Avs-Stars Ugly Game 4 Studs & Duds

The Colorado Avalanche acquired smoked 5-1 by the Dallas Stars in Sport 4. These are the Avs Studs and Duds from the sport.

Studs

The digicam individual

Look, the Avs had been actively horrible on this recreation. Who was I supposed to place right here? As a result of they had been so terrible, I’m grateful that the digicam individual struggled as a lot as they did as a result of it meant we couldn’t see lengthy stretches of this fiasco of a recreation and that felt like mercy greater than frustration. Had it been a greater recreation, I most likely would have been much more upset by it however I’ll take a constructive the place I can get it.

Jonathan Drouin

Okay however for actual, there was one Avalanche participant who I believed performed properly for many of the night time. Drouin made his return to the lineup and dropped proper into the spot vacated by Val Nichushkin’s departure and appeared engaged instantly.

He performed properly with a touch of physicality and his skating was a constructive on an Avalanche crew that appeared like they had been skating in mud all night time. He nabbed a hard-working help and moved up traces when Jared Bednar was looking for a spark someplace within the lineup.

I’m glad Drouin is again and wholesome. He’s enjoyable.

Duds

Colorado’s stars

The three finest gamers on the Avalanche (Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar) are the important thing to successful lots of hockey video games. The three mixed for the defining second of this recreation within the first interval when the Avalanche acquired their first energy play and these three performed roles in abandoning all effort and hanging Alexandar Georgiev out to dry.

Wyatt Johnston pressured Makar right into a turnover and Johnston proceeded to outwork all of Makar, MacKinnon, and Rantanen to attain a shorthanded objective and put Dallas up 1-0. It truthfully felt like the sport was over in that second. It could have been much less embarrassing had it ended proper there.

These guys had been so unhealthy that Colorado’s energy play acquired two alternatives and was outshot 4-1 and outscored 1-0 by the Stars penalty kill. They had been brutal all night time. They oscillated between annoyed and disinterested and as soon as the sport was determined they’d temporary, meaningless bursts of life.

They had been removed from the one poor gamers tonight so don’t take this as me saying these guys are the only real cause for Colorado’s embarrassing exhibiting, however they’re the core of the management group and set the tone for this hockey membership. The tone they set tonight appeared to be, “Nicely, we’ll be on trip in Cancun quickly sufficient.”

The place was the guts? The place was the pushback? The place was the hearth that made this crew such a troublesome out a number of years in the past? Folks wish to come down on the Avs for “solely” making the second spherical through the years, however they’ve a number of Sport 7 losses in that point. We haven’t seen them this uncompetitive in a sequence earlier than, not even the 2020 Dallas sequence the place they had been ravaged by accidents and got here again from a 3-1 sequence deficit to push it to a Sport 7 time beyond regulation earlier than lastly succumbing…to Joel Kiviranta’s hat trick.

It is a membership that has proven that it could not win the Stanley Cup, however it’s going to combat. Even final yr’s extraordinarily undermanned crew that was cursed by the whole lot beneath the solar nonetheless pushed and pushed to the ultimate buzzer of a nail-biting Sport 7 loss to Seattle.

That we noticed none of that tonight was the stunning aspect of the night. How can they simply give it up?

The information of the day

There are not any excuses right here. Everybody has curveballs thrown at us in life and all of us have to seek out methods to hold on. Sports activities current distinctive challenges as a result of issues like playoffs are definable days on the calendar the place gamers must be their finest selves.

To have the information of Nichushkin’s six-month suspension drop an hour earlier than puck drop after which comply with it instantly with Devon Toews being unavailable for the sport resulting from sickness? That’s a one-two that even Mike Tyson can be happy with.

Once more, I’m not excusing Colorado’s terrible efficiency within the recreation however that’s an emotional boulder thrown at them instantly earlier than they needed to take the ice for warm-ups. It’s exhausting to attract apt parallels to on a regular basis life conditions however I see the place that might be a ton to soak up.

The terse postgame feedback from Jack Johnson and Andrew Cogliano relating to Nichushkin, particularly, strongly counsel to me that the locker room was very sad with how the day unfolded. That’s merely me speculating, however that’s my learn on the scenario.

I’m not right here to go judgment on Nichushkin or his selections however to touch upon the way it all performed out so near puck drop. That’s a troublesome spot to be in for these guys and now their season is on the precipice.

Avs Unsung Hero

Alexandar Georgiev

The third objective is unacceptable. Look, if a goalie provides these up sometimes, that occurs! Georgiev provides up objectives from distance recurrently, nevertheless, and you may’t wave all of them away and say, “However the display in entrance of him!” He has to cease these and tonight he moved right into a tie for the league lead within the postseason for low-danger objectives given up with 9. 9!

That mentioned, the remainder of his recreation was rattling good. He was the one cause the sport wasn’t 4-0 after the primary interval. He battled exhausting and saved the Avalanche in it. I’ve him on this space as a result of I simply really feel unhealthy for him at this level. Even when he performs properly, he will get lit up statistically. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are unforgiving like that.