Falling victim to another third period collapse, the Colorado Avalanche fell for the seventh straight time Wednesday night. Though they were playing well, a Gabriel Landeskog penalty (the Avalanche’s first of the contest) led to the Vancouver Canucks scoring the winning goal. Owning his mistake, the captain, was very blunt in his assessment of the play.
“That’s a costly brain fart on my part,” Landeskog told Mile High Sports. “It was hands down probably the dumbest penalty I’ve taken; so, that’s on me.”
A slash to the stick of Canucks forward Alexandre Burrows, a broken twig, and Landeskog found himself in the penalty box, watching helplessly as Sven Baertschi scored just over a minute later.
“We stayed out of the box for the whole game until then,” said Landeskog. “We know they have good players on the powerplay and they’re dangerous on there. So, it [the slash] can’t happen.”
While Avalanche head coach agreed that the call made the difference in the game, he did think that Burrows embellished a bit on the play.
“We should know better by now, penalties in the third period are costing us,” said Bednar. “That one was no different tonight. I didn’t like the call. For me, you see the slash, call the dive.”
After narrowly missing out on the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, the Avalanche nosedived to the bottom of the NHL standings this year. Though they have played more inspired hockey as of late, they know they have to do better.
“This has been unacceptable, so we just have to find a way,” said Landeskog. “As of right now, results aren’t even close to coming for us, but if we keep doing the right things and focus on the process, I think eventually the results are going to come.”
