MacKinnon on recent Avalanche struggles: ‘Winning can mask some stuff’

The Colorado Avalanche have been leading the pack for the Presidents’ Trophy all season, but some recent struggles and a surge by the Dallas Stars have closed the gap.

The Avalanche and Stars both lost on Monday, meaning Colorado will maintain its three-point lead over Dallas entering a pivotal showdown on Wednesday.

But it’s how the Avalanche have been losing that’s most concerning to Nathan MacKinnon. On Monday, it was a 7-2 loss at home to the Pittsburgh Penguins that exposed more flaws in the Avalanche lineup.

“We’re too perimeter, we don’t shoot enough. We haven’t had 30 shots in four games now, which is very, very, very rare for us,” MacKinnon said post-game. “Usually we work off that D1 shot, but obviously our forwards need to help our D more. Even the Seattle game wasn’t great either; sometimes winning can mask some stuff.”

The Avalanche are 6-4-0 in their last 10 games with just a plus-one goal differential. In the Seattle game MacKinnon mentioned, the Avalanche won 5-1 last Thursday despite being outshot 29-26. They followed that up with a 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, in which they heavily tilted the ice in their favour but only scored once, and Monday’s loss to the Penguins, in which Pittsburgh led 4-2 after the first period and never let up from there.

The Avalanche have been playing without three key forwards in Gabriel Langeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and Ross Colton. As a result, MacKinnon says, the lines have been shuffled around a lot, but he’s not using that as an excuse.

“I think chemistry matters, you know, and if a guy’s used to playing centre, filling in, routes, it’s no one’s fault,” MacKinnon said. “A lot of different line combinations lately, for everybody, so it’s hard.

“It sounds like an excuse, but tonight was just bad, too… It was one of those nights that just sucked.”