3 Takeaways From the Avalanche’s 3-2 Loss to the Predators

It has been a weird season for the Colorado Avalanche. Time and again, they have been beaten in games they traditionally haven’t lost. An absolute whooping, 7-2 at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets, just isn’t something they generally have happen to them.

The Avalanche are normally more about building winning streaks, but they have find themselves again in the midst of a losing streak. They fought to grab a point from the Nashville Predators, but ultimately fell in overtime 3-2.

The Truth About Mackenzie Blackwood

Let’s get one thing out of the way quickly: the Avalanche are good defensively but have big, ugly lapses where they forget how to defend around their own net and it costs them. It did against the Predators, particularly on the first goal.

Having said that, Blackwood played well enough to get the win but still gives up bad goals when he shouldn’t. Vitali Pinchuk scored his first NHL goal on a shot that Blackwood should have 100 times out of 100.

It was one of those “how did that go in?” shots that even Pinchuk was surprised by. Blackwood largely does enough to grab the win with this talented group (he’s 8-3-1 so far) but he is inevitably going to give up a bad goal like he did against Nashville and it is going to cost the Avalanche dearly.

The Strength of the Avalanche

The superstars of any team can only be superhuman so often (unless it’s Connor McDavid). Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar can only do so much on a nightly basis, so it is nice when the middle part of the lineup can step up and make a difference.

That happened again on Thursday night. Jaden Schwartz continues to be one of the game’s more unheralded players. He scored his seventh of the season against the Predators, tying him for third on the team with Martin Necas.

The Avalanche also got a goal five minutes into the second period from Parker Kelly, his third of the season. He’s not quite on pace to match his career-best 21 goal season from last year, but potting 15 while playing just under 13 minutes per night is a nice little contribution from the bottom of the lineup.

It’s Time to Talk About the Power Play Again

It feels like for the last several seasons, we get to a point where the Avalanche should be one of the game’s most explosive power plays and yet still can’t figure it out. Things aren’t as bad as they were a season ago, but we have to talk about it.

The Avalanche went 0-for-3 against Nashville, dropping them down to 20^th in the league (20% success rate). They even had a chance after Steven Stamkos took a holding penalty late in the third period of a tied game but couldn’t get it done.

The Avalanche win a lot of games because they are a great team at 5-on-5, but special teams matter. They are 17^th in penalty killing and 20^th on the power play, and special teams played a role in losing this one (they gave up a power play goal in overtime). It’s not time to panic but more scrutiny will be paid to both units.

The Avalanche Feel Stuck in the Mud

It’s tough to point out exactly what is going on for the Avalanche. There isn’t a glaring weakness but there are areas where they have clearly taken a step back from a season ago. It might be a blessing in disguise, given how easily everything seemed to come to them last season.

This is still an excellent team, and they are still in the playoff picture. That said, the Central Division is tough enough that they can’t continue to be up and down while still hoping to remain in contention for the division crown.