If your goalies play like that, you will win zero games. If your defense plays like that,

you will win zero games. If your offense plays like it did in a second and third period,

you will win zero games. Avs lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-2. Just about the only

redeeming factor about this game for the avalanche was the way their offense played in the first period.

That was actually pretty good. They put up 17 shots on goal, peppered Pittsburgh, and scored twice.

You would feel pretty good about that in a normal game.

They even dominated the possession metrics out shooting Pittsburgh 17 to 7.

But obviously, you've seen the final score. You know those metrics are a little bit deceiving.

Fact is, the Avs defense and goaltending just decided not to show up for this game.

And by the midway point of the game, the Avs offense quit too.

This is probably the worst game of the season for the abs, which in my mind, obviously in the moment, this game was awful, but I also understand that this is as bad it's going to get for this team. They're not going to play like this very often, if ever again, this season, hopefully. Doesn't change the fact that this was a missed opportunity, and you cannot be happy with the performance, but I do find a little bit of solace in knowing that it's not going to look like this again. It starts with Scott Wedgwood giving up three goals on five shots, and the abs also score one in there, so let's rapid fire the first four goals. Routine breakout situation, abs forwards may be a little deep on the forecheck here, but Pittsburgh even going for a change on the backside of this. This should not really be all that dangerous of the play. It's a flip-in. You have Taves defending initially. This puck is going to come to the middle to Malkin. And Burns is in a fine position. In a perfect world, he gets his stick in, and this shot doesn't even go on net. But this is not an unusual play, nor particularly dangerous one. Malkin's going to try a crazy spinning backhand. Scott Wedwood's just

going to cheat. That's all there is to it, and he gets beat because of it. At ease-zone face-off win gives the Abbs possession. Marty Natchez goes zoom in the neutral zone, but just keep in mind, Nathan McKinnon is flat-footed behind his own face-off dot here. He turns on the Jets to get up and in this play. As the initial pull-up from Natchez comes,

McKinnon eventually flies into the middle as Pittsburgh has maybe over-sank into their own zone, that puck trickles through, and McKinnon just shoots it and scores. McCarr is going to shoot this puck in deep and just kind of throw it in there, and Anthemantha is going to cherry pick a little bit. The problem is when McCarr shoots it in, there's no guarantee the abs are going to get possession here. And neither Taves nor McCar recognize Mantha is just full sending. So when Pittsburgh gets possession cleanly of this puck, they just send it up ice and it's a clean breakaway because they just weren't ready for it. Mantha walks in and Wedgwood kind of gets deeped out of his shorts here as that one goes five-hole.

Pittsburgh is going to have a sloppy breakout up the ice off the wall here, not really connected.

It bounces over Manson's stick, but this is fine.

All Manson has to do is win the race or take the body position, and you're just fine here.

The problem is Manson does neither. He loses the race and then recognizes he's losing it too late, tries to take body position, but he's already getting beat. And then you have Nick Blankenberg, who probably is not comfortable in the Aves systems yet, kind of just gets stuck in the middle. He tries half-heartedly to play the puck carrier, meaning he abandoned

the backside of the ice, which to be fair, Bartakov, buddy, use your feet, you gotta actually

skate, maybe you get back in and break up this play. All of that leads to Evgeny Malkin

all alone in the hashes. Oh no, that's another goal. A D-Zone puck battle that the abs actually

win, but then immediately give it back away, allows Pittsburgh to get a shot on net. This is not particularly special. I know it gets tipped on the way in, but you would still like a little bit better rebound control from Blackwood. With that being said, I think this is more the fault of the abs defense failing to get effective positions and being ready for the rebound. When they get beat to the puck, it's in the back of their net. Look, the heavy skating, shooting version of Nathan McKinnon, the abs got in this game while it was still competitive. Good thing. Good, it's still in there. You want to see a lot more of that. Everything else, I never want to see again. First one's just a brutal goal to give up by NHL standards. And while the other two are breakaways and a tough ask for a goalie, eventually you need a save.

With that being said, your defense did nothing. Genuinely nothing to help.

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