Avalanche center Matt Duchene (Canada), left wing Gabriel Landeskog (Sweden) and goalie Semyon Varlamov (Russia) were named today to their respective Olympic teams. I'll have more on this and other Avalanche developments after practice his afternoon.
Well deserved.
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Avalanche coach Patrick Roy was not a happy man Monday night following his team's 4-3 loss to the Calgary Flames, who had scored one goal during a four-game losing streak and gone 1-6-2 in their previous nine games.
It was bad enough that Calgary's Mike Cammalleri broke a 3-3 tie with a power-play goal with 3:30 left in the third period after the Avalanche was penalized for having too many men on the ice.
Also, rookie Nathan MacKinnon, who scored two power-play goals in the first period, was struck on the ankle with a puck late in the game and went for X-rays. Ryan O'Reilly also went for X-rays. The results won't be revealed until Tuesday.
MacKinnon, who has eight goals and two assists in the past 11 games, leads all NHL rookies in scoring with 28 points (14 goals, 14 assists).
But Roy was especially unhappy with goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who allowed four goals on 19 shots and has lost four consecutive starts.
"I thought tonight was a game that should finish 2-1 ... for us," Roy said. "We should not have given up more than one goal tonight."
When told Giguere said he thought the Flames showed more hunger in front of both nets, Roy snapped.
"Jiggy should have played better tonight," Roy said. "I’m not going to look at our team. We may not have had the jump that we should have, but Jiggy should have been better. He hasn’t played well in the past four or five games and he should stand up and say I’m not playing up to what I should. He needs to be better and we need to have him playing better. Period."
Giguere certainly didn't look comfortable during the game, though he was a little unlucky.
Joe Colborne deflected TJ Galiardi's shot over his shoulder to tie the game 2-2 at 15:10 of the second period for his first goal in 18 games. Jiri Hudler put the Flames in front 2:28 later. Defenseman Mark Giordano took a shot from the left point that hit Hudler, who was with Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie in front of the net. The puck dropped to the ice and Hudler poked it across the goal line.
“There is no easy game in this league," Giguere said. "We have to learn this sometimes the hard way. You beat some good teams and then after that, you have a day off and you come up against a team that’s behind you in the standings, sometimes it’s a little harder to get going. It is disappointing that way. We have to find a way to win those games.
"They are a team that prides themselves on working hard and sometimes hard work will beat you because if you are not willing to match their intensity, you know it’s going to cause a surprise. Tonight I think they were maybe, they were a little hungrier in front of the net, both nets. They were hungrier, you know.
"They got some, some would say lucky bounces but they created those bounces by going to the net, by creating traffic and that’s how you score a goal in this game, in this league. I’m not sure we were willing to do that in front of their net.…
The Flames opened the scoring 1:08 into the game on a goal by rookie Sean Monahan, whose shot from the right circle deflected in off Avalanche forward Jamie McGinn.
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The Avalanche tied the game 3-3 at 9:33 of the third period on a goal by Paul Stastny, his third point of the game. Landeskog passed to Stastny, who was alone in front of the Flames net, and he slid a backhanded shot between goalie Karri Ramo's pads.
But Stastny said that he and Duchene "had a little miscommunication" and were responsible for the too-many-men penalty.
"That can't happen with five minutes left," he said. "When penalties like that happen, they tend to get scored on. You have to find ways to win, especially at home. We tie it up and make a mental mistake and they get on the board and they win. We have to find a way to get it to overtime at least and get points."
The Avalanche won its three previous games and went 3-0-1 in the first four games of a seven-game homestand. It was the team's first regulation loss at home since Dec. 10 against Phoenix. The Avalanche went 5-0-2 in the previous seven home games.
Said Landeskog: "We coughed this one up, but we don't have time to hang our hats here. Taking bad penalties is definitely something that's going to invite the other team to get a chance to win the game. That's what it did tonight. Too many men on the ice, it's tough that that's going to be the deciding factor in the game. Something like that shouldn't happen and it can't happen, especially now going into the second half (of the season)."