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Good & Bad

Good & Bad: Avalanche Fall 3-1 to Boston in Quick Turnaround Post-Rantanen Trade

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The hockey schedule waits for no one.

The Avalanche were preparing for an early matinee matchup on Saturday when they made the late Friday night whopper of a trade with Carolina. Without Mikko Rantanen, and with Martin Necas and Jack Drury in the fold, the Avs came out strong against the Bruins before collapsing early in the third period to fall behind.



The result, a 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Gardens in regulation after carrying a 1-0 lead into the third period. This is the first time the Avs came away with zero points in a game they led entering the third period. They were 17-0-1 before this.

Artturi Lehkonen had the lone goal in the second period. He made an excellent play entering the zone before later receiving a pass from Juuso Parssinen and beating Jeremy Swayman far side to put the Avs ahead.

The Avs were playing a pretty much perfect game defensively through 40 minutes. With backup Scott Wedgewood in goal, Colorado gave up just eight shots through two periods. The Bruins couldn’t create much of anything but also played well defensively themselves.

In the end, Swayman stopped 27 of 28 shots while Wedgewood was 12-for-14.

The home team wasted little time getting on the board in the third. It started with a turnover by Jonathan Drouin that sent the puck back the other way and it ended with Morgan Geekie beating Wedgewood just 25 seconds in.

Boston had a lot of jam following the goal and started to control play. But eventually, the Avalanche drew a penalty and had a chance to get ahead. Instead, they fell to 0-for-2 on the man advantage and the Bruins quickly got a second goal from Morgan Geekie after that.

The power play has been an issue for weeks and the seismic shift of removing Rantanen is only going to make it harder for the top unit to adjust. Necas, like MacKinnon, is a right-handed shooter. So it’ll be an adjustment to see how the Avs go from having MacKinnon and Rantanen wiring one-timers from both circles on their off-hand.

Good: Resiliency

This was never going to be an easy game after the trade. There was a time on Friday night when it wasn’t even clear if Necas and Drury would play in this game. If that were the case, Colorado likely would’ve had to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. But the two new forwards weren’t even afforded a morning skate. Unfortunately, a back-to-back with two matinee games means they won’t have that on Sunday either.

Despite that, and the emotions of losing Rantanen, Colorado had an exceptional start to this game. MacKinnon and company came out like gangbusters, skating circles around the Bruins. They had a 9-1 shot advantage at one point but were stopped by Swayman on a handful of high-danger opportunities.

It’s a shame that didn’t carry into the third period. Getting two points in Boston would’ve provided a massive morale boost

Bad: Flat start to the third period

What makes the third period all the more frustrating is that the Avs still played pretty well. They just started flat, and let Boston not only tie the game but get the upper hand before Colorado got back on track.

Two turnovers, two goals against, followed by a chase for the remainder of the period. It’s a common theme that has hurt this team for weeks and one they’ll have to get over. Playing catch-up hockey all the time is exhausting.

Colorado's premier coverage of the Avalanche from professional hockey people. Evan Rawal, Editor-in-Chief. Part of the National Hockey Now family.

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