The Avalanche have a SERIOUS Problem...

After a tough loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Avs have many problems that are starting to pop up. And some of these things are things we were already aware of. We got to start talking about these things and start getting a fix on them. But the first problem we have is that 80% of you are currently not subscribed. It's completely free and you get daily updates on the Colorado Avalanche. So make sure you hit subscribe and turn on those notifications while you're at it. Alrighty, let's get going. So, Toronto absolutely punished the Avs when it came to defensive lapses. The Avs just didn't look fantastic right out the gate. I mean, out the gate they looked okay, but defensively it was a little rough. Here's the box score from the game. As you can see, some of the outliers there. McKinnon had two goals there. Brock Nelson got a goal. He was the third goal. Then, on the other side, you see William Nylander had a 5-point night. Two goals, three assists. Austin Matthews had four points. One of those, of course, being on the empty net. But the Maple Leafs definitely outperformed the Avs in efficiency, but not in the entire game. Sergei Bobrovsky got a .909 save percentage, 33 shots against 30 saves. Pretty solid for him. He still gave up three goals, but when you're getting a 900 save percentage, you're doing a good job. The glaring number here is 22 shots against only 17 saves and a 773 save percentage by Mackenzie Blackwood. That was just a rough one to see and the Avs when you look at their last year stats last year when they were leading after the second period which we were in this game we were undefeated and we were unable to hold that lead that third period has been a problem for the Avs we definitely had the opportunity to win against Winnipeg in the game last week and we weren't able to capitalize on those opportunities when we tied the game we weren't even able to capitalize on pushing that game into overtime but when games are tied last season we were nine four and five pretty solid close to 500 ish in that area and five twelve and six when trailing the as the third period used to be where the Avs would dominate but so far this season it hasn't been the same story I mean the games where we've been blowing people out the third period has been fine sure but even against Calgary we gave up two three goals in the third period just off nothing I mean like there was drunk hockey for like six minutes of the third period there was just way too many goals scored on our defense and on top of that the defense has given up a lot of goals I mean we've scored a lot of goals this season but the defense has given up a ton Jared Bednar has had a lot to say about what was going on he had left a message afterwards during the media conference afterwards in reference to Blackwood he says he needs to give us a save and to add on that he said I can't blame him for any of the goals none but if you're giving up four shots in a period and three goals you'd like him to give us a save in some of those situations and this is something that I saw on Twitter from Ryan O'Hara and this was talking about the breakdown of the goals Blankenburg goal he should have come up with that Nylander power play goal backdoor play Blackwood overplayed it Nylander indeed tim it was kind of a one-on-one with a goalie not much he could do there Nylander second goal was a bad clear by Kulak Blackwood left to dry Cowan's goal was left alone a low slot bad defense Matthews goal Manson caught way too deep in the defense uh in the offensive zone on a pk left up to dry and his point still stands though Wedgewood is the type of goalie who tends to thrive in the difficult situations and Blackwood is and you put Blackwood in harsh predicaments he can struggle so Blackwood is a goalie that can manage whatever's in front of him but once things get difficult he's not necessarily going to be going and making that spectacular save here and there that's why Wedgewood felt so great last season is Wedgewood would make those saves like for sure goals would get overturned by Wedgewood making a diving stop making a glove save making a glove save, Wedgewood would go and steal a game or two or three in a short period of time while Mackenzie Blackwood maybe only did that a couple of times last year it's Blackwood really for a guy that's making five and a half million dollars almost he's doing a really rough job of fighting for that starter spot and i really want to see more out of him i really do and especially after all the work he put in the offseason he was talking about how usually he's rehabbing an injury and this offseason he was able to prep for the season by training i was hoping that would translate to a positive thing now i know we're still early on and i'm not putting all the blame on Blackwood but there's just when you see all the goalies in the league especially the ones towards the top of the league they're taking games away from superstar players like the Edmonton Oilers can run into a hot goalie they can put up 40 shots on them and they'd lose a game because the goalie was that good we run into a team that puts 40 shots on us and Mackenzie Blackwood's in net odds are he's probably getting pulled after the second period i mean he can't handle anything that has like what east to west passes uh across the ice and one-timers over there he's just not getting there fast he's not reacting he's not getting to his spot Blackwood's form has been not that great so here's his last 10 starts from last season .900 save percentage over those last 10 games but if you look at some of the glaringly glaringly obvious ones that were pretty rough look at that .684 against Vancouver of all teams Vancouver was really bad last year he gave up six goals and I don't even think he finished that one as lost that one eight to six so he gave up six goals, but the Avs still almost won that. That game was really close at the end. Unfortunately, didn't bounce our way. .850 against Winnipeg. We just can't beat Winnipeg. I don't know what it is. We can't beat Winnipeg, especially in their barn. In the regular season, that is. In the playoffs, we can handle them just fine. But some of those stats, like 950 up there, only 20 shots against. Gave up a goal, sure. But 20 shots against, only giving up one goal, is kind of what's expected if you're a top tier goaltender then you go down some of these ones at the bottom here they're pretty solid 29 shots against three goals that's average 31 shots against one goal now that's a good game and so was