The Colorado Avalanche left Columbus with more than a loss. They left with a 7-2 beatdown, another ugly road showing, and a pair of former Avs doing the damage.
After ending their road skid with a win in Chicago, Colorado carried that momentum into the second night of a back-to-back and ran straight into a mess. Columbus jumped on them early, the Avalanche never fully recovered, and the Blue Jackets kept piling on until the final score turned into a rout.
Mathieu Olivier opened the scoring just 28 seconds in, and Ivan Provorov added a power-play goal seven minutes later to put Colorado in a hole right away. The Avalanche did respond before the first intermission, with Cale Makar burying his fourth goal of the season off a backdoor feed from Nathan MacKinnon to make it 2-1.
That was as close as it got.
The second period swung hard in Columbus’ favor. Jake Christiansen pushed the lead back to two, then Cole Sillinger cleaned up a loose puck after Colorado’s defense and a rebound left by Scott Wedgewood gave him multiple chances at it. That goal chased Wedgewood, with Jared Bednar turning to Mackenzie Blackwood in search of a spark.
Instead, the Blue Jackets kept rolling.
Charlie Coyle scored against his former team in the kind of defensive breakdown Colorado couldn’t afford, and Val Nichushkin followed with a backhand finish that sent the “choo choo train” rolling again for the Avalanche crowd watching from afar. Colorado did get one back on the power play from Nazem Kadri, but Columbus still carried a 6-2 lead into the third.
By then, the game was effectively done. Colorado didn’t have enough left to mount anything resembling a comeback, and Coyle added his second goal of the night after the Avalanche stopped defending him altogether.
One small bright spot came from Sam Malinski, who picked up another point and now has five in his last five games. With Josh Manson out of the lineup and the defensive pairs shuffled, Malinski looks to be finding some rhythm.
Beyond that, though, this was another reminder of how uneven Colorado can be. One night they look like they’ve turned a corner. The next, the effort and execution fall apart again, and questions about what this team really is come right back to the surface.
In Other News...
Avalanche Were Dominated In Columbus For One Frustrating Reason
Columbus did not just beat Colorado, it overwhelmed the Avalanche with a season-high seven goals in a home game that snapped the Blue Jackets out of a recent scoring slump. The matchup turned quickly into one of those nights where one team seemed to have every answer, and for Colorado, the frustration was compounded by how effectively Columbus handled the top of the lineup battle.
A big part of that came from the Blue Jackets third line of Charlie Coyle, Cole Sillinger and Mathieu Olivier, which was able to match up against Colorados top line and keep the pressure on throughout the game. Ivan Provorovs return has also given Columbus defense a noticeable boost, and the combination of sturdier play in back and better line matching made the Avalanches trip to Columbus a rough one from the start. [Read more 🡒]
Former Avalanche Forward Is Making Colorado Fans Notice His New Start
Ross Colton is already giving Colorado fans a reason to keep one eye on Nashville. In his latest outing with the Predators, the former Avalanche forward scored a goal and added an assist in a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, a performance that fit neatly alongside a strong night from the rest of Nashvilles core.
Roman Josi chipped in with a goal, and Juuse Saros handled the rest with 29 saves as the Predators snapped Carolinas momentum. The result also ended Pyotr Kochetkovs 10-game winning streak to open the season, a rare start that had already put him in the NHL record conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Keep Showing A Road Problem Fans Cant Ignore
The Avalanche have done enough at home to stay in the mix at 9-6-1, but the road has become a much harder sell. A 7-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets only sharpened the concern, because it was not an isolated off night so much as another example of Colorado getting pushed around away from Denver. For a team built to contend in the Central Division, the gap between what it looks like at home and what it has shown on the road is starting to stand out.
Colorado is also dealing with a broader pattern that goes beyond one bad trip. The defense has had trouble handling several low-scoring opponents, and the power play has not been doing enough to cover for those lapses. Sitting fourth in the division behind the Stars, Wild and Utah Mammoth, the Avalanche still have time to settle things down, but until the road game tightens up, the standings will keep reflecting the same uneasy trend. [Read more 🡒]