Tonight was not the Avalanche’s night. That much was clear. The Lightning came out as wounded animals, as everyone expected, and they definitely took the game to the Avalanche early on. However, the Avalanche still could have won this game.
A controversial disallowed offside goal from Valeri Nichushkin actually preceded the Avalanche’s first goal, which was the first goal of the game. What was different in this game from Game 2 was that the Lightning were taking the game to Colorado, unlike in Games 1 and 2.
In Games 1 and 2, the Lightning couldn’t be asked to play, allowing terrible, squeaky goals left and right as Colorado took the game to them.
When the tables were turned, the Avalanche were mostly able to hold them off. If Bowen Byram was able to keep that puck a half inch forward on the blue line, then Colorado would have been up 2-0 over the Lightning halfway through the 1st.
How would the game have changed if it was a two-goal lead instead of one? We’ll never know.
What we do know is that the Avalanche were still deadly on the powerplay, scoring two goals that kept the game close until the Lightning’s goal onslaught ensued. That should reassure Avs fans that they will still get plenty of scoring opportunities on the Lightning as Tampa Bay has been instant on giving up cheap penalty after cheap penalty.
A major concern for the Avs should be Darcy Kuemper and how subpar he has played all playoffs long. In three games of this finals series, he has only had a SV% of greater than .900 once. That was their shutout obliteration in Game 2. Plus, he has missed a good portion of these playoffs with injuries.
With injuries in both the Nashville and Edmonton series, his consistent availability should be questioned.
Also, just to point out, those two series where he missed significant game time, the Avalanche swept them both. And, in the St. Louis series where he played the majority of the time, the Avalanche just narrowly avoided a St. Louis series comeback by winning in the last seconds of Game 6.
It seems the Avalanche have played better when Pavel Francouz has been in net, though perhaps I’m reading too much into this.
Anyway, Avs fans should be disappointed that they lost Game 3 in the manner they did. However, with this Tampa team starting to pick up injuries, and their own players freshly humiliated after losing 6-2, I wouldn’t put it past the Avs to go out and win Game 4 convincingly.
Though, I also wouldn’t put it past them to get blowout like Tampa did in Game 4. That would be very fitting considering how this series has played out so far.
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