To get back into the series, the Avalanche need to be more selfish

The Colorado Avalanche have a passing problem. The Avs fell to the Stars by a 5-2 count on Monday night, due mostly to their struggles on the power play. Yes, the Avs got two goals early with a man-advantage from Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, but they should have had more in their eight power play chances.

The Avs finished with 41 shots against the Stars and Anton Khudobin, who has looked outstanding and nearly unbeatable in the first two games of the series. But they very easily could have had closer to 60.

The Stars had nine penalties called against them, eight of which resulted in power play opportunities for the Avs. The Avalanche had a grand total of 10 shots with the man-advantage, two of which resulted in goals, good for a little more than one shot per Power Play. In contrast, the Stars ended the game with three power play opportunities, and finished with nine shots, two of which ended in goals, good for three shots per power play. The Stars took more chances with fewer opportunities, and it resulted in a victory for the club.

The Avs have a tendency in man-advantage situations to pass until they can find the perfect shot. This isn’t a terrible idea as a rule. But in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the perfect shot usually doesn’t exist. And when it does exist, playoff goaltenders are usually up to the task.

When the Avs are averaging a single shot per man-advantage, they are limiting their chances to score and succeed, and they are increasing their chances of making mistakes. That cost them a goal on Monday night.

A mishandled puck by Joonas Donskoi off of a Sam Girard pass as another wasted power-play opportunity expired led to Eric Lindell taking the puck, skating in on goaltender Pavel Francouz and putting it past the goal line for the Stars fourth goal of the period. If Sam Girard shoots the puck instead of attempting a cross ice pass to Donskoi, the turnover likely doesn’t happen and the Stars don’t get their fourth goal.

Late in the game, trailing 4-2, and with a late interference penalty to Blake Comeau, the Avs had a two-man advantage with an empty net. And they end up using the same formula they had been using for every power play so far.

The puck goes to the defensemen, he passes to a forward on one side, then a cross-ice pass, usually through traffic, to another forward on the other side to take a one-timer. I would use names for a specific play, but it happens so often with everybody on the team, that being specific would almost be pointless.

Rather than passing for a one-timer, which the goaltender either sees coming and saves, or misses the net entirely, the Avs should shoot with either the defenseman or the other forward, and crash the net to get the rebound, creating more shots on net and more opportunities to score.

The Avalanche are leaving scoring opportunities on the ice by making passes and not taking shots. To quote the greatest goal scorer of all-time, Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

Well, the Avs are missing more than their fair share of shots, and more than their fair share of opportunities.