Big things were expected of the Avalanche’s top six with two key players returning to the lines. Instead, the team had goals from its bottom six — Parker Kelly netted his first of the season and Nikolai Kovalenko got his third — in the 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals.
Justus Annunen was pulled less than three minutes into the second period after giving up a third goal on the Caps’ sixth shot of the game. Trent Miner took over between the pipes and allowed one from Connor McMichael — his second of the game. The final goal was an empty-netter from Rasmus Sandin.
While it was a pretty seamless return for Artturi Lehkonen — who has six points in his first five games — the Avs had difficulty getting timing together with the fresh personnel.
“When I play first game, I was thinking it’s gonna be way harder. I feel pretty good,” Valeri Nichushkin said. “I think our line have good chances today — little bit unlucky. Hopefully next game.”
Nathan MacKinnon was held scoreless ending his season-opening home point scoring streak at 11.
Good: Avalanche Quick Start, Depth
Colorado has struggled with its starts but changed that up with Kelly’s goal just two minutes into the game. The team has only scored 16 goals in the first period (ranked 12th in the league) but allowed 24 (tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for most in the league) through 17 games.
Kelly assisted on Kovalenko’s goal giving him a two-point night and Miles Wood earned an assist for his first game back since Oct. 28.
“He’s been solid on the defensive side of it. He’s been doing a lot of heavy lifting with D-Zone starts, faceoffs, penalty kill. It’s kind of his niche with us.
“That was the line that gave us a good spark early, and they end up — like in the minutes they played, they played well, and they got two goals. I mean, when your fourth line gets you two goals, with limited ice time should be a good sign,” head coach Jared Bednar said.
https://youtu.be/3asdvpBbT-o
Bad: Goaltending, Timing
Annunen allowed two goals on the first two shots from the Caps and did not look solid in net. Granted he hasn’t played a game in 10 days, but it wasn’t a case of nerves. He was off his game. Miner did a decent job holding it down after allowing a fourth goal but this loss sparked the goaltending concern — again.
“No excuses, but yeah, it was definitely an off night. We didn’t, in its simplest form, it looked like we were second to the puck all night, and our execution was not good,” Bednar said. “We had a tough time stringing together two passes, turnovers. First goal was a shot from the point of the power play, second goal — turnover, third goal — turnover, and then most of them on unforced. And that’s just the ones that ended up in the back of our net on the offensive side. And we didn’t create a whole lot because we couldn’t put any passes together.”
