It has been a rough stretch for the Colorado Avalanche. Coming into Thursday night’s tilt with the Montreal Canadiens, they had lost five of their previous seven games, something that would have been thought impossible in the middle of their torrid run to start the season.
The loss to the Ottawa Senators felt bad enough, but this game against the Canadiens topped it. The Avalanche were buried early in the game and could never recover, ultimately falling to their old rivals by a score of 7-3.
Special Teams Had a Bad Night
The problems with the power play have been well disclosed. The penalty kill, on the other hand, is among a handful of the very best units in the NHL. On Thursday night, the Avalanche were bad in virtually all facets of the game.
The Canadiens power play went 1-of-2, which isn’t all that bad. But when your own power play goes 0-for-2 and gives up a shorthanded goal in the process, it makes for one of those nights that you would sooner forget.
(Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images)
If anything, this was one of those games where nothing went right and it didn’t take long to see everyone wishing the game would just end. Unfortunately for the Avalanche, they have had a few of those games of late when they were often doing the same thing to most other teams earlier in the season.
Too Many Early Deficits
A common theme of late for the Avalanche is that they fall behind early, push frantically to tie it, and ultimately fall short. Earlier in the season, the Avalanche would give up the first goal but ultimately blow the competition out of the building.
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It doesn’t matter how good a team you are. If you consistently put yourself behind the eight ball on the scoreboard, it is going to catch up to you. The Avalanche have several problems right now, but they aren’t helping themselves in the least by going down in the game early.
The funny thing is that the Avalanche are one of the best teams in the NHL when it comes to winning percentage when trailing, but it still isn’t good or ideal. Even a team as star-studded as the Avalanche can’t keep digging itself out of bad starts.
An Off Night for Wedgewood
Scott Wedgewood has emerged from being a career backup to one of the frontrunners for the Vezina Trophy this season. Even being that good, a bad night is going to happen from time to time, and this was one of those nights when Wedgewood was just bad.
Scott Wedgewood, Colorado Avalanche (Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images)
Wedgewood surrendered seven goals on 28 shots against, easily his worst outing of the season. Some of it was just him having an off night, but there were more than a handful of times where he got hung out to dry by bad defense.
Wedgewood has been on another level this season, so it feels safe to assume that he will shake it off and get back on track. Even still, it is troubling to see that things are going so badly that nothing is working, including the once vaunted goaltending.
The Olympic Break Can’t Come Fast Enough
The trade deadline will be looked at with great scrutiny when it comes to the Avalanche, but the focus now is just getting to the Olympic break. There are injuries that have certainly played a role in this slide, but the Avalanche have just looked off.
The Avalanche have a pair of games against the Detroit Red Wings and one against the San Jose Sharks before everyone breaks for the Olympic Games. They need to win two of three to at least get the ship back on course.
