Good & Bad: Power Play Falls Apart in Avalanche’s Latest Loss

Four, two, three, three, and two.

Those are the number of power-play opportunities the Avalanche have had over the last five games without scoring. Their four chances against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday were the most they’ve had in eight games. Not only were they unable to get one past Thatcher Demko on the PP, but the eventual game-winning goal was scored shorthanded.

As a result, Colorado fell 3-1 to the Canucks, dropping the Avs to 18-15-0 on the season. Jared Bednar’s club is mired in a stretch where they’ve scored just six goals on their last 54 PP chances.

The Canucks got three goals from Kiefer Sherwood, who led the game with seven shots. The former Avs forward recorded his first career hat trick on the same night he scored his first shorthanded tally.

Colorado outshot Vancouver 31-25 and was nearly held off the scoresheet by Demko before Valeri Nichushkin ended the goaltender’s shutout bid with just 45 seconds remaining in regulation. At the other end, Mackenzie Blackwood played well, making 22 saves on 24 shots (.917 save percentage).

Bad: Power play

The shorthanded goal against further highlights the struggles of an already ineffective power play. They managed to hold the Canucks off the scoresheet on their two PP chances. But the shorthanded tally was the difference on special teams. Not great.

I’m not entirely sure what they can change to fix this. It seems like they have no other option but to continue to work through it with hopes of something eventually going their way. How was the power play that much better when they only had one real unit? Artturi Lehkonen, Ross Colton, Casey Mittelstadt, and Nichushkin have basically all been paired with the three-headed monster and nothing is working.

Good: Thatcher Demko

Props to the Canucks’ netminder for putting in a great effort in just his third game this season. Demko missed the last 11 Canucks playoff games last year and was injured to start this year. Before this performance, he struggled in his first two games. Demko was the runner-up for the Vezina Trophy a year ago. The Canucks’ hopes for making any type of run in the playoffs are elevated immensely when he’s healthy and available.