Colorado needs to sweep the 8-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning under the rug and move on to prepare for a battle against the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena on Wednesday night.
The Avs return to Denver with three wins from their four-game road trip and a question mark in goaltending. Alexandar Georgiev won his last five starts but cannot play every game. Justus Annunen earned a win versus the Philadelphia Flyers on Nov. 18 but was pulled in his start against the Washington Capitals on Nov. 15 and was pulled again in the loss to the Bolts on Monday.
“It’s probably one of those ones where you just swipe it under the carpet and talk about it briefly and move on,” head coach Jared Bednar said after the loss at Amalie Arena. “We’re going back, day off tomorrow after getting in late, and then we got to go Vegas, Dallas, Edmonton, so we don’t have time to dwell on this one.”
Good & Bad: Poor Goaltending, Execution in Avs Loss to Lightning
Jonathan Drouin was ruled out just before the game started with an upper-body injury. The loss to Tampa Bay was a disaster, but Cale Makar is not worried. The team played structured in its wins against the Flyers, Capitals and Florida Panthers. There is a lot of good to take away from the long road trip even though the defeat to the Lightning was a tough blow.
“Jumbled lines again, obviously Dru (Drouin) being out late last second, so it is what it is. But for us, felt like we had the legs the whole trip, and there was nothing against that. It’s just just another road trip. So for us, wanted to end on a good note … just tonight just wasn’t connected,” Makar said. “I’m not overly concerned. I think we understand what we did wrong and we’ll move on.”
The team has shown resilience so far this season with the adjustments to the lineup. Colorado posted a five-game win streak after four straight losses to start the season.
Artturi Lehkonen returned from offseason shoulder surgery on Nov. 5 and the Avs won the next four of five. Valeri Nichushkin, Jonathan Drouin and Miles Wood were added to the lineup in the Nov. 15 loss to the Capitals. They won the next three and then the loss in Tampa Bay.
“You get three out of four against the teams we just played, coming into the cities, we did with the travel. We did three of four. We’ll take it all. We’ll take it every day,” Bednar said.
Around the NHL
St. Louis Blues: Jim Montgomery was hired as the St. Louis Blues’ head coach just five days after being let go from the Boston Bruins. The former University of Denver bench boss served as the assistant coach in St. Louis under Craig Berube from 2020-22 and led the Bruins for the next two seasons.
The team struggled under Drew Bannister with a 39-31-6 record in 76 games after he replaced Berube and was 9-12-1 this season before Montgomery stepped in.
The Blues beat the New York Rangers 5-2 Monday night in Montgomery’s debut behind the bench.
“I loved our effort,” Montgomery said. “Our execution offensively was really good. We have some areas to improve upon, but just the effort and how hard they played for each other to block shots, the togetherness at the end of the second [period], how we stuck up for each other. That’s Blues hockey. That’s blue-collar hockey.”
Philly Hockey Now: The Flyers blew a 3-0 lead to fall 5-4 in a shootout against the Golden Knights on Monday night.
Flyers rookie defenseman Emil Andrae scored his first NHL goal in the second period but Philly could not hold on. The team gave up two goals in the middle frame and another in the third to take it to a scoreless overtime and then a shootout.
Full recap on Flyers loss: Emil Andrae Goes Wild for First NHL Goal as Flyers Blow Another Lead