All season long, the Colorado Avalanche have struggled to put together a full 60-minute effort from night to night. Sunday was no different, as they fell to the St. Louis Blues at the Pepsi Center, 3-0.
During the first period, the Blues commanded the offense and gained a two-goal lead early, putting Avs goalie Jeremy Smith in a tough spot.
“I think they made a good play on the power play, and then we had an unfortunate bounce between the net,” Smith said of the first period misfortunes. “I got to be ready for those, and as a team we do too. We have to be ready off the get-go.”
But that’s nothing different from what the Blues (32-27-5) have been doing all year.
“They got a lot they can throw at you offensively,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought we did a good job there. I think we lose a little bit of our spark. The early penalty for us all season long. and again tonight, has come to get us.”
The Avs had plenty of chances to score throughout the night, offering up 25 shots on goal to the Blues’ 27.
Despite the loss, forward J.T. Compher said he enjoyed playing in front of his home crowd for the first time in an Avalanche uniform. After being recalled from San Antonio last week, the 21-year-old made his NHL debut on Thursday in Ottawa.
“It was nice,” Compher said. “I played the first game but obviously, it wasn’t the result we wanted,” Compher said. “I think we as a team and me individually could have done some stuff better. We don’t like the result.”
While Compher didn’t contribute much of a stat line on Sunday, Bednar said that overall, he’s been content with the effort of the young forward.
“I really liked his first two games,” Bednar said. “I think he’s a guy that can think the game, he’s at a good speed and pace, can execute. Tonight, that line was a little quiet for me. He didn’t get as much accomplished as far as o-zone play and o-zone chances.”
Completely out of playoff contention, the Avalanche are left playing only for pride. Still, Bednar expects to see effort, and hopefully consistency from his team during their final 18 games. The Avalanche (17-44-3) return home on Tuesday, March 7 to take on the Carolina Hurricanes at 7 p.m MT.
“My big thing is we need the consistency in our game. It’s really tough getting motivated as a group to compete at the level we need to every night. We’ve been a little hot and cold with that around the trade deadline,” Bednar said. “To me, we have to be rock-solid defensively and we got to find a way to stay out of the box. To me, we got to try to put that whole package together for the rest of the way.”
