Bursts of crowd noise erupted at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night, all generated from artificial pleas by the JumboTron operator and none by the Avalanche.
Hence, it was an ugly sight on the scoreboard for Avs fans. For the first time since the Columbus Blue Jackets entered the NHL, in their 23rd game against the Avs, they emerged victorious in regulation with a 3-0 win over Colorado. By game’s end, the only noise the remaining fans made were long, loud and lusty boos.
Against the NHL’s worst team, the Avs were much worse. Don’t be deceived by the lopsided shots-on-goal total (42-21); the Avs played with little passion, had a horrible power play again – with another failed 5-on-3 advantage in a scoreless game – and made the kinds of sloppy, unintelligent plays that turned coach Joel Quenneville’s face crimson much of the night.
“When you’re playing (with the lead), you’re not trying to score,” said Quenneville, when asked how his team could outshoot a team so badly and lose so decisively.
A case in point of the sloppiness that did the Avs in: With time running out in the second period, Avs defenseman Brett Clark got careless with the puck along the boards, leading to a backbreaking goal by Columbus’ Fredrik Modin with five seconds left that put the Avs down 3-0.
Not only did Clark fumble the puck and have it stripped from him by Blue Jackets forward Manny Malhotra, he compounded his mistake by hooking Malhotra. Columbus didn’t need the power play, as Malhotra made a hustling, diving pass to Modin for a shot that slipped under the armpit of goalie Peter Budaj, who was as mediocre as the rest of his teammates.
“The kind of game we played is just unacceptable,” Avs defender John-Michael Liles said. “It’s not just acceptable on our part. Just a bad game.”
The Avs fell behind 2-0 within the first 15 minutes, with Jason Chimera and Anson Carter scoring for Columbus. Carter had a yawning net to shoot at after a rebound in front, while Chimera tipped a shot in front – the same kind of goal that Vancouver’s Taylor Pyatt used to beat the Avs on Saturday night.
Such goals happen because opposing players are allowed to stand in front of the net too easily. A clearly emerging weakness of the Avs this season has been their lack of physical intimidation defensively, especially in front of the net.
“We made a few mistakes in our own end and it cost us,” Avs winger Andrew Brunette said. “That’s kind of the theme here at home: We outshoot teams and we play fairly decent. But little mistakes are killing us, or it’s a lack of focus for 10 minutes that’s killing us.”
Inside a Blue Jackets dressing room filled with the aroma of numerous boxes of pizza, former Avs defenseman Adam Foote savored the flavor of victory for the first time in regulation against his old mates.
“We’re playing our system right now,” Foote said. “We play our system, we get ’em. We’re starting to believe in ourselves. Our execution is improving and we’re on the same page.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
