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In a season that can't get much worse or embarrassing, the Colorado Avalanche reached new depths in their 2-0 loss against the Buffalo Sabres. It was their 9th shutout of the season and 5th consecutive loss but that doesn't even begin to describe the impotence and listlessness withessed on ice in this contest.
After an encouraging start right out of the gate, the Avs then proceeded to take three penalties and gave all the momentum to the Sabres. It was inevitable when Sam Reinhart scored on the power play 48 seconds into the second period. There was much wallowing and self-loathing for the duration of the period as the Avs mustered a total of four shots against the team that gives up the most shots per game in the league (surprise, it's not the Avalanche!). The third period showed a little more life to get total shots up to 23 and a mild flurry of activity when goalie Calvin Pickard sat for the extra man but Evander Kane put the dagger in at 15:46 and that was enough to take the victory.
Keys to the Game
In those 23 shots six were from Mark Barberio and three each from Andreas Martinsen and Nikita Zadorov. The rest of the team accounted for less than half of the total shots. That's not going to win many hockey games.
The Avs were not awarded one power play. Not that they would have likely done much on it but even some questionable moments didn't seem to go their way. This probably also cotributed to some of the futile behavior.
The trade deadline can't come fast enough for everyone from the players to the fans. The constant rumors and direct comments about players’ value in the media can't be helping morale or focus. The uncertainty and impending change is starting to spread to all areas of the organization. It just isn't healthy for everyone involved to keep this same group of players together every night and pretend to expect different results. Hopefully the 28 scouts and executives from 17 different NHL teams in attendance found something to their liking within this disaster. The sooner this version of the Avalanche is a distant memory the better.
Up Next
The traveling clown show makes its last stop on the road trip in Carolina to face the Hurricanes and a group of defenseman the Avs won't be trading for at 5:30pm mountain time on Friday.