Every part of Colorado's game was off as it suffered another blowout loss this season.
Mikko Rantanen and Jack Johnson scored the only goals for the Colorado Avalanche in the 8-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Alexandar Georgiev was pulled not even half way through the third period and replaced by Ivan Prosvetov after Brayden Schenn scored his third of the night for the Blues.
The Avs lacked effort in the division rival game and the work ethic disappeared. The Blues outplayed them in every aspect and it showed as Schenn wasn't the only player to net a hat trick — Pavel Buchnevich also scored three goals. Torey Krug and Alexey Toropchenko scored the other two goals for St. Louis.
"Tonight was embarrassing ... it starts tomorrow at practice. We just got to get back to the little things that give us success and slowly build from there, cause obviously we're not in a good place by any means.
"We always preach accountability but when you lose like that and the mistakes we're making — we're making it so easy on other teams, it feels like," Logan O'Connor said after the loss. "We have to earn everything we're getting out there and we're giving them odd-man rushes, backdoor tap ins, whatever it may be and that comes down to the accountability in the locker room. It's on us."
Colorado has lost three of its last four games heading into Seattle on Monday. The team clearly lost its momentum and disconnection among the team is apparent.
"The work is late. We're not working in the early moments and able to support other guys — whether it's in the D-zone or O-zone," Cale Makar said. "We're not all pistons working together right now. We're all kind of one man kind of separate. There's no flow to it and it shows. Really not much generating, not much consistency."
Inconsistency has been an issue so far this season with a six-game undefeated start to shutout losses and then multi-goal wins to the debacle Saturday night against St. Louis.
Head coach Jared Bednar broke down his assessment of the game in an unusual angry tone for him — calling the third period the worst period of hockey he's ever seen his club play.
"The third period's unacceptable, unexplainable. That's why it's a blowout. Stop playing — looked like we couldn't make a pass 10 feet in the third period. Giving up odd-man rushes every five seconds. Every rush attack they had ended up in a scoring chance against. Not good enough. Just guys quitting and not doing what they're supposed to be doing. Feeling sorry for themselves."
As it's only 13 games into the season, the Avalanche have to figure out how to fix their mistakes and find that chemistry. Bednar said that starts with work and getting their execution in tact.