Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon didn’t feel like joking after his team lost to the St. Louis Blues in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Thursday, in Denver.
The local roster bore little resemblance to the club that finished the regular season atop the Western Conference. She didn’t seem to have a solution to the riddle presented to her, so the visitors won 4-1, thanks in part to David Perron’s brace and Jordan Binnington’s 30 saves.
Certainly, MacKinnon expects improvements on Saturday, when the third meeting of the series, which is tied 1-1, is held in Missouri.
“We were really bad,” he told The Athletic. In years past, we might have brooded over this by abandoning each other. But we must help everyone to get up and move forward. […] Everyone was amorphous this time, really. We still had a chance to tie the game [in the third period], though.”
For his part, head coach Jared Bednar did not seem very impressed either.
“First and foremost, we were outplayed in terms of work and skating. Thus, everything became more difficult, he lamented. It’s one game only. We knew it would be a long and arduous series. They are a great team and they responded quickly after a bad night in the first game. Now the ball is in our court. We have to do the exact same thing.”
Lehkonen always responds
In addition, supporters of the Montreal Canadiens will possibly be happy to know that former Habs forward Artturi Lehkonen continues to help the “Avs” in his own way. The Finn has a differential of 2 and claims two goals in six playoff outings.
In the first two meetings against the Blues, he played over 18 minutes. Proof of the confidence that Bednar has in him, he finds himself in the second trio completed by Nazem Kadri and Gabriel Landeskog.
It remains to be seen whether the veteran, who participated in the Stanley Cup final with the Canadiens in 2021, will be able to do the same this year. Colorado has not played in the final round since winning the championship in the spring of 2001 against the New Jersey Devils.
1
