Avalanche Game 62 Recap: Bad Timing

The month of March is here; the final full month of the NHL's regular season. For many teams, it's do or die, and regarding the Colorado Avalanche, a playoff spot is inevitable. What isn't inevitable is where the team will finish. The Avs are coming off ending February on a winning note after starting the month on a terrible skid, and the team's own March Madness started in Nashville against a red hot Predators team.

The goaltender matchup was Alexandar Georgiev vs Juuse Saros. The shots were one each early in the period, though Colorado picked things up later on. Matching minors were called in the middle of the period, Nashville started getting more shots, and one of them went in. Cody Glass netted his third of the season at 15:18, but less that two minutes later, Nathan MacKinnon tied it up. For MacKinnon, it was Point #101 this season, and his 37th goal, with the assists coming from Mikko Rantanen and Devon Toews. Score remained 1-1 after 20 minutes, and it wasn't until the 8:09 mark that the first power play of the game was awarded, and it was the Preds who got it.

The power play was killed off, the Preds ended up taking the shots lead, and it included another goal. It was Cody Glass again, giving Nashville the lead back. Just over a minute later, Roman Josi was called for holding MacKinnon, putting the Avs on the power play for the first (and only) time. That got killed off, and after 40 minutes, the Preds led 2-1. The third period did not go well for the Avs. Preds went back on the power play in the middle of the period, and it was Ryan O'Reilly (of course) who scored to make it 3-1. The Avs could not find an answer, and nothing was getting called on Nashville ever again. Nashville went back on the power play during the final five minutes, and that saw Tommy Novak score after receiving a long pass from Saros. Oh boy. Avs pull the goalie, but all that does is allow Glass to complete the hat trick.

During the second period, Avalanche play-by-play announcer Marc Moser said something that I couldn't help but laugh at: "Cale Makar's been due for so long, it's not funny anymore." Cale's in a horrible drought. He hasn't scored a goal since February 6! The NFL was still in season at the time--it was five days before Super Bowl LVIII! Sadly, we Avs fans can forget about a Norris for Makar this year because of this drought, but the fact that he has a Norris, a Cup, and a Conn Smythe still makes up for it. The drought continued in this game, and it was part of a myriad of things that went wrong for the Avs in Nashville. This loss snapped a seven-game points streak against divisional foes; the Avs entered this game at 6-0-1 in our last seven divisional games. The loss also came at a bad time, as the Winnipeg Jets and the Dallas Stars won their games as well.

One more thing I have to mention: prior to this game, the Avalanche traded Kurtis MacDermid to the New Jersey Devils for the rights to Zahkar Bardakov (who was drafted by the Devils in the seventh round of the 2021 draft) and a seventh round pick in the 2024 draft. So another member of the 2022 championship run is off to another team. I had forgotten that MacDermid dented the Cup as well, doing so at a party, so we lost both Cup denters (Nicolas Aube-Kubel is now with the Washington Capitals, along with 2022 Cup teammate Darcy Kuemper). This was a pretty good deal for the Avs; we not only received a young prospect, but we got another pick as well.

The Avalanche will return home on Monday to face off against the Chicago Blackhawks, completing that season series. The meeting will kick off a three game homestand that will also see the Detroit Red Wings (Wednesday) and the Minnesota Wild (Friday) head to Ball Arena.

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