Recap: Avs crumble to Islanders for third straight loss

Self-inflicted wounds and lack of firepower are slowing down the Avalanche.

The Colorado Avalanche lost its third straight game to open the 2024-25 campaign, this time at the hands of the New York Islanders 6-2. Things are just not going Colorado’s way at the moment, and it’s glaring.

For the first time since the 2008-09 season, the Avs have started the season 0-3. But some good news: Alexandar Georgiev made it to the third period for the first time this season. Plus some food for thought: when Colorado won the Stanley Cup in 2022, they started the season 1-4. There’s a long way to go, but a lot needs attention first after this one.

First Period

Just 1:01 into the game, Colorado got off to a hot start. Josh Manson fed a brilliant pass right to the crease. Cal Ritchie was left wide open and tapped it in for his first career NHL goal, celebrating with style.

Ritchie would nearly get his second minutes later on a rush with Casey Mittelstadt, but Ilya Sorokin just did enough to fight it off. It was a hot start by the Avs, which was quickly cooled off by Anders Lee beating Georgiev who wasn’t covering his near post to even it at one.

Colorado got some more looks with Nikolai Kovalenko feeding Logan O’Connor for a nice chance in front which was stopped. Nathan MacKinnon also had one of his shots from high in the zone double-deflected just wide of the net.

Despite the chances, it would be the Islanders converting again. Georgiev went for a poke check on a breakaway with Kyle Palmeri, which he got his stick on – before it hit back off of Palmeri onto his stick and into an empty net for the lead.

Tensions would rise to end the period when MacKinnon blew up Alexander Romanov in front of his own bench, leading to a big scrum when the horn blew. Hence, the middle period would start at 4-on-4.

Second Period

After the 4-on-4 play to open the period ended, MacKinnon was involved in not-so-good ways. He would be tripped with no call made, and then had a great look bursting into the zone but missed the net.

It would be the best thing the Avs had all period, as the Isles turned it into a slugfest and shut everything down going forward. Eventually, they would connect with Brock Nelson pulling a move on two Avs defenders and got Georgiev to go down and double the lead.

Colorado looked to maybe get something going when Romanov went off for interference on a big hit with Chris Wagner. Rather, it would be a rough Cale Makar turnover giving Nelson an easy breakaway and score to make it a three-goal advantage.

The Avs didn’t even get their first shot on net until after the halfway mark when Kovalenko fed John Ludvig a perfect pass through traffic, but his golden chance was robbed by Sorokin. Kovalenko would also get a knee to the head with no call made, shaking him up.

It was an ugly period with not much of anything good for the home team. Maxim Tsyplakov would be called for a hooking call which carried over to the third, with the Avalanche looking for anything to make it a game.

Third Period

Colorado came out in force with their power play opportunity expiring. MacKinnon found Mittelstadt on a cross-ice pass and finished to make it a two-goal game just 40 seconds into the period.

They kept on pushing, with Ritchie, Mittelstadt, and Makar all getting excellent looks and high-danger chances but were denied by Sorokin. At the other end, Georgiev did the same until Anthony Duclair got away from Makar and got to the front of the net and around the netminder to make it a three-goal lead again.

Sorokin continued to shut down the home team, making some key saves in the closing minutes to keep the big cushion the Isles had. Even with Georgiev pulled for the final 4:30, nothing would come of it and more damage would come from a Mathew Barzal empty-netter to make it a 6-2 final.

Takeaways

It was an ugly game full of frustrations once again for the Avalanche. Devon Toews was the latest to exit the team due to injury, a lower-body one to be exact. Calvin de Haan was scratched, and two new defensive debuts were made by Oliver Kylington and John Ludvig. Neither was great, Ludvig had his moments and mirrored the player who used to wear No. 3 in Denver, Jack Johnson. It would rather be the rest of the defense who was off, especially Makar in particular who had an off-night.

The entire team frankly had an off-night. The only standouts were Ritchie with his first NHL goal and Mittelstadt, but otherwise, everyone found life difficult up and down the lineup. Georgiev was booed during player introductions before the game and made some questionable decisions on the goals he allowed. But, he also wasn’t able to do much either when he was left out to dry by the players in front of him.

While there are still 79 games left to go, the longer this cold streak goes, the more worrisome it becomes. We’ll see if Kaapo Kahkonen passes immigration by the next game just to give the Avs a different look in the crease and see where things go. We’ll have to wait on updates to Toews and Jonathan Drouin in the short term and hope Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin are ready to roll right from the get-go in November once they can enter the lineup. But if there’s any sort of hope, there’s still a long way to go. Look at how the Edmonton Oilers started last season and their turnaround. The point is that it’s far from over, despite the results.

Upcoming

The homestand continues, with the big bad Boston Bruins coming to town. Puck drop on Wednesday night is at 7:30 p.m. MT for all to see on TNT, truTV, and Max.