{"id":581857,"date":"2026-05-23T12:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/581857\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T12:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:15:18","slug":"avalanche-power-play-vs-golden-knights-looks-like-sean-payton-script-pass-pass-pass-punt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/581857\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche power play vs. Golden Knights looks like Sean Payton script: Pass, pass, pass, punt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Y\u2019all heal, Cale.<\/a><\/p>\n

Please, dude. The faster, the better.<\/a> The fat lady is doing arpeggios backstage at the Bellagio.<\/a> The bookies on Fremont Street are busy counting chickens. The Avalanche are eight wins from sleeping with a Stanley Cup and two losses from waking up in Cancun. If Game 1 was an elbow to the nose,<\/a> Game 2 was a 5-iron to the crown jewels.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part of the game, when you can (kill off a penalty) and get momentum off of it,\u201d Vegas defenseman Rasmus Andersson told me after his Golden Knights put the favored Avs in an 0-2 Western Conference Final hole \u2014 in Denver, for the love of Pete Forsberg \u2014 in advance of Sunday\u2019s Game 3 at T-Mobile Arena. \u201cAnd we just stuck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Avalanche power play, meanwhile, is back to being stuck in neutral, spinning burgundy and blue tires in the mud.<\/p>\n

Colorado with an extra man was already a hard watch with a healthy Cale Makar dancing along the blue line. Without him, it reads a lot like a Sean Payton script: Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, punt.<\/a><\/p>\n

Two power plays Friday. At least two chances to build on a scrappy 1-0 lead, to put some space between you and John Tortorella\u2019s master plan. They got nothing. Nada. Zip.<\/p>\n

\"CenterCenter Brock Nelson (11) of the Colorado Avalanche tries to bounce a shot in while goaltender Carter Hart (79) of the Vegas Golden Knights protects his goal during the third period of Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Friday, May 22, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n

After a workable 25% PP conversion rate in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Avs are 1 for 5 with the man advantage in two games against the Golden Knights. Friday evening offered some serious Dallas 2025 vibes, water torture on ice.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think back on some big moments, 4-on-4, we\u2019re in the zone for a minute plus, we get (Nathan) MacKinnon from the slot, we miss the net,\u201d Avs coach Jared Bednar reflected. \u201cWe get (Devon Toews) from the slot, we miss the net, we get (Valeri) Nichushkin coming downhill, we miss the net. We\u2019re going to have to force them to make some difficult saves.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re going to have to make Carter Hart \u2014 the Vegas netminder who\u2019s been the best player of these opening two games \u2014 actually work for it.<\/p>\n

At some point, they\u2019re going to have to make Torts \u2014 who\u2019s coaching giant, concentric circles around Bedsy right now, minus captain Mark Stone \u2014 pull out his white board and start scribbling on the fly. They\u2019re going to have to think about taking Devon Toews (who piled up 29 minutes of ice time) and Nazem Kadri off of the PP unit and plopping bigger bodies in front of a too-hot Hart.<\/p>\n

Coming into the WCF, the Golden Knights were 6-2 when holding playoff foes without a power play goal \u2014 and 2-2 when the opposition managed at least one. Yet the Avs\u2019 power play without Makar at the point is more or less what the Broncos\u2019 offense looks like when Jarrett Stidham\u2019s at the controls.<\/a> Against a real defense, you\u2019re toast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our PK has been really good all the playoffs, honestly,\u201d said Andersson, who led a grindy Vegas defense with 36 grindier shifts and logged an assist on the empty-netter that sealed a 3-1 win. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a good job with getting the momentum back.\u201d<\/p>\n

They stuck a proverbial dagger between the Avs\u2019 shoulder blades at the end of the middle stanza. A slashing call on Vegas\u2019 Shea Theodore put Colorado a man up with 1:18 left in the second period while nursing a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

With 27 seconds left in the frame, captain Gabriel Landeskog corralled a nifty feed from teammate Nathan MacKinnon from behind the Golden Knights goal \u2014 but couldn\u2019t land a point-blank look. A Brett Kulak slapper 51 seconds into the third period was stoned by Hart, allowing the guests to keep hanging around. And hanging around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, they (the Avs) have a lot of firepower on that PP,\u201d Andersson explained, \u201cso you try to stick to the game plan (from) before and then execute it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCould you see the frustration mounting when they couldn\u2019t convert?\u201d I wondered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, that\u2019s a question for them, honestly,\u201d Andersson replied. \u201cWhen we have a power play, obviously, you always want to score, but \u2026 I feel like if you can get some momentum off of it, it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The momentum now wears a home sweater that\u2019s roughly the same color as one of Ed McCaffrey\u2019s magic mustard bottles.<\/a> Taking an 0-2 deficit into Vegas is like trying to swim the Blue Mesa Reservoir with a bowling ball strapped to your right ankle. \u00a0Per ESPN, NHL clubs that go down 0-2 on home ice in conference finals eventually lost 20 of 21 series. Colorado had faced an 0-2 hole in its Stanley Cup history nine times prior to 2026 \u2014 and went on to win just three of those matchups (3-6).<\/p>\n

The Avs wore a look on the other bench Friday as if they knew the odds. A look that said, \u201cWe\u2019re cooked\u201d almost as soon as Vegas\u2019 second goal of the night, this one via Ivan Barbashev, lit the lamp with 8:38 left to play.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s puzzling is about that is how many times we\u2019ve seen the Avs get punched before \u2014 against the Kings, literally, and against the Wild, figuratively \u2014 over the past month, only for the guys to remember they\u2019re the Avs, pick themselves off the canvas and start swinging back.<\/p>\n

This version of Colorado, by contrast, looks oddly resigned at the first sign of any real trouble. We don\u2019t have Cale. They have Torts. What the heck are we supposed to do now?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s on Bednar, Makar or no Makar. The Avs with Cale believed they could come back from any deficit. The Avs without him seem starved for faith, starved for goals, starved for self-belief.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fine margin for error,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cThe difference of winning and losing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now, those margins are mental, messy and massive. And the fat lady is on in five.<\/p>\n

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