PITTSBURGH — There were plenty of individual moments Thursday night that could accurately sum up the Colorado Avalanche’s first dud of the 2023-24 season, but let’s go with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ third goal of the evening.
The Avalanche, uncharacteristically sloppy with the puck and sluggish from the opening faceoff, turned it over in the neutral zone, which ignited one of several odd-man rushes for the home team. Defenseman Josh Manson hustled back to deftly break up a cross-ice pass and temporarily disarm the threat.
But then he tried to handle the puck instead of just sweeping it out of danger, Radim Zahorna knocked it away from him into the slot and Lars Eller was there for a tap-in and one of the easier goals he’s ever going to score with a goaltender on the ice.
That was Pittsburgh’s third goal en route to a 4-0 victory at PPG Paints Arena, ending Colorado’s perfect start to the season and its NHL-record 15-game regular-season road winning streak that dated back to last year.
“We just turned the puck over,” Avs forward Andrew Cogliano said. “The biggest part of our game plan tonight was to not turn the puck over and every chance we gave them was off turnovers. We were chasing the puck after making bad decisions, and ultimately against a team like this, that’s what happens. You lose.”
There were plenty of other similar moments in this one. The power play had four chances in the opening 40 minutes, including a four-minute man advantage late in the second period. Colorado had one great chance, but Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry robbed a snake-bitten Jonathan Drouin in the slot. That there was only one great chance in eight minutes of power-play time was the larger issue.
The first period looked very sluggish compared to the first six games of this season. Avalanche players tried to force the puck into situations, either by skating it or passing it, that proved to be the wrong play. It was a cornucopia of miscommunications, bad ideas, a team-wide lack of energy or, at times, a combination of all three.
“We knew something was going to happen at some point. You’re going to get punched in the face,” Avs defenseman Cale Makar said. “It just didn’t seem like we really had our legs. Nothing was coordinated, myself included. I felt like it was a lot of turnovers. I feel like I tried to settle the puck like eight times. It was one of those nights where everybody was off sync. That’s going to happen. For us, it’s just about how quickly we can bring it back together.”
There have been short stretches during the 6-0 start where coach Jared Bednar noted some stubborn play or poor decisions, but this felt more like a “anything that can go wrong did” kind of night.
Pittsburgh’s first goal came just as Nathan MacKinnon stepped out of the penalty box. The penalty kill was very nearly perfect, but just as it expired Samuel Girard tried to sweep the puck out of danger and he put it right on Reilly Smith’s stick.
The second goal came after Bryan Rust killed a Colorado zone entry along the wall and set up a 2-on-1 the other way. Evgeni Malkin found Smith for his second goal, another one that goaltender Alexandar Georgiev had almost no chance on.
The final nail in the coffin came midway through the third period. MacKinnon tried to get the puck out of the defensive zone, but Jake Guentzel picked it off and found Sidney Crosby in the slot. There were a few strong chances for the Avalanche, particularly in the final 20 minutes, but Jarry compounded the club’s frustration with some excellent saves.
This one will go down as a certified stinker, but one rough night is not likely a cause for alarm. The Avs have noted a couple times after recent wins that they weren’t happy with some stretches of those games or certain aspects of how they were playing, but Colorado also started 6-0 with a league-best goal differential and wins over several teams that either made the playoffs last year or expect to in 2024.
“I think we played a desperate hockey team that played with a lot of urgency,” Bednar said, noting that the Avs surrendered 10 scoring chances and three of the four goals off turnovers. “I haven’t seen a lot of frustration in our team to this point — up, down, coming from behind. But a lot of the things we talked about pregame showed up tonight, like with the dangers of playing the Pittsburgh Penguins. So I’m sure there was some frustration because guys kind of knew what was going to be coming tonight and we didn’t handle it well.
“That’s on us. It happens every once in a while. I’m not going to blow it out of proportion. I don’t think we were horrendous tonight. I thought they were really good.”
Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.