Picking up the pieces after yet another Game 7 loss.
After a stunning loss in Game 7 to the Dallas Stars, it’s an abrupt end to the season for the Colorado Avalanche. We will have a whole offseason to dissect what went wrong and where the team goes from here but these are our initial reactions.
Who was your round one MVP?
Adrian: Nathan MacKinnon is the one player in the top six who was lights out every single game of this series. He’s been physical, pesky, and dynamic in moments where his team needed him the most.
Jackie: Mikko Rantanen…too soon? Ok, Logan O’Connor picked a good time to get hot and put up a third of his season’s output with six points in seven games. He elevated his play even if it was just a hot streak at the right time and it almost worked to get the Avalanche through the round.
Jess: Logan O’Connor for sure. What Jackie said, he picked a great time to get hot and elevated his play when it mattered the most, which is more than you can say for some other players on the roster. I’ll give an honorable mention to Josh Manson too, while he certainly had his nervous moments since these were his first games back from an injury to end the regular season, there’s no denying that his style of play is kind of perfect for the playoffs, and I thought he had a fair amount of positive moments as well.
Ezra: The fact we can realistically only choose between between MacKinnon and O’Connor for their on-ice play is why we lost the series, but I’m going Gabriel Landeskog because the silver lining to all this disappointment is getting to see him back in uniform in an NHL game. On top of that, he was genuinely the Avs best player in most of the games he played. Simply incredible to see.
Who was your greatest round one disappointment?
Adrian: Brock Nelson was brought in to be the answer at 2C at least for the cup run, but he didn’t perform to that tune. I’m very curious to know whether the Avalanche will re-sign Nelson and retain his services. As it sits right now, it sure feels like they will let him test free agency.
Jackie: Jonathan Drouin’s disappearing act that put him in a position to only play seven minutes in Game 7 was a big concern. When relying on all this “great depth” you can’t start throwing away top six forwards. He certainly won’t return now and you have to wonder did Bednar get to hasty with a guy who could have helped provide more scoring.
Jess: Every single Colorado player who played on a powerplay throughout this series, and it’s not even close.
Ezra: It’s Nelson. I said before the series if he can’t produce they can’t win, and lo and behold literally one goal from him in game 2 or 3 could have been the difference. His line was strong defensively, and that is part of the vision for bringing him in, but he needed to put points on the board to be a real success in his role and it didn’t happen.
What was this team’s fatal flaw?
Jackie: It’s not a matter of calls, bounces or luck. It certainly was a close series but what the Avalanche lacked all year was consistency. They’d look great at times but could never do it consistently enough against good teams. That’s the difference between good and great teams, it feels like they are so close but that’s why they were never contenders. You don’t find consistency by getting a bunch of hired hands either. There are no shortcuts to building a champion and the final step from good to great is often the toughest.
Jess: For this series specifically, I kind of touched on it in my answer to the previous question, but the power play was a massive disappointment. Yes, Dallas has one of the best penalty kills in the league, but still, going 3-22 is just unacceptable. Watching them just pass the puck a million times before turning it over and having to reset was like watching the definition of insanity personified. I just can’t understand why they were so stubborn to change their approach on the power play, despite everyone in the world knowing that they were going to try that slot pass every single attempt, which made it very easy to counter. This isn’t the same thing, but when I got a bad grade on an exam in one of my university classes, I changed my study habits and got the outcome I desired. Making changes isn’t a bad thing at all, and in many cases, can get you your desired outcome. And I sincerely hope that they change something about the power play because you cannot have that happen in a series again.
Ezra: I completely agree with Jess, it’s the powerplay. Special teams as a whole were a disaster in this series, as they couldn’t get a big goal when they needed it with the man advantage, or a big kill when they needed it down a man. Two shorthanded goals paper over some of the PK miscues, but those need to be the gravy not the main course. The main course on both special teams was a big pile of pig slop.
Who are you now rooting for to win the Stanley Cup?
Jess: I think either Washington, Florida, or Toronto. If Toronto ends up being the team to bring the Cup back to Canada before Edmonton wins one with McDavid would be incredibly funny to watch.
Jackie: They are probably still too young to go all the way but the Washington Capitals are a fun team to watch. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Carolina Hurricanes, too. So whoever comes out of the Metro division I’ll probably be rooting for.
Ezra: I don’t like anyone left in the West and I can’t root for Florida despite how much I like Aleksander Barkov, so I’m going to have to root for a team I don’t believe can actually win the cup and that might as well be Toronto I guess. I’m too disappointed in Colorado to watch other hockey with any enthusiasm right now.