Dude, there’s Makar! But where the heck has the Avalanche’s power play been?
“I feel like (Thursday), we got a lot of chances,” Avs defender Cale Makar told reporters after Colorado inched closer to a first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Kings, taking a 3-0 lead into Sunday’s Game 4. “(We) capitalized on a few, but still, I think there (are) areas of improvement, for sure.”
A dead car battery’s got more juice right now than Colorado with a man advantage. Oh-for-2 on power plays in Game 3. Oh-for-9 for the series.
It’s the first time the Avs have opened the postseason without a power-play goal over its first three playoff contests since 2023. The 2022 Stanley Cup champs had put up six goals with the extra man against Nashville by Game 3 of that four-game series sweep.
And we know, we know: The Avs were a mess on the power play through one of the greatest regular seasons in franchise history — and racked up 121 points anyway. Sure, it’s broke. But they’re too good in every other scenario for you to worry about fixing it, right?
Mind you, we were saying the same thing for months about the Nuggets’ defense and about Aaron Gordon’s health, too. And look how that little narrative is playing out in Minneapolis right now. (Or don’t. It’s ugly. And it could get worse.)
True, the Avs have been stuck in second gear over the first three tilts of this series, and there probably won’t be a fifth game. That’s how strong, how deep, this roster is — four lines of speed and steel stacked one on top of the other.
It’s the next round — when the competition ramps up — where those little things pay off, where the margins mean more. You can rope-a-dope L.A. and end up sweeping the bums to Cancun. Dallas and Minnesota throw punches from your weight class. The Kings are ham-fisted goons. The Stars are ham-fisted goons who can also score, especially on special teams.
Would this be a bad time to mention that Dallas has scored six power-play goals through its first three games against Minnesota this round? And on just 17 attempts?
Or that the Wild were 3 for 15 with the extra man as of late Thursday night?
Or that the Kings ranked 30th (74.6%) among NHL special teams in penalty kill during the regular season? Or that only Seattle and Vancouver were worse?
If you can’t make it here, you might not make it anywhere.
Avs coach Jared Bednar is loyal to a fault and twice as stubborn when cornered. But this postseason needs more Logan O’Connor and Artturi Lehkonen on the ice — not less.
Lehkonen is a crease-crasher, a garbage collector and a pest, a greasy goal waiting to happen. The Mayor is a terrier on skates, a holy terror. Meanwhile, Nazem Kadri is passing up shots and sometimes looks uncomfortable gripping his stick right now. Why not play LOC with the PP1 unit instead and see what happens?
And we get it — big picture, yes, the Avs are fine. More than fine, in fact. Makar got back on the postseason scoresheet with a classic Cale goal in Game 3, walking the blue line to rack up his first tally since March 18. Nathan MacKinnon managed to keep his cool Thursday despite getting mugged every shift and drawing some curious calls — Embellishment? Really? — from NHL zebras.
Yet in a series that’s been hard on the eyes, Colorado’s power play is still bad for your heart. Once the bright lights of the Stanley Cup Playoffs switched on, it’s been the same sad song, different verse. One pass too many, time and again.
And is Kadri hurting more than anybody has let on publicly? The veteran winger passed up a one-timer with the extra man about five minutes into the third period. If he's not comfortable shooting on the PP, he's probably not helping, either.
Fortunately, Colorado's penalty kill picked up the rest of the special-teams units to put Game 3 to bed late. Lehkonen and O'Connor turned on the jets during a third period Kings PP as Los Angeles' Adrian Kempe fanned on a one-timer at the blue line, sending the puck skipping in front of him like a scuffed golf drive.
Lehkonen closed quickly and started a break the other way, with his brother-in-harms, O'Connor, racing to the Finn's right. The former kept it on the 2-on-1, bouncing a feed off Adrian Kempe's skate and into the goal to give Colorado a 3-1 lead with 12:21 left on the clock.
The Avs did more dumping than chasing and rode their puck luck harder than usual. Then again, it's hard to find a flow
Samuel Helenius popped Kadri in the first period following a whistle. Nada. Later, Josh Manson got planted into the metal part of the boards near the home bench at game speed, suffering an upper-body injury that sent him back to the locker room.
At least Makar got one back for all those elbows to the face with 7:48 to go in the second stanza. Top-line partners MacKinnon and Lehkonen made a staggered double screen in front of the Los Angeles goal as No. 8 glided left to right along the blue line while shooting the puck right to left. With all kinds of Highway 405 traffic in front of the crease, Makar's laser beat Anton Forsberg over the stopper's left shoulder as the Avs went back up in front, 2-1.
With L.A. fans frothing, it took a crazy bounce to get out the Avs rolling out of the gate. About 5:29 into the contest, Gabriel Landeskog nailed his 30th career postseason goal, and one of his wackiest. The Avs captain threw the puck at Forsberg's right post, only for it to sail slightly wide and bonk hard off the boards.
Only the carom was so hard that the biscuit bounced all the way back to Forsberg as he scrambled to corral the puck before a hard-charging Kadri could reach it. The net-minder won the race but lost the battle. As Forsberg chased the puck, he also accidentally kicked the disc into his own net with his right skate for a 1-0 Colorado lead.
"I think there (are) some times when you just don't get bounces like that," Makar noted later. "(It) definitely gave us a little bit of a jolt."
The power play, meanwhile, could use about 50,000 volts, if history is any guide. Since 2020, the Avs are 5-10 against Dallas in the postseason when they convert at a clip of 25% of lower with the man advantage. That includes an 0-2 mark vs. the Stars in Game 7s. It's a slippery slope from one pass too many to one Cup too few.
