The Colorado Avalanche picked a bad time to play their worst game of the season to date. Facing a Philadelphia Flyers team that entered Monday with just one win in its first 10 games, Colorado looked flat for much of the night and fell 3-2 at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The Avs dropped to 5-3-1 on the season and 1-2-0 against Eastern Conference opponents, while Philadelphia picked up its second consecutive win after opening the season 0-6-3.
Martin Necas and T.J. Hughes scored for Colorado, while Mackenzie Blackwood made 21 saves. The Avalanche held a 26-24 advantage in shots against a Flyers team that entered the night averaging the second-fewest shots per game in the NHL while allowing the most.
Matvei Michkov scored twice for Philadelphia, while Noel Acciari added a goal. The Flyers scored at least three goals for just the second time this season. Joseph Woll stopped 24 shots to earn his first win in a Flyers uniform.
Philadelphia had more jump from the opening puck drop and earned an early power play after Colorado was penalized for too many men on the ice. The Flyers capitalized at 7:41, with Michkov scoring his fifth goal of the season off a rebound to the side of the crease. Blackwood was still trying to recover his positioning with Porter Martone in the crease but couldn’t get over in time.
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar challenged the goal for goalie interference. After a lengthy review, officials determined that Josh Manson had pushed Martone into Blackwood, making the contact the result of the defenseman’s actions rather than goalie interference. The goal stood, and Colorado was assessed another penalty for the unsuccessful challenge.
The Avalanche killed off the ensuing Flyers power play but headed into the first intermission trailing 1-0 after allowing 13 shots.
The second period brought more of the same sloppy hockey. Colorado struggled to find its footing, while Philadelphia continued to keep the Avalanche from generating much around the net. Michkov scored his second of the night at 12:23 to double the lead.
The Avalanche got their first power play a few minutes later and finally found a response. The man advantage ended without a goal, but just three seconds after Travis Sanheim exited the penalty box, Necas fired a wrist shot past Woll to cut the deficit to 2-1 with his fifth goal of the season.
Colorado again entered the intermission trailing by one, leaving itself 20 minutes to salvage a game in which it had yet to find an offensive rhythm.
The third period started much like the first two. The Avalanche generated some shots but failed to create anything particularly dangerous before Acciari restored Philadelphia’s two-goal lead.
Hughes gave Colorado some life late. After scoring his first career NHL goal on Friday, the rookie found himself in the right place at the right time again, collecting a loose puck and firing it into an open net to make it 3-2 with 5:20 remaining in regulation.
The Avalanche pulled Blackwood late but couldn’t generate a legitimate threat with the extra attacker. They moved the puck around the offensive zone without getting much toward the net. On one sequence, Hughes fed Necas in close, but Necas opted to drop the puck back to Nathan MacKinnon’s backhand near the blue line rather than shoot.
Bad: Slow, Lackadaisical Start
There wasn’t much the Avalanche did well Monday, but the biggest issue was a familiar one. Their slow start, which has shown up a few times already this season, put them in a hole against a team they should have been able to handle.
We saw something similar Friday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Colorado eventually scored five unanswered goals to win 5-2, but the first period was far from convincing. Bednar even addressed the team’s slow start after that game.
For it to happen again in the very next outing is not a good look.
The Flyers entered Monday averaging just over 21 shots per game, the second-lowest mark in the league. They had also allowed the most shots per game through their first nine contests. Neither trend worked in Colorado’s favor. Philadelphia generated enough offense to build a two-goal lead, while the Avalanche spent much of the night trying to dig themselves out of it without putting the puck on net. Their execution was at an all-time low for their standard.
I’m not ready to call it an alarming trend, but putting together a complete 60-minute effort has been an issue early in the season. The Avalanche have enough talent to overcome stretches of sloppy play against weaker opponents. And perhaps with a different call on the goalie interference challenge, that could’ve been the case. But in the end, they shouldn’t be putting themselves in that position as often as this.
Good: Blackwood Did His Part
It’s unfortunate that Blackwood has to take the loss and finish with an .875 save percentage. He was arguably the only Avalanche player who consistently did his job throughout the night.
The Colorado netminder made several big saves after turnovers and kept the game within reach long enough for the offense to have a chance to respond.
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