The Pepsi Center is where the fizzle is for the Avalanche.
It was another 60-minute exercise of futility and frustration for the Avalanche at its home building Friday night. Showing a continued inability to score goals at the Pepsi Center, the Avs bowed to the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 before an announced crowd of 15,057.
Ryan Smyth — remember him? — scored a goal and had two assists for the Oilers, who had played the night before and used their backup goalie.
The Avs are 0-3 at home so far this season, with three goals scored in nine periods. Dating to last season, Colorado is 1-7 in its last eight at home.
The Avs did not lack for chances, as they outshot the Oilers 41-19. But only Ryan O’Reilly put one of them in, and the Avs hit a couple of goalposts behind Oilers netminder Devan Dubnyk.
“I think if we play like that, we’ll win our share,” said Avs center Matt Duchene, who assisted on O’Reilly’s goal. “I think we played a pretty good game. They got a couple of lucky bounces, and we could have had five or six goals but got unlucky on some. It’s frustrating, the result, but we have to put it behind us and get ready for Sunday.”
The Avs may have outshot the Oilers badly, but they also made more mental blunders than Edmonton. Case in point: Defenseman Shane O’Brien’s back pass on an odd-man rush was sloppy, leading to an Oilers rush the other way and a goal from low-scoring veteran defender Andy Sutton to make it a 2-0 game at 14:20 of the second.
They also took some bad penalties, such as Jay McClement’s hooking violation in the offensive zone at 14:58 of the second, and Daniel Winnik’s interference penalty at 6:31 of the third of a 3-1 game. Gabriel Landeskog was whistled for goalie interference in the second, and Cam Barker beat Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov upstairs with one second left on the power play.
But the biggest slip-up for the night was the Avs’ play on the shift right after O’Reilly scored, at 5:42 of the third that made it a 2-1 game. One of hockey’s most common maxims is “the next shift after a goal is one of the most important,” and the Avs let the Oilers come right into their zone and poke away at a loose puck that veteran Smyth put in from his belly.
“It’s the little details,” O’Reilly said. “We had a couple of breakdowns and didn’t take advantage of chances, and it hurt us.”
Said winger David Jones, who had only one shot on net in nearly 18 minutes: “It was a frustrating game. We had a lot of zone time on them and a lot of shots on the net. I thought we outplayed them. It was just that they capitalized on opportunities from mistakes that we made.”
The Avs have dropped three of the last four games overall, with one of the tougher teams in the league — Los Angeles — next up.
“I think we’ll be OK if we play like that again like we did tonight,” Duchene said. “Myself, I don’t know why I also seem to start a season slow, but I can guarantee it’s going to come.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
Avs Recap
Post’s three stars
1. Ryan Smyth.
Former Avs winger had a goal and two assists.
2. Devan Dubnyk.
Oilers goalie stopped 40 shots.
3. Ryan O’Reilly.
Avs center scored only goal for his team.
What you might have missed
Semyon Varlamov made his first career start against Edmonton. Colorado, Washington and Phoenix are the only three teams he has never faced.
Up next
Los Angeles, Sunday at 6 p.m.
Adrian Dater, The Denver Post
