After snapping their road losing streak with a win in Chicago, the Colorado Avalanche ventured east and visited the Columbus Blue Jackets to finish out their quick two-game road trip on yet another back-to-back. It was a lingering fright night days after Halloween as Columbus uncovered another poor performance from Colorado in a 7-2 drubbing. Not only was the score an embarrassment but the duo of jettisoned Avalanche in Val Nichushkin and Carlie Coyle combined for three goals and six points on the evening.
This contest began a lot like last night in Chicago, as well as the bulk of Colorado’s road games, with the opposition getting two quick scores on the board. Mathieu Olivier only needed 28 seconds to get the first Blue Jackets goal and then Ivan Provorov struck on the power play seven minutes later. And just like the previous contest that was enough to wake up the Avalanche and drag them into the fight. Cale Makar scored his fourth goal of the season on a beautiful backdoor feed from Nathan MacKinnon and the Columbus lead was cut to 2-1 at the first intermission.
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Usually the second period favors the Avalanche but not in this one. Jake Christiansen got the puck through on some traffic to put Columbus back up by two. Colorado was generating some momentum finally but some terrible defense and a rebound left out by Scott Wedgewood let Cole Sillinger have several whacks at a loose puck and Columbus got their fourth score.
At this point Bednar had seen enough and pulled Wedgewood in favor of Mackenzie Blackwood to help generate a spark but it backfired. Columbus got two more scores from none other than the two former Avalanche the organization traded away over consecutive summers. First Charlie Coyle found the net in another defensive mess and the Val Nichushkin got the “choo choo train” going for Avs fans to witness one more time and he blew through the defense and put a slick backhand past Blackwood. Colorado would get a Nazem Kadri goal back on the power play but the period would still end 6-2 in favor of Columbus.
It was all but over in the third period as Colorado just didn’t have the gusto to make much of a comeback. Charlie Coyle did get his second goal of the night after the entirety of the Avalanche gave up on defending him and the 7-2 final score for Columbus was achieved.
A faint positive was Sam Malinski picking up another point while the game still mattered for his fifth in the last five games. He seems to be rejuvenated with the defensive pairs mixing up more following Josh Manson’s departure from the lineup.
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It’s amazing how inconsistent the effort and execution can be for the squad from game to game. When it seems they have learned their lesson and start to improve on some weaknesses, another poor game pops up and calls into question what this team really is.
A return home and then a rematch with the Nashville Predators on Thursday, November 5th. Puck drop is at 7:00 p.m. MT.
