ST. LOUIS — For the second straight year, the Colorado Avalanche were hot going into the midseason break only to stumble its way through a road trip coming out of it.
At least this time it’s only a two-game trek.
The St. Louis Blues took control of this one with a dominant second period en route to a 3-1 victory Sunday night at Enterprise Center. That’s back-to-back losses to division opponents who won’t make the playoffs for the Avs, making the path to climbing in the Central standings more difficult.
“I liked our first 15 minutes probably and then it just disappeared,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It just disappeared.”
Colorado had won four of five before the 4 Nations Face-Off break, and the vibes since a franchise-altering trade that sent Mikko Rantanen to Carolina for Martin Necas and Jack Drury were high two weeks ago. Now, there’s going to be some urgency during the upcoming six-game homestand — particularly with trade deadline looming in the middle of it on March 7.
A year ago, the Avs rolled into the All-Star break with wins in four of five and 11 of 14 games. They began the post-break stretch with a six-pack of road games and went 1-5, dropping from first place in the division to third.
A division title chase is probably out of the question at this point for Colorado, but trying to get out of the first wild-card spot and into second or third-place in the Central is still possible — assuming this slide is arrested quickly.
“I think it is something we have to understand — we are not this high-flying, high-powered offense anymore,” Bednar said. “We have to do other things better than we have in the past. But we still need to score enough goals to win. One goal, or two goals in two games, isn’t going to win a lot.”
All three of St. Louis’ second-period goals were symbols of what the Blues were doing well and the Avs were not. Each of them were scored within a couple of stick lengths of the crease. Each of them involved throwing the puck in the direction of the net and finding a way to make something good happen.
Brayden Schenn scored after a shot from distance hit Samuel Girard and fell at his feet. Colton Parayko scored at the left post when Mackenzie Blackwood tried to blocker a shot from distance out of danger but it hit the large Blues defenseman and fell at his feet instead.
Dylan Holloway added the third with just 10 seconds remaining in the period, but when he went to the top of the crease and re-directed a centering pass to make it 3-1 it felt more like a scoreline that reflected the run of play to that point.
“Our competitive effort is just not quite there,” Avs defenseman Cale Makar said. “They were better in every aspect, for the most part.
“All of it is in ourselves, just not moving our feet, not supporting each other on the ice. When you don’t get to the net, it’s hard to generate chances.”
Devon Toews gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead with the lone goal of the opening period. Makar shot the puck from the right point, and Toews got his stick on it in the slot for the first tip-in goal of his NHL career, according to the league’s website.
Toews tipped the puck past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, who was in net for Canada with Toews, Makar and Nathan MacKinnon at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.
The assist was Makar’s 400th career NHL point. By reaching the milestone in his 374th game, Makar is the third-fastest defenseman to 400 points in NHL history, behind Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey while doing it six games faster than Brian Leetch.
But that was all for the Avs offense, which struggled to find anything dangerous in front of Binnington until the final couple of minutes with Blackwood on the bench in a 6-on-5 situation.
Bednar and the Avs liked parts of their game in a 2-1 loss Saturday to Nashville. The sentiment was not the same in St. Louis.
“It was not good,” MacKinnon said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.
“Oh yeah (this was worse). This was terrible.”
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