Logan O’Connor came within an inch of opening the scoring on Wednesday night in the first period of the Western Conference Final opener.
Instead of the horn, that familiar ping of the left post rang through Ball Arena.
Avalanche teammate Nazem Kadri nearly cracked open the book too, in the waning seconds of the first.
Nathan MacKinnon whistled a great look just over Vegas goalie Carter Hartap glove and the crossbar in the second.
Outside of those handful of premium scoring chances, though, Colorado’s offensive execution too often waned without star defenseman Cale Makar in a 4-2 Game 1 home loss to the Golden Knights.
Now the Presidents’ Trophy winners are, for the first time this postseason, on their back foot.
“We just weren’t sharp,” MacKinnon said afterward. “Execution was poor from everybody. Yeah, just gotta be sharper than that.”
MacKinnon’s summation: The Avalanche skaters “did a lot of damage to ourselves. Just kind of (had) guys everywhere.”
The Avs launched 38 shots at Hart, but many of them came from the perimeter as the visiting Knights packed the middle of their defensive zone and dared their talented rivals to fire from long range.
Colorado mostly obliged, leading coach Jared Bednar afterward to say he felt as though his group “faded away for 20 minutes” in the middle of the game and had much to clean up, particularly on the offensive end.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re working for outlets for our ‘D’ to make their job a little bit easier,” Bednar said. “I thought some guys struggled with the puck back there a little bit tonight in all three zones. … I’d like to see the urgency and the relentlessness that we had in the third period earlier in the game, for longer stretches.”
One obvious issue for the Avs: Star defenseman Cale Makar, who did not play after, provides top-level performance in all of those departments and more.
“Some of the areas that we struggled with tonight, those are his strengths, right? Yeah it affects,” Bednar said of Makar. “He’s out there a lot with the MacKinnon line. There’s definitely a trickle-down effect to that. But he’s not playing, so we have to find a way. I think the guys that we had playing tonight, not just the D, but we’re capable of more and capable of better.
“It just wasn’t there for us tonight. Got to make sure it is for Game 2.”
Bednar shook up his offensive lines when he shortened his bench in the third period as his team chased a multi-goal deficit. He split MacKinnon and Martin Necas and liked what he saw from there, saying each guy “drove” his line down the stretch.
Colorado scored twice, including a 6-on-4 goal from Gabe Landeskog to get within one, briefly, in the final 2:21.
Still, Bednar was perfectly willing to use his dynamic top line as an example for how Colorado will have to adjust in Game 2 in an attempt to salvage a home split before this series heads to the desert.
“I felt like that group was a little spread out tonight and not as connected as they needed to be against their d-zone schemes in order to create some time,” he said. “When they found time, and did the right things, they came up with some decent looks and did some good things. But we need to do it more often. …
“We should be able to continue that whether we keep the lines the same or mix them up.”
The Avs, then, at first blush believe their problem Wednesday night was not about their plan to counter Las Vegas, but the failure to deploy their plan at a high level.
“I felt like there were opportunitIes to make earlier, quicker decisions and zip the puck hard,” Bednar said. “I mean, they are all pros out there, so you can give your guy a little extra time.
“I think showing them some of the plays, some of the guys that are open, even if it is a D-to-D, to be able to sustain time and find a lane. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a shot on net. Just get a playable puck around the net, past that first layer, and come up with some dangerous chances if we’re in the right spots. And again, that kind of goes, to me, to execution and our guys just not seeing it quick enough tonight.
“I have confidence that we can do a better job in that area.”
MacKinnon, for his part, took three questions from reporters in the locker room in a session that lasted 63 seconds. By the end, he’d already repeated himself.
“I just said execution like five times,” he said. “Like, I think that’s what hurts.”
