Meh, can't be mad. Even with a terrible start that had them give up three quick goals, they still managed to roar back and tie it all up, culminating with a Matt Nieto shorthanded goal. It should also be mentioned they were taking on the Pens with Crosby, Malkin, and Kessel, AND the officiating crew that hates their guts and still made a game of it.
I had a bad feeling going into the third, they had some pretty awful defensive breakdowns, like once they were crowded around--I think--Kessel, and he merely passed it up to the guy behind him for a clean break. Varly was bailing them out big-time to close that period out at least 2-3 times. The defense as a whole was pretty awful throughout the game, and as much as Cole deserves a lot of flack for two inexcusably bad turnovers that directly turned into goals, I thought EJ was on another level of horribleness, at least defensively. I am now officially concerned that this is not just a fluke and that he'll play out of it. He hasn't been right at all, apart from a couple sparks of brilliance here and there, all season long. Go figure he gets by far the best defensive partner he's ever had in his time in Colorado and his game begins to slide.
I'm not pinning this on Varly either. The 2nd Hornqvist goal was bad, really bad, I don't care if it took a weird bounce or not, he knows he needs to have that one. But before that he was going out of his way to keep the Avs in it after SEVERAL defensive breakdowns. Barrie was understandably rusty, Nemeth was his usual level of bad.
The refs didn't directly lose the Avs the game, but they're now 1-6 when that crew is on the ice. The Nemeth slash was ticky-tack to say the least, and I guess they figured Rantanen decided he wanted to try and score one-handed on the breakaway, it's not like anyone was blatantly and obviously holding him there
.
It was one hell of a run, but like the 10-game win streak some bad habits were starting to creep in, and they might need a bit of a reset.
I will say this was probably Nieto's best game of the season. He helped set up Soda's goal and scored the SHG himself, out of sheer hustle and grit. We haven't seen much of that guy this season but it's nice to see him make an appearance when it mattered most. Not sure what's going on with Kerfoot but dude is slumping bad right now. Don't like him at 4C at all, especially since it bumps Kamenev to wing where he isn't nearly as comfortable.