Curse of the Third Sweater?

I’m going to go ahead and say no.  We can get back to the basics of why the Colorado Avalanche lost to the Vancouver Canucks tonight.  You cannot play like absolute crap for the first two periods and expect to win the game.  You just can’t.  The first two periods were just awful all around.  There was no defense to speak of and the offense was just as bad.

Through the first two periods we got outplayed, plain and simple.  It wasn’t any fun to watch the guys play like that and it was very reminiscent of last season.  Earlier, Coach Joe Sacco told the media that this was a “must win” game.  Apparently he forgot to tell the players.

Courtesy of http://avalanche.nhl.com

Goaltender Craig Anderson let in a total of 4 goals throughout the first two periods and wasn’t helped at all by the Avalanche defense.  By period three, Budaj was in net.  In the one period, Boods let in another 4 shots while the Avalanche got two past Roberto Luongo.

All in all it was a pretty shameful game.  In the few power plays the Avalanche did receive, they spent too much time passing the puck around rather than shooting it on net.  They need to realize that even the dirty shots can count a lot of the time.  That was something Ryan Smyth was great doing.  He would stay down low, near the net, and get that dirty goal when we needed it.  None of the current Avalanche try to make the dirty shot, they’ll pass it around until they see a clear shot.  They also need to see that if the opposing goalie can see the puck coming, the more likely he is to block it.

The referees were no help to us as well.  I counted at least three penalties that the refs either didn’t see or just plain ignored.  Twice Craig Anderson was interfered with, once was pretty blatant and the ref waved it off, despite Anderson’s arguments.  There was also a time when a Canuck player took the puck offside, brought it back into the offensive zone, and the ref allowed it.  I saw this from Club Level, behind Anderson.  If I could see the offsides offense from there, it was pretty clear to the linesman.

The Avalanche also sported their new third sweater, which was announced the other day.  I picked mine up, a Duchene sweater.  What can I say?  The kid wears my favorite number.

This was also Tom Preissing’s first night on the ice with the Avs.  He made no ripples in the water.  Even with Avalanche veteran Milan Hejduk back in the lineup, there was nothing they could do to win this one.

The Avalanche let another game slip through their fingers.  This loss knocked us down to 4th place in the NHL.  We’re sitting pretty behind the Washington Capitals (3rd), the New Jersey Devils (2nd), and the San Jose Sharks (1st).  If the Avs had played the way they had in the third period, we may not have had the loss we had tonight.

Related posts:

1. Curse of the 3rds Smack Avs in the Face… Again
2. Olympic Rosters – Part 1 *Updated*
3. Avalanche Still #1 in the Northwest Division
4. Canucks Blank Avalanche 3-0
5. Welcome to the Playoffs!