The Colorado Avalanche didn’t just lose to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. They spent the evening beating themselves.
That’s the part Jared Bednar couldn’t get past after a 6-3 setback at Ball Arena, a game that had already tilted well away from Colorado by the time it was over. Nathan MacKinnon scored twice in the first period, Brock Nelson made it 3-2 in the second, and even after former Avalanche defenseman Nick Blankenburg opened the scoring with a goal on his first shift as a Maple Leaf, the Avs still looked positioned to control things.
Instead, the night unraveled around what Bednar called “mental mistakes.”
“I wasn't disappointed with the number of chances we gave up. I just did not like some of the chances.
Like just mental mistakes, that's what it was. Wasn't from lack of effort, lack of try.
It was mental mistakes, and when they got their chances, they capitalized on them.”
Toronto made Colorado pay in the third period, and the turning point came on Auston Matthews’ power-play goal. The sequence began with Josh Manson leading a shorthanded rush before losing the puck to a strong defensive play by 18-year-old rookie Gavin McKenna.
From there, the Maple Leafs finished the job. Even with three Avalanche players back in position - and Parker Kelly earning credit for hustling back into the play - nobody picked up William Nylander’s pass across to Matthews.
That was the kind of breakdown Bednar was talking about, and he made it clear the issues weren’t limited to one mistake or one player.
“I'm not going to tell you who they are, but we had a couple players that made multiple mental mistakes that led to really good scoring chances against. So for me, it's like you got the team doing it right, and you got a couple guys that weren't there for us tonight and it costs us. I think, again, it's not the number; it's just sort of the quality and the type of breakdown for me could have easily been solved with a little awareness, a little talk, and it wasn't there.”
The frustrating part for Colorado is that this wasn’t an isolated mess. The warning signs were already there in Thursday night’s game in Calgary, when the Avalanche were up 6-1 midway through the third period and then allowed the Flames to score twice quickly to cut it to 6-3. Calgary never seriously threatened a full comeback, but those goals still stood out because of how loose Colorado looked while giving them up.
That, more than the final score, is what has to concern the Avalanche. The offense has been there in bursts. The problem is the lapses, the missed reads, the breakdowns that keep showing up at the wrong time.
Colorado has enough time to clean it up, but not much patience should be attached to this version of the team if the mistakes keep stacking up. A club with playoff hopes and bigger ambitions can’t keep handing out chances and expecting to get away with it.
The next test comes Tuesday night in Dallas against the Stars, and a performance like the one against Toronto would make for a very long evening.
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Avalanche Lose A Key Coach As Power Play Questions Keep Growing
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For Colorado, the timing adds another layer to a power play that has already been under scrutiny lately. The club has not announced a replacement, leaving an important piece of the staff picture unsettled as the Avalanche sort through what Hakstols exit means for a unit that needed help before this news broke. [Read more 🡒]