Colorado and St. Louis are in for a long series, but they already knew that

Before the St. Louis Blues and the Colorado Avalanche started their second-round series, Avs players said it’d be a long one.

After the Avs Game 1 win, Blues players said the same.

Following Colorado’s Game 2 4-1 loss, it’s clear that the divisional opponents were right.

The Blues stole home-ice advantage on Thursday, taking the matchup 1-1 back to Missouri. In doing so, the heavy underdogs proved why they’ve advanced to this point in the postseason and backed their 109-point regular season. The Avs were out-worked and out-played in the loss. It wasn’t puck luck, penalties, a few mistakes or even the refs, Colorado just wasn’t as good as St. Louis.

“We were bad,” Nathan MacKinnon, who added an assist on the Avs lone goal, keeping his playoff point streak alive at six games, said. “We were really bad tonight.”

Colorado spent more time behind in the game than they had the entire postseason combined up until this point, which isn’t a good omen.

“We weren’t feeling it tonight; it’s unfortunate, but it’s 1-1, and I’m gonna forget about it and move on,” MacKinnon said. “We need to learn from this, our execution and compete. We need a better start; take a page from their book and have a great start on the road in Game 3.”

The puck-possessing Blues did play much better. But there’s fundamentally more to it than Craig Berube saying ‘play better’ and the players going, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea we didn’t think of that.’ The story of the Blues feeling down and being screamed at to play with more effort is cute.

The Avalanche didn’t come out flat—though some will say that—they were buzzing at times. What they did do was get jumpy and make a ton of mistakes. On nearly every shift during stretches of the game, there were multiple errors. The Avs forced the issue, in a bad way and generated fewer great scoring chances than any time in recent memory, at least for a home game.

“We got out-worked, out-skated,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “They were much better and we got worse.”

Bednar can tinker with the lines and players in the lineup a bit. In-game he did so, putting Gabriel Landeskog on the top line, where he scored the Avs goal. Ultimately Landy and company need to do more and play better, no matter who is on the Avs fourth line and last defensive paring. St. Louis’ death-giving goal came off a Cale Makar turnover.

Eventually, the Avs were going to lose, no team has ever gone 16-0 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But losing home-ice advantage on a night where the other goalie didn’t snatch it away and the ref didn’t blow the whistle harshly is a tough pill to swallow.

Game 3 of Round 2 was the biggest question mark of the Avs season after last year’s Las Vegas debacle. Now, it’s no longer a question; Colorado’s been pushed onto the ropes. Will the Avs fight back? They showed very little battle on Thursday—less pugnaciousness than what Denver Police broke up on the streets of Lower Downtown postgame. Maybe that changes on Saturday, turning Game 3 into an answer we’ve been waiting on for a year.
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