The NHL’s three-day Christmas shutdown didn’t help the Avalanche. Neither did its five-day “bye” from Jan. 7-11. Now Colorado will discover if the four-day all-star break can provide any tonic for the NHL’s most-reeling team.
After the Avalanche’s 3-2 loss to Vancouver on Wednesday at the Pepsi Center, Colorado’s latest losing streak is at seven (0-6-1). Trailing 2-0 late in the second period, the Avalanche pulled into a tie on goals from Mikko Rantanen at 16:28 of the second and Matt Nieto at 6:18 of the third, but Sven Baertschi’s power-play score — his second goal of the game — at 11:46 of the third put the Canucks back in front.
That came after captain Gabe Landeskog’s slashing penalty.
“This one should have been it,” Landeskog said of a possible comeback win. “We tie it up and we haven’t done that a whole lot this year — tying games up late in the third. I can’t help but say that (mistake) on my part in the neutral zone ends up costing us the game, so that one’s on me.”
“That was the difference in the game,” said Colorado coach Jared Bednar. “Take a penalty on a backcheck in the third period. … We should know better by now. Penalties in the third period have been costing us and that one was no different tonight. I didn’t like the call. For me, you see the slash, call the dive. It was a needless slash from our guys. There’s no need to do it, but I still don’t like the call.”
He also noted that Canucks’ second goal, from Markus Granlund, came off a giveway by defenseman Nikita Zadorov behind the net.
A besieged Calvin Pickard had 38 saves for the Avalanche, now 13-31-2.
after missing Monday’s loss to Anaheim with the flu. He played 17:25 and had an assist on Nieto’s goal, his second for the Avalanche since being claimed on waivers from San Jose. Bednar called Nieto “our best player tonight. He’s going to the net, he’s skating hard, he’s making plays.”
Defenseman Tyson Barrie and winger Rene Bourque both were out again with lower body injuries, missing their fourth and third consecutive games, respectively.
Nathan MacKinnon will be the Avalanche’s representative on the Central Division team at the Sunday All-Star Game in Los Angeles. The rest of the squad will reconvene for practice Monday, then play at Anaheim on Tuesday and Los Angeles on Wednesday.
