Good & Bad: Avalanche’s Late Push, Home Winning Streak Stopped by St. Louis Blues

DENVER — Moral victories don’t count in the standings. They especially don’t matter when you’re holding to what’s left of your hope to have home-ice advantage in the first round. But when you put in an effort like that — one where you have more shots blocked than the opposition puts on your net, it’s tough to really be overly upset about a loss.

The Avalanche fell 2-1 to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, ending an 11-game home winning streak at Ball Arena. Colorado fell to 8-2-1 since the trade deadline with each of three losses coming by the same score.

Even in defeat, the Avs aren’t giving up much. That’s perhaps the best thing you can take away from a game like this.

“We want to be stingy. We want to be well defensively and play well in our own end, and limit their opportunities and their scoring chances,” center Charlie Coyle said. “When we do that, we’re giving ourselves a pretty good shot to win hockey games.”

The Blues had 27 shots on goal, of which Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 25. They had 21 other opportunities that were either blocked or missed the target.

Meanwhile, Colorado put 29 shots on Jordan Binnington but had another 28 blocked, and 21 miss the net. That was a clear indicator of how St. Louis chose to shutdown the Avs’ offense.

They got in lanes, collapsed all five men below the puck, and when an opportunity still got passed them, they relied on a hot goalie in Binnington to make the save.

Outside of the lone Avalanche tally from Nathan MacKinnon in the first period, their plan was successful.

“Our opportunities are usually there when we play the right way,” Coyle said. “When we play the right way in our own zone, that’s going to lead to more offensively.

“Sometimes you run into a hot goalie, it happens, it’s but you gotta take the positives and the good things that we’ve done.”

The Avs were undisciplined in the third period, there’s no question. It was 1-1 after 40 minutes with Colorado tying the game up quickly after the Blues scored first.

But in the final frame, the Avs took three penalties. Head coach Jared Bednar correctly described Ross Colton’s as an undisciplined play. He also referenced the accidental high stick by Sam Malinski.

But the call in between, a trip from MacKinnon, wasn’t the best. At least not in the coaches eyes.

“I thought it was stick on stick,” he said.

The Avalanche killed all three of them. It was an impressive PK performance that should’ve tilted the momentum in their favor. But the Blues got the eventual game winner in between the second and third penalties. Martin Necas turned the puck over and the rest was history.

What made it more frustrating was the lack of a penalty the other way. Avs defenseman Ryan Lindgren was hit against the boards in the neutral zone while challenging a Blues player for the loose puck. The opposition took one of his hands off his stick and used it to staple Lindgren into the boards, removing his helmet in the process.

“I would have loved a penalty called on the Lindgren hit. Roughing,” Bednar said. “It would give our power play two minutes to get out there, still a few minutes to go, and then six on five. I like our chances, especially after killing three in a row, but we didn’t get the call. So you gotta keep battling through it.”

Bad: The Bad Penalties Are The Toughest to Kill

The third period was a successful PK experience. But the other call in the first period on Jack Drury didn’t go quite as well.

It’s an old hockey tradition: The more boneheaded the penalty, the tougher it is to kill. There’s no science behind this — it’s probably not even entirely true. But it just seems to often be that way.

Perhaps the most boneheaded of calls in the NHL rulebook is the delay of game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass. Even when the play itself isn’t boneheaded, it still classifies as one of those bad penalties you hate to take. Drury was called for delay of game at 10:20 of the first period and the Blues scored 37 seconds later.

Those penalties truly do sting. Especially this time of year.

Good: Quick Response

After the Blues made it 1-0, it took just 1:12 for the Avalanche to answer back. This has become a common theme.

Earlier in the week, Detroit took a 1-0 lead, but the Avs knotted things up 48 seconds later. And last week, Toronto got a 1-0 lead before Colorado responded 2:20 after that.

They’re shaking off those early goals against and keeping themselves in games from the onset.

Games traditionally tighten up closer to the playoffs, which makes these quick responses all the more important. At the time of Colorado’s goals, there were a total of 16 shots combined from both teams through 12 minutes. The next 24 minutes saw just eight shots get to either goalie.

The game tightened up quickly. Luckily for the Avs, they weren’t trying to mount a comeback during that time. It set up a 1-1 score to start the third period and it was still anybody’s game.