the 29 shots against and one goal those were the Calgary Flames of course which they're not really a dangerous team by any means but it was a good performance by him but we haven't seen one of those from him in quite some time and we definitely haven't seen one so far this season so here's kind of the expectation for him right now uh so last season in 2025-2026 he had a 904 save percentage his expected was .895 he definitely did better than it was expected but it wasn't better than his career average i think he definitely has an opportunity to increase this year but he still hasn't shown that he's taken that extra step and we've got goalies all over the place on the average we've got a lot of goalie prospects we've got Nabokov that's playing for the Eagles and he's done a great job we may even see him sometime in November if this persists we have Trent Miner who just uh just to let you know he just cleared waivers so we still have him on the Eagles but we have options we have things we can move around we have Wedgwood who could definitely play but Wedgwood is no spring chicken anymore he definitely can play more games but don't want to overwork him and get him too tired but it wasn't all on Blackwood the defensive pairs were not great last night Makar did okay, him and Taze were kind of solid speaking of Makar when he has Taze on the ice they do pretty good together 39 minutes total of on ice time together this season four goals four and then on five on five 52 minutes together six goals four there but the defensive pairs all the way around were not that great i mean Josh Manson was over committing on a penalty kill of all things he was in the offensive zone and then the rush the other way directly led to a goal Kulak had bad clearing attempts those weren't great Sam Alinsky a few time along the boards i saw him attempt to clear the zone like three times in the span of one minute and he was not able to get it out a single time i mean the defensive clearing attempts from our own zone have been pretty pathetic this year and it's led to a lot of opportunities the other way there's been turnovers as well and these things are directly impacting the team here's the standings impact after that game Avs are now in fourth place in the division no need to panic i mean it's still early in the year six points Utah is leading the division right now four and two they've played the most amount of games out of everybody though other than Chicago of course we are on to our back-to-back against the Dallas Stars so we play Dallas at 6 30 mountain time on tuesday and then 6 30 mountain time on wednesday as well one home one away first game is in Dallas like to see how they're going to do the matchups there if we're going to see Wedgewood on the road because he did perform pretty well on the road and then Blackwood at home or mix it up do it the other way around for once get Wedgewood some home ice love from the fans i think that'd be a good opportunity there but another back-to-back coming up we do have a bunch of days of rest it's not until Tuesday so one two more days without a little bit of hockey for right now Nathan MacKinnon had a heck of a night Nathan MacKinnon played pretty well two goals no assists but over 23 minutes in that first period it looked like he was absolutely about to take over he played really well kind of took a what was it it was a snipe from the high slot thought it was deflected by Natchez but it just got over the glove of Bobrovsky I thought MacKinnon was going to score a hat trick in the first period I thought it was going to be a natural hat trick but unfortunately he was unable to get there and then also in years past it was brought to the attention on the feed from Sportsnet I believe it was where the game was I was on NHL Network so I don't know who was the broadcasting team they really did everything through but they said that Toronto is not afraid to play at Ball Arena they have done well at Ball Arena over the last few years and they definitely score a lot the Avs need to control the defense a little bit there's been way too many goals scored against them this year for a defensive group that has been together for a year plus i mean you have you can say a year plus because the exact same six defensemen are here from last year Brent Burns he's the older guy and you know every now and then he's going to get beat but that's why he's on the third pair you're expecting that but guys like Taze and Makar. Sometimes they're getting beat, and it's when they shouldn't be. Sam Malinsky and Kulak, you're paying them four and a half million dollars, and they're not playing to the standard yet. Malinsky has had a rough start to the season. I really need him to pick it up. He has been a shell of himself since he was injured in the second round of the playoffs last year. Really hope we can get this team back to the form it needs to be. So what cost the Avs the last game? Was it defensive breakdowns, needing a save from Blackwood, or both? Just let me know other big issue power play needs to get going i harped on special teams earlier special teams really needs to get it going there's no reason we shouldn't have any more power play goals than we did we had four power play goals in game one and we are oh for whatever many power plays we've had since we've had plenty of opportunities plenty of close calls and i love TJ Hughes but there's no reason he needs to be on power play one maybe the experience is great but they're not using him in the bumper slot like they usually do whenever there's a guy like Brock Nelson or Artturi Lehkonen in there move him to the second unit i think things will be fine he's doing well on the third line just let him thrive don't force him into situations where it's not going to help the team that's just my two cents but people have been talking about waiver claims as well the only way the Avs get a waiver claim and have to have the cap space to make it work so if someone's on LTIR it is not happening just a heads up for those of you have been speculating about that sort of thing but that's all i had to gripe about today we've got a couple days until we play hockey again on tuesday night i will be at the game but we can see some videos coming from Gavin or Dominic in the next couple of days i will be making a few as well but i will be out on Tuesday, no live stream for that one maybe on Wednesday if I can get the stream going for that if I get back from Dallas fast enough but that's that, thank you very much for watching and I will see you next time hopefully we can bounce back from a rough loss