Avs come out flat again, lose to Kraken and are in a first-round dogfight

The Colorado Avalanche were pushed to their absolute limits by the Seattle Kraken on Monday night. Despite showing tremendous heart and courage, the Avs effort fell short. Seattle managed to score an overtime game winner. beating the defending Cup champs 3-2. The first-round series now heads back to Denver knotted at 2-2.

Nothing felt right in a game where Cale Makar admitted they didn’t have their legs. In a shocking twist, Nathan MacKinnon, who couldn’t be stopped in Game 3, didn’t register a single shot on net.

Moreover, in an incredibly annoying trend, the Avalanche have now been down 1-0 in all four games. The Kraken are the second team in NHL history to open the scoring in each of their first four Stanley Cup Playoff games, joining the Toronto Maple Leafs, who did so in 1918.

This isn’t what the Avs had in mind in terms of being a part of hockey history. Defenseman Will Borgen continued the disturbing pattern with a ferocious blast past Avs goalie Alexandar Georgiev at 3:56 of the first.

In an uncharacteristic lack of discipline, while on a power play, Cale Makar blew up the Kraken’s leading goal scorer, Jared McCann. The hard hit into the boards put McCann down on the ice for several minutes. The officials initially considered a major penalty, but after looking at the play on video, they called a two-minute minor for interference.

“I never want to injure guys,” said Makar. “I hope he’s alright. I didn’t try to finish him that hard. I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody. It was unfortunate.”

The NHL Department of Player Safety announced Makar will have a hearing Tuesday on the hit and could face a possible suspension.

Predictably, this mental mistake would cost the Avs. Wiping out their power play, it led to a brief 4-on-4 and eventually a Seattle advantage.

In a case of Kraken karma, Seattle forward Daniel Sprong snapped a wrister off the post, getting a shot past Georgiev that gave the home team an intimidating 2-0 lead. The Kraken crowd officially has found themselves enemy number one, Babyface Makar.

“It’s pretty funny I had a dream last night I was being booed,” said Makar about being lustily hated. “You have to be a big boy and just take it.”

The Avalanche looked flat.

They were playing their second straight game without forward Valeri Nichushkin. Big Val’s disappearance from the team and city of Seattle has been an ongoing mystery shrouded in deep rumor. The Avalanche continue to state “personal reasons” for Nichushkin’s absence.

On the Altitude pre-game show, the hosts said they knew nothing more than the general public. Strangely, they offered “thoughts and prayers” for Nichushkin.

Why would they offer “thoughts and prayers” unless those sentiments were actually needed? Was there a health issue with a family member? The public hasn’t been told anything about such a problem, so why the offering of “thoughts and prayers”?

Perhaps, it was a slip of the tongue to fill an awakened pause. But, maybe it does indicate there is something more serious going on with a relative. Frankly, the lack of information has been puzzlingly and at this point extremely concerning.

It seems impossible that the Avs can defend the Cup without Nichushkin. And after one period of play, it seemed doubtful they would win game 4.

In the second, the overall Kraken domination continued. However, the Avs defense and Georgiev didn’t break.

“I thought Georgie was fantastic tonight,” said head coach Jared Bednar. “He allowed us to hang around.”

Colorado only managed Six shots on goal in the period. However, sometimes quality means more than quantity.

The Avalanche, who have displayed more courage trailing in games than a Starbucks barista suffering a fool who says large rather than venti, yet again proved their championship pedigree.

Mikko Rantanen, on his first shot of the night, craftily slipped the puck past Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer to halve the score to 2-1.

The comeback would continue.

The Avs had yet to connect on the man-advantage through the entire series. That streak would be dramatically snapped.

With 2:47 left in the second, Borgen was called for holding. Once again, Rantanen would be the hero. With two seconds left on the penalty, the Finnish phenom would snap an all-world quality goal through traffic for the game equalizer.

For the second game in a row, the Avs took a tie game to the final period of action. Play tightened and scoring opportunities were few and far between.

One of the rare opportunities to take the lead occurred when Logan O’Connor was swatted in the face by Adam Larsson’s blade at 7:28 of the third. Unfortunately, the Avs would fail to cash in on the following power play.

There was a constant barrage of physical play as pile ups occurred in front of both goalies. In one ferocious flurry, Georgiev covered the puck only to be pushed into the net after the whistle. Upon a brief review, to the dismay of the Kraken fans, the potential score was called off.

The drama continued to build.

Entering next-goal-wins territory, the game could’ve gone either way, as both squads relentlessly pushed the pace. Neither team was able to break through, forcing the first overtime action of the series.

In the extra session, Avs defenseman Josh Manson, desperate to stop a breakaway, threw out a Superman dive drawing a tripping penalty. On the ensuing power play, the Kraken would finish the deal, as Jordan Eberle picked up a loose puck in front of Georgie, smoking it top shelf for the game winner.

“We didn’t get to our game early enough,” said Bednar. “You knew it was going to get tougher as the series went on. You have to earn every inch of ice. We didn’t do that.”

The Avalanche return to Denver knowing they will have to sojourn back to Seattle. This first-round series is now a best-of-three. Without Nichushkin, there are reasonable concerns if the defending Cup champions have the depth of talent to overcome the upstart Seattle scrappers.

Will they win? And where is Val?

***

Follow @dmac1043