Helle in a Handbasket

Remember last year's playoffs? Remember when the Colorado Avalanche had to start the playoffs on the road against a Winnipeg Jets team who owned us in the regular season? And in spite of that, the Avs dismantled the Jets at every turn? Even the Game One loss saw the Avs score six goals. The Avs won in five games and all of them in dominant goal-scoring fashion.

Pepperidge Farm remembers. Avalanche fans remember. You know who else remembered? Connor Hellebuyck. Not good.

Hellebuyck won the Vezina that season, but he had to have been having nightmares about that disastrous series. The Jets were strong last year, but they responded to last year by demolishing everyone. That's the team the Avs were facing--a Jets team with only one loss. The Avs looked to make it two.

Alexandar Georgiev was back in net, after all, he was the one who stood strong in that series last year. And of course, Hellebuyck was on the other side. Unfortunately, Gabriel Vilardi, who took his frustrations out on Cale Makar in Game Five of that series, struck first at 1:06. It was the very first shot of the game, and a turnover led to that puck going in. 1-0 was the score in a quiet first period that saw one power play, and it belonged to Winnipeg. It transcended into the second period and was killed off, and as the game progressed, Georgiev was racking us the saves. He was keeping us in this. Unfortunately, the Jets received another PP, that was killed off, and the 1-0 score remained intact.

The third period saw the Avs surpass Winnipeg in shots, but nothing was getting past Hellebuyck. Finally, Georgiev was pulled, and speaking of "finally," they finally called something on Winnipeg. Seriously, we should have had at least two power plays in this game, but we had a six-on-four opportunity. It was shaky, but in the final seconds, we had a great golden opporunity, but Hellebuyck was not having it. The final faceoff killed most of what little time was left, and there it was, Hellebuyck's payback was complete.

Alexandar Georgiev deserves an apology. He also deserved to win this game, but sadly, that last part just doesn't work that way. The one goal he gave up early was due to a miscue, but after that, he shut the door the rest of the way. Georgiev kept us in this game. The problem: Hellebuyck was on a mission. He had demons to exorcise. Even so, even in a loss, Georgiev proved his worth and proved that he can be relied on in a tight game. It just sucked that we could not get anything past Hellebuyck. 35 shots. All good ones. None of those thirty-five went in.

Even worse, this shutout means that the epic point streaks from Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar have come to an end. They are still leading in points this season, so there's that. Oh well. Time to start new streaks. We have a four game homestand coming up, so that's a good chance for the duo to get red hot once again. The stand starts on Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes, and that's followed by games against the Nashville Predators (Monday), the Los Angeles Kings (Wednesday), and the Washington Capitals (Next Friday). Let's go!

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