That was better, but not quite good enough for the Avalanche.
Colorado continued its trend of sloppy first periods, this time battling back to earn a point against the Nashville Predators before falling 3-2 in overtime. Most of Colorado’s first-period issues were self-inflicted, leading to two Predators goals and nine high-danger scoring chances against Mackenzie Blackwood.
From that point on the Avalanche cleaned things up, giving up just one high-danger chance the rest of the night. It was a loss, but there were at least some positives to take out of this one.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we played harder and more committed on the defending side. We were a little sloppy with the puck in the first period … I thought we settled in a little bit,” Jared Bednar said. “There’s definitely some things that we can improve on, but I like the fact that we played hard and competed hard on both sides of the puck.”
Devon Toews looked like he might be the hero in overtime when he was left all alone in the slot, but his shot went directly off the post behind Justus Annunen and he couldn’t get the rebound on net. At the other end, Toews ended up taking the penalty that allowed Steven Stamkos...