Ryan Smyth’s sweat-drenched hair obscured his vision, but not enough for him to miss the angry slam dunk of his equipment into a large bag. After the Avalanche’s third straight loss, 5-3 Sunday night to the San Jose Sharks, Smyth was a study in frustration in the dressing room — as were his teammates.
“We play a full 60 minutes, we’re a good hockey team. But we have little mental lapses here and there, and it costs us the hockey game,” Smyth said. “You can’t take a shift off. It’s important to take every shift like it’s your last.”
The Avs fought hard to get at least a point in this one, but an early 2-0 deficit proved the difference. Three times the Avs cut a two-goal deficit in half, only to see the Sharks get the next goal.
“Our job, as the Avalanche, is to win, and when you don’t win, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing,” Avs coach Tony Granato said. “They’re a good team, but tonight we were probably guilty of standing around and watching too much.”
Milan Michalek’s second goal of the game — early in the third period — put the Avs back down by two goals, not long after Milan Hejduk had pulled the Avalanche within 3-2.
The goal exemplified the differences between the teams. The Avs had a couple of chances to get the puck out of their zone but rushed things because of hard forechecking by the Sharks.
David Jones was taken off the puck behind his net, and Adam Foote had a pass intended for Darcy Tucker intercepted by former Avs player Rob Blake. A few seconds later Michalek put a rebound past Peter Budaj after an initial shot bounced off his pad and back in front.
John-Michael Liles cut it to 4-3 with a short-side goal from the left circle with 6:19 left, but Ryane Clowe accounted for the final goal with another rebound putback at 18:16. Overall, the Avs were just too sloppy to win against the hottest team in the Western Conference.
“In our end, we were just not good enough,” said captain Joe Sakic, who had two assists but finished a minus-2. “Our line, we were out there for four goals against, and that’s not good enough. We’ve got to be better in our end. I think we got better as the game went on, but we didn’t have a good enough start.”
It would be tough to pin the majority of blame for the loss at Budaj’s locker. He did make some fine saves, but big rebounds off his pads have been an issue for the young Slovakian. The Avs outshot San Jose 36-29, but two of their goals came from their defense and Colorado’s forward lines have been held to two goals or fewer in the last four games.
Granato usually tries to look at the positives, at least publicly, after a loss, but it was easy to tell he was having a hard time doing so after this one. He said his team wasn’t “hungry” enough on the puck — and that’s something he certainly will make clear to his team that is unacceptable going forward.
“We need to be more consistent, there’s no question about it,” Granato said.
The Sharks showed why they are 10-2-0 with a superb first 10 minutes of the game. By the 9:02 mark, they had a 2-0 lead on goals from Michalek and Devin Setoguchi.
“You can’t give a team like that that many shots and too many scoring chances,” Liles said. “You have to give them credit.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
