Avs vs. Kings Recap

The Avs came into this game with the longest active win streak, at 6 games. Could the push it to 7? We would see.

Scoring Recap
The Kings got things going on a pretty weak goal. Rob Scuderi put a shot on Anderson from the point. Andy made the save, but kicked the rebound right back to Scuderi. Scuderi put it to the back hand and put it past Andy on the short side. Andy reacted very poorly to that move, waiting until after Scuderi had made the move and shot the puck before he reacted. 1-0 Kings

Second period
The whole second period belonged to the Kings. The Kings had a few shifts that lasted a long time in the Avs zone. Brad Richardson got his 4th goal of the year against the Avalanche, he has 5 total in the season by the way. He redirected a pass by Doughty who made a great move after the Avs were unable to clear the puck from their zone. That has been one of the things that the Avs have struggled with, quick, efficient clears to get the puck out of their zone.

Third period
Avs just couldn't get anything going, at all. Dustin Brown got a goal where he basically was picking up the scraps. Kopitar made a great move to the front of the net and muscled his way past Kevin Shattenkirk. Andy stopped that one, but couldn't control the puck, or himself. The puck stayed still, and Andy slid out of the way, allowing Brown to just put it home uncontested. I say uncontested because Hunwick just stood there and watched as Brown scored. 3-0 Avs.

Dustin Brown scored again with about 5 minutes left. Cut to the middle, just sort of threw it at the net, and Andy gave up another soft one through the wickets.

Later, the Avs took a late penalty, and immediately gave up a one time power play goal by Justin Williams. Kings finish off the Avs and their win streak with a 5-0 beat down.

This was the first game that the Avs were shut out all season long. Mark Rycroft said that the Avs competed tonight but just didn't get the breaks. That is not really the case in my estimation. The Avs were clearly the slower, weaker team tonight. The big difference came when the Avs got down. In the past couple of games, when the Avs were scored on, they immediately came back and got on their opponents to even up the game. That did not happen at all tonight. Instead of rising up to equal the game, it really seemed like they were actually deflated by these goals. It was almost like they were so used to getting a tying goal when down that they just expected it to happen, but it sure did not.

The other big thing that happened in this game, and happened a lot when the Avs have been struggling, was the amount of shots that missed the net. There were a lot of those tonight that just went high, or wide. It's hard to score goals when the pucks aren't going on the net. Only 23 shots on goal tonight, and that is just not going to do it against a team that is scoring and is very solid defensively like the Kings.

Andy has also been very weak of late. Yes, he won his last 6 before this, but he has been giving up a lot of goals in those games. He's been soft, and needs to regain some of that form from last year, even a little of it, in order to make sure the Avs don't go on the wrong kind of streak.

One thing that you know is going to happen is that Sacco will be all over the guys about this. Sacco is not the type of coach that lets this type of play just go and assume that things will get better. You better believe the Avs are going to be worked in their next practice. My hope is that Sacco will stick with is form of holding players accountable. Hunwick has hurt this team since being here. Tonight you saw it again, where he goes and stands in front of the net, and watches as the other team crashes aggressively and scores an easy goal. Since joining the Avs, Hunwick is -5, and has only had a plus rating in 2 games. That doesn't necessarily mean he's playing poorly, but it does mean he's on when we're scored against. And many of the plays that we saw tonight, where he just stands and watches, has become a regular occurrence.

Well, Avs next game come on Thursday against the Minnesota Wild. Avs hoping that Santa leaves an early Christmas gift under the tree and gets the Avs another big win against a divisional rival! Need a bounce back game!