One of the unique elements of the NHL is that wins and losses are only part of the equation in the standings because points actually determine the order of finish. Because of that wrinkle, you can lose games and still be in good position in the standings. The Colorado Avalanche are apparently trying an extreme form of this as they finished their first ten-game segment of the season with five wins and five losses, but after today’s 4-3 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils, they have 14 points because four of their losses have come in either overtime or the shootout.
The Avs were always going to be battling uphill today because the Devils didn’t play yesterday and the Avs played in Boston yesterday, suffering their first regulation loss of the season. The Devils came out with fire early, building a 2-0 lead after the first ten minutes but the Avalanche fought back and tied it up at 2-2 heading into the first intermission.
Colorado dominated the puck in the second period, but as is so often the case in hockey, they allowed the only goal when Devils forward Connor Brown broke in on a breakaway and beat Trent Miner. Despite looking like they had no legs left, the Avs were able to scrape out the game-tying goal from Brock Nelson in the third period, but once again fell in overtime after a poor sequence left Jack Hughes alone in front of Miner.
That was a good way to set Miner up to fail, and that’s what happened. Miner was making his first start of the season, so let’s start there.
Trent Miner gets the start…a day late
I wrote about this quite a bit yesterday so I won’t rehash a lot of it, but Miner should have gotten the game against the Bruins and given Wedgewood today’s game, but head coach Jared Bednar made his decision and here was Miner trying to make the best of it against a very strong Devils team.
The key for backup goaltenders is to not give up the “easy” goal. Things are going to happen and great players will do some great things, but if you don’t give away free goals, you’re going to give your team a great chance to win. You look at two of the three goals Miner allowed today and you can live with them. Those are the goals you can live with.
The second New Jersey goal, however, is the one that hurts you. The Avs needed a mistake-free day from Miner and the soft goal Miner allowed that gave the Devils the 2-0 lead is the kind that can be hard to overcome when your team is skating uphill on tired legs.
This is a gritty Avs team, though, and they tied the game behind Nelson’s goal. Miner made the saves he had to in the third period as New Jersey had their best overall period with the Avs’ legs going and them starting to lose a lot of the 50-50 battles that determine so much of the possession in a hockey game. I don’t have it in me to be upset with Miner not being able to handle Hughes completely alone in front of the net.
Miner wasn’t terrible, but the one easy goal allowed stands out. The reality, to me anyway, is that Miner should have gotten the game in Boston and not put him in position to have to bail out a tired Avalanche team, but it’s in the past now.
The Avs are a mess in overtime
Through ten games, the Avs have lost two games in shootouts and two in overtime so I think some of the consternation over the losses will be overblown a touch, but losing is losing. This was Colorado’s fourth straight loss and they have not been super competitive in extra time yet, so we’re going to talk about it.
The real problem I had was the dumb hockey played in 3v3, which requires a significant mindset shift from 5v5. Puck possession is paramount and all of the additional space on the ice means you have to read the ice perfectly in order to make sound decisions. That has never been Nathan MacKinnon‘s specialty and we saw it again today as he tried to go 1v3 with the puck, turned it over, and the Devils won shortly after.
New Jersey’s game-winning goal was started by Cale Makar and Martin Necas failing to make a play, though, as Makar had gotten the puck back for the Avs but his pass ahead of Necas was either tipped or executed poorly (it’s hard to tell precisely what went wrong) but the puck ended up in Necas’s body and he wasn’t able to bat it down and make a play with it. Simon Nemec did make the play as he got control of the puck and found Hughes alone in front.
I’m of two minds here. One is that losing four straight games is obviously bad and that makes their 5-0-1 start a lot less impressive, but the other reality is that they have 14 points after 10 games, which is a great segment and a 114-point pace across a full season.
The other context here that I think matters is that the Avs finish with 14 points while getting zero starts from their top goaltender, Mackenzie Blackwood. He is expected to return this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday when the Devils visit Denver to finish the season series, which would mean the Avs walk out of a three-week stretch of missing their top netminder with a 5-1-4 record.
There’s plenty of justifiable frustration on Colorado being unable to find their way to extra points in overtime, but only losing one game in regulation in a 10-game stretch is a great result.