Denver, Co. – Anyone who talked to the team after last night’s game will tell you that this game was not the best hockey that Colorado’s ever played. Even spectators can point out that the team looked off, which is to be expected after playing a hard-fought battle against the Ottawa Senators the night before.
Chicago came ready to play from the moment the puck dropped. The effort was to be expected after frustrating losses in four straight games. Colorado on the other hand looked like they were on the latter half of a back-to-back and came up short for most of the game.
Injury Plagues the Avalanche Once Again
Colorado Avalanche forward Ross Colton will “miss some time,” per Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. He made sure to tell the media that he’d have a better update for us on how long we can expect to see Colton out on Wednesday morning.
Bednar said in the post-game presser that the forward wasn’t quite the same after a shot taken in the first period. Colton played in the second period, but ultimately went back to the locker room after his last shift ended at the 17:45 minute mark of the second period. He did not come back out for the third.
This is not Colton’s first injury of the season. He took a slash to the hand during a 5-1 win over Utah Hockey Club last week on October 24th. Despite missing practice the next day, he was cleared for Sunday’s game against the Senators.
Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
The 28-year-old forward is currently among NHL leaders in goals with 8. He trails only Nico Hischier (New Jersey Devils) and Cole Caufield (Montreal Canadiens), and sits in a four-way tie with Kyle Connor (Winnipeg Jets), Sam Bennett (Florida Panthers), and 2023-24 Hart Finalist Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning).
Chicago Comes Out On Top
Despite goals from Nathan MacKinnon on the power play and Casey Mittelstadt, Bednar mentioned that the team’s offensive production was not at all what it should have been. Chicago looked much more dangerous throughout the game, only overshadowed by Colorado’s skill during parts of the second and the end of the third.
Right winger Philipp Kurashev got the Blackhawks started with a power play goal from the point. This came after Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard went to the penalty box for a two-minute holding minor against Blackhawks forward Ryan Donato.
Lukas Reichel and Donato each also had goals in the first. A quick shot from Craig Smith after the face-off resulted in a deflection off of Reichel and managed to trickle through Alexander Georgiev. As far as Donato’s goal goes, Georgiev managed to make the initial save on Jason Dickinson’s shot but Donato’s net-front presence resulted in him finding twine.
The second period was a quiet one as far as scoring goes, and even most of the third. The Blackhawks’ last two goals came in the form of empty-netters. Bednar pulled Georgiev after a surge of energy from the Avalanche in an effort to even the score, but goals from Donato and forward Ilya Mikheyev – his first of the season – sealed the game at 5-3.
Simultaneous Point Streaks, Anyone?
As mentioned in yesterday’s pre-game article, both Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar were looking to extend their season-opening point streaks… and they did.
Related: Colorado Avalanche Look to Extend Win Streak Against the Chicago Blackhawks
This marks MacKinnon’s second consecutive season carrying a double-digit point streak since the season’s opener. He joins the likes of Wayne Gretzky (4x), Ron Francis (3x), Mario Lemieux (3x), Guy Lafleur, Denis Savard, Dave Taylor and Cy Denneny, who are the only other NHL players in history to have recorded more than one double-digit point streak starting from the season-opener in their careers.
Makar’s point in last night’s game came in the form of an assist on Nathan MacKinnon’s power play goal. This assist helped him break the Avalanche/Nordiques franchise record for longest season-opening point streak by a defenseman, beating out John-Michael Liles for the title.
Post-Game Quotes from the Avalanche
Head Coach Jared Bednar on what they’ll focus on before Tampa Bay on Wednesday:
Tampa Bay [is] a tough opponent, deep team. We’ll have to figure out the health of our lineup, see what we’re going to do, but we’ll do the same thing regardless of wins or losses. We’ll break it down and see what we see. Pretty obvious tonight that we didn’t have the jump we needed…there’s lots that we can do just to make it a simpler game for us when we don’t have our legs.
Defenseman Cale Makar on challenges with creating chances:
We had a lot of possession tonight, just no internal play. Everything we had was along the boards…some nights it goes like that, we just have to find a way to get it to the net and that starts with us on the back end, making sure that we can get pucks through.
Forward Logan O’Connor on energy in the back half of a back-to-back:
I think it’s to be expected on a back-to-back and I think we made it harder on ourselves than we should have. Especially in the first period, I felt like we were turning a ton of pucks over in the middle of the ice. We couldn’t get in on the forecheck, which is sort of the staple of our game right now…you saw us spend a lot of time in the D-zone, and on the back-to-back against a team who’s fresh skating around, it just didn’t look good for us out there, especially in the first. I think we just hurt ourselves.
What’s Next for the Avalanche?
After a day off to rest and recuperate, the Colorado Avalanche will get back to work on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning currently sit at 10th in the league standings thanks to players like Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel. Their record on the season sits at 6-3-0 and they’ll be looking to continue their win streak on Wednesday after wins against the Washington Capitals on Saturday and the Nashville Predators on Monday.
Something to look for more information on is Finnish goaltender Kappo Kahkonen, who was recently called back to the Avalanche from his conditioning stint with the Colorado Eagles. Bednar was quick not to place blame on Georgiev for last night’s loss, but this gives the team more wiggle room to test another capable net minder in the crease going forward.
