnon’s Frustrations

MacKinnon is arguably the most fiery superstar in the NHL. It’s not out of the ordinary for him to noticeably express his disdain at the end of a shift or between periods. MacKinnon isn’t a player who gets rattled easily or lets frustrations affect his play. But his lack of production seems to be adding up in recent weeks. Could those noticeable frustrations be actually affecting him?

It’s nowhere near a lack of effort. He’s getting opportunities every night and had a big one-timer stopped by Stuart Skinner late in regulation with the goalie pulled. But the forward is fumbling a lot of pucks lately and miscues are aplenty. His struggles are part of the reason why Colorado’s power play hasn’t produced as expected.

Read More: Avs New Goalie Says He’s ‘Envisioned Playing Here’

Bad: Power play

Speaking of the PP, the Avs are mired in a 4-for-29 stretch with the man advantage.

In Friday’s night loss at Dallas, the Avalanche scored on their first power-play opportunity and then couldn’t generate much of anything in the remaining four opportunities. It happened again.

The Avs scored on their first power play before falling to generate much on the remaining four chances against Edmonton. Even in the third period with a chance to make things interesting, Colorado was unable to threaten the Oilers’ PK. The PP combined for just two shots on goal on those four opportunities and the Oilers PK, which has been red hot lately, got into a rhythm and suffocated the life out of the Avs’ top stars.

Good: The second PP unit gets on the board

Perhaps the one shining light on the Avs’ performance was the power-play goal from Kovalenko. Mostly because it came on the only shot on goal the Avs had on the first PP opportunity and from the second unit. The top stars couldn’t get anything done, which was frustrating, but the second unit was able to salvage the opportunity. At the time, the goal seemed like it could be a boost for Colorado, which had a 1-0 lead before the midway point of the first period. But it didn’t last long.

Samuel Girard was the quarterback and Kovalenko put home a nice pass from Artturi Lehkonen for his fourth goal of the season.