Eurolanche

Offensive struggles, penalty woes

Despite combining for a total of six goals during their double-header against the Ottawa Senators as part of the NHL Global Series in Stockholm, Sweden, the Colorado Avalanche only managed to have a total of 37 shots on goal over those games. Two of them came on the man-advantage, while one was scored on a shorthanded breakaway and one fell into the Sens’ net after a deflection by Ottawa’s Dion Phaneuf. For comparison’s sake, the Senators had 32 shot on goal in the first game, while shooting 40 pucks on Jonathan Bernier’s goal in the second game. Following the first game, the Avs vowed to up the ante on offense. That never happened. “They turned too many pucks back when we were in the offensive zone. We allowed them to get structured in the zone and it’s tough to get through there,” said head coach Jared Bednar during his post-game press conference. Sven Andrighetto echoed the coach after the game, saying that the team simply lacked the final punch they needed to generate more offense and score. “We have to do more on offense, we have to have more shots on goal,” added Andrighetto. The Swiss forward has a good point with the team lacking the final punch – the Avs got more passive on offense as both games progressed. They got pinned down in their own zone way to often and couldn’t get anything going in Ottawa’s zone, simply relying on rushes which more often than not ended in turnovers and consequent counterattacks. The vast majority of the Avs’ goals were scored after they finally managed to establish a presence in the zone, with occasions like that, as was previously mentioned, being few and far between. 

While Colorado managed to stay out of the box during the first game, their lackluster offense and offensive turnovers resulted in way too many penalties called against them. The Avs took seven minor penalties in the second game, with Gabriel Landeskog’s roughing minor coming in the dying seconds of the game following a little scrum with Sens forward Alex Burrows. Rookie Andrei Mironov established a dangerous trend with a lazy interference minor after he failed to poke away a puck right in front of him. Chris Bigras had an unnecessary, albeit a rather soft hooking call against him in the offensive zone after turning the puck over. Mark Barberio took three bad penalties in what was probably his worst game in an Avalanche uniform, with Mike Hoffman scoring the game-winning goal during his third time in the penalty box. “You can’t give up that many penalties in a game like this,” said Landeskog after the game. Coach Bednar was less critical of the many penalties, saying that the team played great on the penalty kill, but there were way too many times the Avs simply got lucky, with Ottawa’s forwards fanning on several open-net shots or just failing to capitalize on the chances Colorado’s suspect defensive coverage gave them. All in all, both games highlighted the biggest flaws the Avs currently have – aside from an impressive performance by Alex Kerfoot, who registered four points (two goals and two assists) in Sweden, the team simply lacks enough secondary scoring when the top line is held in check, and is prone to defensive lapses and lazy penalties with its inexperienced d-corp. Thursday's game against the Washington Capitals will show if the team took anything away from their lackluster performance in Stockholm.

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Avs leave Sweden without a win

The Avalanche fell to the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in the NHL Global Series finale in Stockholm, Sweden.