Flynn’s Takes from Game 3: Avs’ Issues and How to Fix Them

There are a few things the Colorado Avalanche need to clean up to beat the Dallas Stars and advance to the next round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Avs are now down a game to the Stars after a tough 2-1 overtime loss on Wednesday night in a highly emotional and physical Game 3 at Ball Arena.

It’s cliche to say it could have gone either way after consecutive one-goal overtime losses, but for the Avs and Stars, it’s very much true. While Game 1 was all Colorado with a dominating 5-1 victory, Games 2 and 3 truly could have gone either way. The Avs scored first in both Games 2 and 3 and held the lead for the majority, but the outcome was in the Stars’ favor.

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Player errors cost the Avs Game 2, while execution issues plagued them in Game 3. They were tight, physical games with little room for error on either side. But as Cale Makar said after the Game 3 loss, “they’re an opportunistic team” — they strike at any mishap from their opponent.

“The lot of the execution issues last night, lots of times the other team has something to say about it, but it looked like more us just missing passes and not being able to put a few passes together,” head coach Jared Bednar said at a media conference on Thursday.

Colorado was not effective on the power play, going 0-6 in the overtime loss. Bednar addressed the team’s inability to capitalize on the man-advantage.

“We weren’t great on our breakouts. We weren’t great on our entries. We’re too slow to shoot the puck. When we do shoot the puck, there’s not enough traffic, so it really is everything. They looked like they were out of sync last night,” Bednar said.

Fix the chemistry on the power-play units. Sounds like an easy solution, but that requires changing up each group’s personnel to find what works.

Chemistry and everyone firing on all cylinders are important factors in the postseason. Bednar moved some players around to get the whole team on the same page, but that’s not an easy equation to figure out.

“We had some quiet players, players that we can’t afford to have be quiet, and then we flip things up. Some of those players got going, then other guys got quiet. You’re playing one of the top teams in the league, and if you’ve got two or three or even one — if you have one guy on a line that’s quiet, the line’s not going to do anything, or one guy on the line that’s beating the puck up and struggling with his execution and having a bad night, that line’s not going to do anything. So that’s why we mix some things up,” Bednar said.

The Avs have an advantage with an extra day off between games to rest and regroup at home. Neither team practiced on Thursday, and both are scheduled to skate at Ball Arena on Friday. The only possible disadvantage is losing momentum from the emotionally charged crowd for Gabriel Landeskog’s return on Wednesday.

Watch Landeskog’s Full Postgame Press Conference

“I like the hype. I like the energy in the building. I wish it would have sparked us a little bit more. I don’t know what was going on with us in the first period, maybe a little distracted. So now it’s time to get back to the focus that’s needed to beat Dallas, and our team wants that. Everybody wants that,” Bednar said. “But still the energy is going to be high at Ball Arena. The crowd’s been amazing. The support has been amazing for our team, and we should be able to feed off that a little bit and get a better start than we did in Game 3.”

Bednar said he liked Landeskog’s game and the captain felt connected with his team. There is no time for him to get comfortable after missing three seasons, which adds a little more pressure on the chemistry of the team.

The team’s depth makes it a powerful and dangerous opponent. The bottom line is consistency throughout the lineup, not just two lines or a few players.