The Colorado Avalanche looked like the club that has dominated opponents all year at times Wednesday night, but not for long enough and not soon enough.
There was a strong start and a ferocious finish, but the end result was not what the Avs wanted in a 4-2 loss in Game 1 of this Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights.
“Yeah, for sure. I liked more quantity than quality I think in certain areas,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We missed the net on a couple of our really good ones, which doesn’t help. But I was happy with what we produced. I thought their goalie played well. I think we got into the net-front areas at times in that game for deflections, rebounds, that kind of thing enough.”
A quick peak under the hood shows the totality of Colorado’s offensive effort was pretty good. The Avs finished Game 1 with 80 shot attempts, 38 shots on goal, 43 scoring chances and 4.44 expected goals created, .
That’s the most scoring chances in a 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs game for the Avs. The shots on goal and expected goals created were the second-most, and the shot attempts were third out of 10 contests.
A disproportionate of that offensive output came in the third period, and more specifically after Vegas had a 3-0 lead. Sure, the Avalanche completed an incredible comeback the game before against Minnesota, but that’s no way to live in the NHL playoffs, either.
“We were creating and generating more in that third period, and that’s what our game needs to look like through a full 60 to give us a chance to win a hockey game,” Avs defenseman Devon Toews said. “Yeah, it’s great to get back into it and give us a chance to win the game, which we did, but we didn’t get the job done. So we got to get it done for 60 minutes next time.”
Colorado started Game 1 with all kinds of jump and took the action to Vegas. The Avs had the puck for nearly all of the opening 4-5 minutes and fired the puck at the Golden Knights’ net nine times in the opening 4:03.
But getting those shots through on net was a challenge. Colorado is a team that loves to send the puck from low in the offensive zone out to one of the defensemen for a shot and then create more offense through deflections, rebounds or regaining control of the puck with the opposing team scrambling away from its typical defensive structure.
The Avs’ defensemen didn’t get as many of those shots past Vegas’ defenders, who were trying to block them. They didn’t create as many deflection chances as they’d like. There weren’t many rebounds to find.
Vegas’ compact shell in the defensive zone held for the first two periods, before the Avs found some solutions later in the night.
“I guess when they are taking lanes away, we might have to start looking to the side of the net for some of our forwards’ sticks and maybe finding ways to change the angle,” Avs defenseman Sam Malinski said. “Maybe one extra pass. But, we want to get pucks down there.”
The Cale Makar-less Avs defense corps combined for 26 shot attempts in Game 1, but only eight were on net. The Avs were credited with 11 shot attempts in the offensive zone categorized as tips or deflections, but even three of those were blocked by a Vegas defender and two missed the net.
Both of Colorado’s goals in the third period did come from the most dangerous part of the ice — Valeri Nichushkin and Gabe Landeskog both scored from within a stick’s length of the blue paint.
“I felt like we did a lot of great things last game, a little bit sloppy at times, but felt like we did enough to win the game,” Avs center Nazem Kadri said. “But credit to them, they stole one. Now we’ve got to respond.”
