Vegas Golden Knights right wing Alex Tuch (89) is checked by Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews (7) during the third period in Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series at T-Mobile Arena Sunday, June 6, 2021.
Monday, June 7, 2021 | 2 a.m.
For the first time in what seems like the history of organized sports, the team meeting didn’t work.
Disappointed with their performance and ensuing loss in Friday night’s Game 3 against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Colorado Avalanche reportedly got together to hash out their frustrations and clear their hands before Sunday’s Game 4. If the popular narrative held, that meant they were bound to come together for a resounding victory and get back on track to reach their championship aspirations.
History didn’t repeat this time.
If the Avalanche felt like they were playing uncharacteristically before, they might be in a full-fledged identity crisis now after the Golden Knights knocked them around even harder in a 5-1 Game 4 victory at T-Mobile.
The series is now tied at 2-2 heading back to Denver for Tuesday night’s Game 5 and the Avalanche advancing no longer appears to be the inevitably many believed when the teams arrived in Las Vegas.
“We proved we can play against the best team in the league and we’re on a mission right now,” forward Jonathan Marchessault said after Game 4 hat trick. “We just have to keep going and focus on Game 5.”
The prohibitive Stanley Cup favorite for the last month may no longer be so, at least not at this specific moment. Colorado is at the very least engaged in a fight while other contenders — namely the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning — are sitting with a prettier final four path.
And this year’s Avalanche aren’t too accustomed to having to fight. No one has done what the Golden Knights have done to them for the last two games. No one has come close.
Colorado never surrendered more scoring chances than they manufactured in two straight games all season, per naturalstattrick.com. Vegas has now done it in eight straight periods.
They also only allowed more high-danger chances than they amassed in back-to-back games once all season, but that was with a skeleton crew when injuries and COVID-19 depleted their roster. Now they’re nearly at full-strength, and yes, Vegas has also tallied more high-danger chances in eight straight periods dating back to a dramatic Game 2 turnaround after losing the opener 7-1.
“We gave them a little too much respect in Game 1,” captain Mark Stone said. “We kind of stepped back after the first period of Game 2, we realized we could play with these guys. But to say it’s easy is a very false statement. They’re a great team, they’re going back home, they’re going to bring their best game. We’re just going to go on the road and try to do a lot of the things we’ve been doing at home and in the last three games combined.”
Stone came under fire for his lack of offense in the first two games, and truthfully, still has played below his expectation on that end of the ice with only a pair of assists during the back-to-back wins. But he’s shown why he’s a Selke finalist by being at the forefront of the defensive aggression that’s changed the series.
The NHL’s most dangerous line all season — Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog — hasn’t scored an even-strength goal since Game 1. That’s extraordinary and it’s all started with Stone’s pressure on the forecheck, which has clearly flustered the Avalanche.
So flustered is coach Jared Bednar that he’s gone as far as to break the group up at times. There’s a lot else going right for the Golden Knights, but their success starts with the way they’ve slowed the Avalanche’s terrific trio.
“Our detail and execution has been really good since Game 1 and I think we feel good about our game,” DeBoer said.
The question is whether it can continue. With a team as talented as the Avalanche, there’s a tendency to think it will all eventually come back together. That they can’t possibly get this thoroughly outplayed for this long.
There’s truly no precedent for it. Colorado hadn’t gotten beaten by two expected goals in any game since 2019 before Game 3, according to the Athletic. Vegas has now come .2 expected goals away from doing it two games in a row.
It’s going to take more than a team meeting for Colorado to diagnose its problems. Joking aside, plenty of team meetings have surely failed in the past but typically media and fans only hear about them in hindsight when a fable grows out of a special season.
But the Golden Knights are in the process of denying any mythmaking from happening — at least as it pertains to the Avalanche. All of a sudden, Colorado is scrambling to find the answers and perhaps looking in the wrong places while Vegas is the team that’s keenly aware and confident of what it needs to do.
“Play fast, play simple….Put in the work for 60 minutes and we should be good,” goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said.
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
