The loss to the NHL’s jumbo team Chicago was the bottom of the current season for Colorado. Chicago defeated Colorado’s Finnish team on Friday 3–2.
The reigning champion had been struggling with his game for weeks, but losing the throwing bag as a guest made the keel really scratch the bottom. What made the defeat especially embarrassing was that the defeat fell on the so-called fathers and mentors trip.
There was also a winger Artturi Lehkonen father Ismo‘s hockey expert, who spent the previous month mostly in Denver.
– That defeat was a hell of a lie, father Lehkonen says.
– I myself left Chicago for Finland, but I can assure you that the flight home from Chicago was quite quiet for the boys and fathers. I believe that the guys have had a very serious meeting on the plane, that we are really starting to look a bit like donkeys here, Lehkonen continues.
Problems here and there
It is the result of many things how Colorado has gotten to a situation where it is already six points away from the last playoff spot.
The first one is related to playing in even fives. Colorado has been at the bottom of the league with 5-for-5 throughout the season, but since the beginning of December, it has truly been one of the weakest in the league.
Since the second day of December, Colorado has lost five of five games by a score of 26-38. The percentage distribution is 60 percent losing and the ranking in this respect is 27th in the series of 32 teams. Throughout the season, it is 47 percent and the ranking is 23rd.
So why is this?
Injuries to key players are one reason. The captain and the biggest soul player of the team Gabriel Landeskog hasn’t played at all in the whole season, which at the moment, among others, the Russian star Valery Nitshushkin as well as a frame defender Bowen Byram are on the sidelines.
Previously, the number one star was on the sidelines Nathan MacKinnon mixed Artturi Lehkonen.
Injuries have undoubtedly broken the rhythm of Colorado’s season. The second center who also played a significant secondary role in the Stanley Cup team Nazem Kadri leaving for Calgary can be seen. Colorado simply doesn’t have the necessary depth, so playing against the champion is easier.
– Last year’s Colorado ran with the rhythm of four chains. There is currently no push coming from the background. Now it’s one thread and then the clips start. When the top chain comes on the ice, the game is often at its own end. Leaving there all the time is hard.
According to Lehkonen, the team has also struggled with discipline.
– Not everyone has accepted that now you can’t play the same rati riti rally as last season. The human mind is such that it would gladly do the things of last year, when they attacked so devilishly. Back then, they didn’t yet have the status of a champion that opponents cling to. Now you have to understand that against the champion, there is always an a-plus game from the opponent.
This has really been the case in the last week. Colorado has lost in December-January to, among others, Philadelphia, Arizona, Vancouver and Chicago.
– The only goal of these teams is to take away Colorado’s number one chain and Alivoima is prepared really well. In their offensive game, they take what Colorado gives and Colorado has given. The Chicago game barely had time to start when Chicago had a drive through, Lehkonen’s time.
Ultimately, the focus is still on the depth of the line-up – or rather the lack of breadth. Top players make results, but there is not much support from the background. Behind the tip, few chains play a game with a plus sign, not to mention that these would make a result.
There are also problems in the starting circle.
– JT Compher is currently the only starter there. His minutes have doubled, because he has to be used constantly in the starts of his own end, Lehkonen adds, referring to Compher, who averaged more than 23 minutes of ice time in December and January.
JT Compher 464 – 50% (number of starts and win percentage)
Mikko Rantanen 136 – 48.5%
Ben Myers 135 – 53.5%
Nathan MacKinnon 114 – 46.5%
Alex Newhook 88 – 39.8%
As a team 48.5% – ranking 22.
Playing in special situations doesn’t work
Colorado has won seven of its 19 games since the second day of December. Only sixteen points have been taken. The team’s point percentage for the period is only 42.1, and only six teams in the entire NHL are behind in this regard.
One reason for the plunge can be found in playing in special situations. A good possession game earlier in the fall made up for the shortcomings in playing 5-on-5, but now even that has lost its edge. In the previous 19 matches, the team’s power play (9.5%) has been the weakest in the entire league.
As a crown, the underpowered game has fallen at the same time, being only 73 percent, ranking 23.
It goes without saying that the atmosphere around the team has tightened in recent weeks.
– Nerves are starting to be tense, because of course the players want everything right now. The captain is at the dock and he’s wondering who in the booth is using the sound and so on. Rantanen Miko has also noticed during the heavy autumn that he starts to get emotional and sometimes the controlled passion seems to run away from the glove, says Lehkonen.
– The fact is that now we have to twist the winning streak if we want to get to the playoffs. You have to tighten the screws insanely. It’s not easy, but it shouldn’t be.
The Colorado Avalanche will face the Ottawa Senators in their next match on Sunday night Finnish time.