Total domination.
Not much else to say about the Avalanche, who were crushed 5-0 Thursday night by the Minnesota Wild at the Xcel Energy Center in a rematch of last year's first-round playoff series.
Well, there are 81 games remaining, but it was a brutal way to open a season. The Avalanche will have plenty to clean up before the teams meet again Saturday night at the Pepsi Center in the home opener.
If this had been a fight, the Avalanche would have been knocked out early. The Wild outshot them 21-8 in the second period when they scored four times to chase goalie Semyon Varlamov, who prevented the score from becoming even more lopsided while playing behind a team that looked utterly inept at both ends of the ice.
The Wild outworked the Avalanche and skated circles around them all night.
The Avalanche hardly looked like a team that won 52 games last season and claimed the Central Division title before falling to the Wild in the playoffs. They were shut out once in the regular season last year, losing 2-0 to Boston at home in the 71st game.
The Wild line of Jason Pominville, Mikael Granlund and Zach Parise combined for 16 shots, two goals and five assists. Parise had nine shots, a goal and two assists. Defenseman Ryan Suter had a goal and an assist, while Nino Niederreiter and Jared Spurgeon each scored a goal.
Pominville opened the scoring at 14:54 of the first period, and Spurgeon and Parise scored 2:24 apart early in the second. Niederreiter and Suter put pucks behind Varlamov 3:37 apart late in the period for the 5-0 lead.
The Avalanche's top six forwards combined for four shots.
Ryan O'Reilly had two shots, Matt Duchene and Alex Tanguay one shot each. Jarome Iginla, Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon didn't have any.
The Wild outshot the Avalanche 48-16 for the game and a whopping 78-29 including blocked and missed shots. Minnesota's 48 shots were a franchise record.
Varlamov, who stopped 33 of 38 shots, took a seat on the bench to begin the third period. Reto Berra turned back all 10 shots he faced. Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper faced five shots in the first period, eight in the second and three in the third.
The Avalanche had four power plays and didn't register a shot on goal on any of them.
Tyson Barrie, Jamie McGinn and Max Talbot were all minus-3. Daniel Briere, Nick Holden, MacKinnon and Brad Stuart were all -2.
This was the Avalanche's opening lineup:
FORWARDS Alex Tanguay-Matt Duchene-Jarome Iginla Gabriel Landeskog-Ryan O'Reilly-Nathan MacKinnon Jamie McGinn-Daniel Briere-Max Talbot Cody McLeod-Marc-Andre Cliche-Dennis Everberg
DEFENSEMEN Brad Stuart-Erik Johnson Nick Holden-Tyson Barrie Jan Hejda-Nate Guenin
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Reto Berra