ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The Avalanche heads into this weekend’s NHL All-Star break 10-2 in its last 12 games. That’s the optimist speaking. Truth is, the Avs started slow and couldn’t recover from it Thursday in a 3-1 loss against the Blues — Colorado’s second straight defeat.
THREE STARS
- Carter Hutton. Had 36 saves for the Blues, who were manhandled in the latter half of the game.
- Alex Steen. St. Louis forward had an assist and the insurance goal with 1:20 to play.
- Sam Girard. Avs D was plus-1 in 19:45 and blocked a game-high four shots; not bad for a 162-pound rookie.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
Avs captain confronted Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo after was accused of high-sticking Pietrangelo in the first period. Landeskog seemed to call out Pietrangelo for embellishment and replays showed MacKinnon’s stick probably didn’t touch Pietrangelo’s face. But the Blues scored on the ensuing power play … and that’s that.
NEXT UP
At Vancouver, Tuesday
Jared Bednar after 3-1 loss at STL
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers)
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
The look on their faces. Nathan MacKinnon and were in no hurry postgame, both staring at the carpet and looking seemingly unapproachable before stripping off their equipment while their teammates “escaped” to a private room. They were upset. I spoke to Rantanen and he was nice, talking about losing a big Central Division game before the all-star break. I spoke to MacKinnon after the morning skate and knew what he was thinking. The thing is, the two top-line competitors felt they should have won this game for the Avs, and there is fuel to their fire coming out of the break.
Backups. Carton Hutton was really, really good for St. Louis, and he continued a trend that has seen Central Division backup goalies outplay the guys they signed up to back-up at the beginning of the season. More on that in an upcoming story.
Faceoffs. St. Louis was 33-23 in draws (59 percent), dropping the Avs’ to 44.3 percent for the season, still worst in the NHL.
A first. Avs rookie defenseman assisted on Colorado’s goal — the first point of his career coming in career game No. 45 (33rd this season).
A first II. Defenseman David Warsofsky logged 15:05 in his first game with the Avalanche, and 40th overall in the NHL. He had three shots and blocked one shot. In other words, he played the game I thought he’d play coming out of training camp. I liked his game.
