Avs come out flat, find themselves in unfamiliar territory against Kraken

“Philipp Grubauer had a good night,” asked one of the gathered muggles. “What did you see out of him?”

“Nothing,” Nathan MacKinnon replied, leading to a long pause from the slack-jaw media. “Anybody else?”

Arguably, one of the top two players in the world summed up a miserable night, giving no excuses for a disappointing 3-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken in Game 1 of the Avalanche’s first-round matchup in defense of their Stanley Cup title.

“Not our best execution night, but we still had a lot of chances,” said a salty MacK. “We had lots of good looks, just a little disconnected. We just shot ourselves in the foot.”

MacKinnon wasn’t holding back.

“We weren’t sharp enough mentally,” he flatly explained. “Physically, we were there. They come hard, but we still had the puck on our stick to execute. For whatever reason, we couldn’t make those plays.”

Don’t forget, the Avs wanted the match-up against the Kraken. They went to extraordinary lengths in their final two games to make sure they would clinch the Central Division in order to face the Kraken.

Be careful what you wish for.

Tuesday night at Ball Arena, Colorado faced a team whose mascot is a mythical creature found off the coast of Norway. The real terror was a goalie who used to play for the Avalanche.

Philipp Grubauer was back in net at Ball Arena, looking just as terrifying as a disjointed fairytale. Playing three seasons for the Avs, (2018-21), Grubi was a casualty to the expansion draft and Gabriel Landeskog’s contract a couple of years ago. The hockey world was stunned when he was consequently signed to a monster six-year, $34.5-million deal. Two years later, his own team seemed to have doubts about his value.

Grubauer’s 39 games played took a backseat to Martin Jones’ 48. While both players has similar goals against average and save percentage, it was Jones who had 10 more wins. Yet, Seattle coach Dave Hakstol went with the goalie who may have been more comfortable in the Mile High setting.

“I don’t know if there’s any,” said Hakstol about any advantages for Grubi playing in familiar surroundings. “In terms of an advantage, I don’t know if there’s really an advantage. You know he was ready to play a playoff hockey game tonight. He went out and did that. He played hard for his teammates and made some timely saves for them.”

Grubauer was spectacular, turning away 34 of 35 shots, including shutout periods in the second and third. It was a shocking development to see the Stanley Cup champions hapless against their former teammate.

“It’s definitely a weird feeling coming back. I played a couple of playoff series with those guys,” said the Kraken’s keeper. “There’s nothing better than playing against your old teammates at Pepsi. I know the angles. I know what it looks like. And that helps being able to practice and having a couple of games here. It helps.”

Not knowing the name of the current arena sponsor was the only mistake Grubauer made all night.

Meanwhile, Alexandar Georgiev’s 40 regular-season wins seemed like a mirage. A sloppy turnover by Devon Toews and a soft glove-side shot both led to goals on the way to the loss.

Avs coach Jared Bednar went out of his way to praise Georgie, however it was clear it wasn’t his best effort. Georgiev explained that on the second Kraken goal, scored by Alex Wennberg, his skate got caught in the ice and he wasn’t able to effectively slide to where he needed to be.

It was just another bizarre example of how the hockey gods seemed to be conspiring against the Avs.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on,” sighed defenseman Bo Byram after the game. “Not to create any excuses. It’s on us. We didn’t win the game. It can be tough sometimes getting ready for a game like that. There’s a lot of noise and everything.”

Byram left out what specific distractions had such a deep impact. Was it the hype? Was it pure exhaustion?

It’s impossible to ignore the dramatic lengths the Avs went to in order to win the Central Division. Three games in four days to end the season were all critical. Georgiev played every minute of all three games, including the back-to-back in Denver then Nashville. It took everything the Avs had to earn five out of six points, barely edging Dallas for the crown.

In that mad sprint to the finish, Colorado had the pedal to the floor, but weren’t playing with all their guys. This left a greater burden on the star players to carry the load. This task was handled bravely, but at what cost?

Mikko Rantanen said four days between the end of the regular season and the first game of the playoffs was plenty. It certainly seemed like the Avs could’ve used one more day to sleep in.

Coach Jared Bednar foreshadowed potential problems on Monday, detailing an unfocused practice that included Byram splintering his stick in frustration. Although, Bednar would praise the effort at the morning skate the next day, things seemed strangely off.

“I didn’t like our execution,” said the nattily attired Bednar. “I felt they had a relatively easy time getting the puck out of their zone. I thought it was sloppy from our group.”

After going through a season with over 400 man games lost due to injury, the Avs were at their absolute healthiest of the year headed into game one. This situation posed an interesting dilemma.

Which ready-to-go player now sits out?

The intent was to scratch the veteran of all veterans, Erik Johnson. This couldn’t have been an easy decision based on everything E.J. has given to the club. But, Josh Manson was now healthy, as was Cale Makar. Recently, the stalwart Johnson had been getting slightly less ice time compared to Jack Johnson. While, Bednar could’ve gone 11 forwards and seven defenseman, he instead benched E.J.

Or so he thought.

Remarkably, Jack Johnson got injured during warmups. If there was ever a moment to define the frustrations of an injury-riddled season, look no further than a core player getting injured skating.

All of a sudden, E.J. was back. But, you could tell the E.J. / Manson combo was as corroded as a twisted nail at the Tugboat Saloon in Steamboat Springs.

“Not good enough,” Bednar flatly replied about the effort of his defensemen. “I don’t think our whole team was good enough. Jack (Johnson) left the game with a lower body injury and I thought Manson was rusty. He was rusty today.”

In addition, Makar, who had missed several games leading up to the end of the regular season, wasn’t himself. The Norris Trophy winner was slow on the jump all night. With pot stirrer Andrew Cogliano out, there was less rhythm on the ice than Elaine from Seinfeld dancing at a wedding.

“When you are playing all teams with 100-plus points in a tough division, you have to expect to play your best hockey to win,” said Bednar. “We weren’t at our best tonight. That wasn’t our best game. It wasn’t even close. If we want to win, we have to be much better in Game 2.”

The Avalanche never trailed in a series last year on their way to winning the Cup. Whatever issues are going on behind the scenes need to be rectified quickly as the Kraken have nothing to lose.

The nightmares the mythical Norwegian sea beast may create for small children pale in comparison to the white-knuckled gripping of over-confident Avs fans as they nervously pull the sheets over their heads, dreading the disturbing thought of losing to Seattle.

Rest gently if you can. Game 2 arrives on Thursday.

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