It’s not going on the Colorado Avalanche. On Monday, the 2022 Stanley Cup Champion suffered a 3-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at their home Ball Arena in Denver. For coach Jared Bednar’s team, it was the fourth bankruptcy in a row.
The defending champions celebrated their last success in the league on December 23, when Colorado went 3-2 after extra time at Roman Josie and his Nashville Predators won. Since then, the Avalanche have only suffered defeats. The team lost to the Arizona Coyotes 3:6 (December 27). Two days later, the Los Angeles Kings lost 4:5 after a shootout (December 29), before there was another setback against the Toronto Maple Leafs (December 31) with a clear 2:6 .
The performance against the Golden Knights at the start of the calendar year on Monday was decent over long periods of the game, but even in the most recent appearance in front of their own fans, Colorado was not able to celebrate a liberating blow. The record from the past four appearances is 0-3-1 and does not correspond to the self-image of an NHL champion.
Video: VGK@COL: MacKinnon bangs the glass in
“We lost the game in the second period,” was the disappointed conclusion of coach Bednar. “We made too many mistakes again today and didn’t handle the puck well at all. We had some unnecessary discards that came out of our zone and ended up falling back on us. We spent way too much time in the defensive zone because we didn’t manage the disc well in the neutral zone and in the offensive zone.”
In the Central Division standings, Colorado ranks fourth with a season haul of 19-14-3. Even more threatening: In the race for one of the two wild card places, the Avalanche are only in third place due to their dry spell. The gap to the Edmonton Oilers by Leon Draisaitl and the Seattle Kraken by Philipp Grubauer is one point. Colorado, however, has two games up its sleeve against Edmonton. Seattle, on the other hand, has played one less game with 35 games this season. In order to counter an emerging discussion about the current earnings crisis as early as possible, victories in Colorado are urgently needed in the coming days.
Met for the Avalanche Nathan MacKinnon (1 goal, 1 assist) and Mikko Rantanen (1 hit, 1 assist) vs Vegas, during Artturi Lehkonen contributed two assists. Darren Helm celebrated his season debut in front of his own fans after he was injured for months. Martin Kaut also returned from injury (3 games out). Colorado’s goal was against the Golden Knights Alexander Georgiev, who fended off 25 shots from the opponents, but was also unable to prevent the narrow defeat. Scored for Vegas Nicolas Roy two hits, and also Michael Amadio hit the mark. In the gate of the guests stood Logan Thompsonwho knew how to convince with 27 saves from 29 shots.
The Avalanche started the game against the Golden Knights with determination and determination, but eventually conceded three goals in a row as the home side’s faltering powerplay went unused from five chances that night and, looking back, was a crucial factor in the defeat.
The 2023 NHL year got off to a promising start for the home side. The Avalanche went 1-0 up after 25 seconds through MacKinnon, who was playing his second game back from injury. “I’m feeling better and better,” said the scorer. “I see some moves a bit better now. We don’t give up even when we’re behind and that’s a good thing for the future,” was his hopeful outlook.
Colorado had two powerplay chances in the first period, but they couldn’t take them, so they went into the first break tied 1-1 after Michael Amadio equalized for the visitors in the 18th minute. For their part, the Golden Knights used the middle third to take a 3-1 lead with two more goals. Roy scored both goals (28th and 35th). The Golden Knights dominated the second half of the game, which was also reflected in the fact that they were able to use the goal shot ratio clearly in their favor with 15:9 in this phase of the game.
[Folge uns auf Facebook und Twitter für exklusiven Inhalt und NHL-Neuigkeiten!]
In the third third, the Avalanche picked up their five-on-five game again, and with 11:6 shots on goal they were also the much more agile team on the ice, but Rantanen’s goal (52nd) was all they could do. The two final overpayment opportunities in the last 20 minutes also remained unused. The temporary two-goal deficit proved to be too great a burden against the Golden Knights.
Colorado’s next chance to end their dry spell awaits on Thursday (10 pm ET; NHL.tv; Fri. 4 a.m. ET) when the team will drop their calling card away at the Vancouver Canucks.