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Donskoi still not ready; Bednar on faceoff "cheating"

January 15, 2020, 7:22 PM ET [0 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Forward Joonas Donskoi took part in practice Wednesday while wearing a non-contact jersey, but he won’t play Thursday against his former San Jose Sharks teammates at the Pepsi Center.

Donskoi, who was injured Jan. 7 on a hit by the New York Rangers’ Ryan Lindgren, is still going through concussion protocol. The next two games are matinees, Saturday against St. Louis and Monday against Detroit.

Donskoi has skated four days in a row. He has 29 points in 44 games and has tied his career high for goals with 14.

“He was OK,” coach Jared Bednar said. “He wasn’t cleared for contact, though, today. He took some light contact yesterday and he was allowed control contact today, but he won’t be an option for us (against the Sharks).”



In the meantime, the Avalanche don’t seem to have any answers for their inability to hold a lead in the third period.

They took a 2-1 lead into the third Tuesday against Dallas (after taking a 2-0 lead in the first), Philipp Grubauer gave up a rebound goal to Jason Dickinson with 5:23 remaining, and they lost 3-2 when Esa Lindell scored 1:54 into overtime, his first goal in 21 games.

Gabriel Landeskog lost a faceoff to Joe Pavelski, which led to the overtime goal. Bednar on Wednesday said the Stars "cheat" on draws.

“They’ve got veteran centermen in Pavelski, (Jamie) Benn, (Tyler) Seguin and they cheat," Bednar said. "They cheat on the faceoffs. They’re doing a better job of cheating on it than we are. We don’t feel like the linesmen we’re doing a good enough job, sort of holding (teams) accountable to make it a level playing field on the faceoffs.”

My NHL.com GAME RECAP

The Avalanche have lost four games in a row (0-2-2), are 3-6-3 in the past 12 games and 1-4-2 in the past seven on home ice.

They either had a lead or were tied in the third in all six of those home losses.

The Avalanche outshot the Stars 43-30 but couldn’t solve Ben Bishop after Landeskog redirected Nathan MacKinnon’s shot with 4:33 left in the first period for the 2-0 lead.

“If we continue to play like we did against Dallas, I like our chances most nights than not,” said Nazem Kadri, who has 15 goals but has gone five games without a point. “Sometimes you’re going to get a little unlucky or you run into a hot goaltender. That’s the National Hockey League, there’s some great players and guys that are able to steal games for teams.

“For us in here it’s about keeping that positive mentality. We know how good we are, we just got to continue to stay with it. For me, it’s about doing the same thing and eventually it’s going to go your way.”

I asked Kadri if it’s getting harder to maintain a positive attitude considering how the Avalanche continue to blow leads and squander important points. They lost all four games to the Stars this season and trail them by two points for second place in the Central Division.

The races are so tight in the Western Conference that they are a mere two points from being out of the playoffs.

“I’d be lying to you if I told you it wasn’t a little bit frustrating for sure,” Kadri said. “Having leads in hockey games and blowing them is never a good thing, but for us we just got to understand there’s a lot of positives in our game.

“A couple breakdowns defensively … it seems like the other team gets one or two chances that go into the back of your net. That goes to show you how slim the margin of error is. We’ll continue to get better.”



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