The Avs played well in the loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday but it was a culmination of mistakes including penalties that cost them the two points, according to head coach Jared Bednar.
The Avs played well in the loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday but it was a culmination of mistakes including penalties that cost them the two points, according to head coach Jared Bednar.
There were several good things the Colorado Avalanche took from the 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 24 but there were also some "learn from these mistakes" moments.
Mikko Rantanen scored his first goal in six games and only had six points in the month coming into that matchup. He was held scoreless in three games up to that point in February and in a self-admitted slump.
After getting on the scoresheet, he was called for a delay of game penalty at 15:56 into the third with the score tied 3-3. Tyler Bertuzzi scored his third of the night on that power play at 17:09. Rantanen was visibly distraught when reporters spoke with him after the loss.
"We had 2-0 lead to start and even tie game and then you know. Yeah I think we had it, you know we had it in our hands — a couple of mistakes including the penalty," the 27-year-old Finland native said. "It's just got to be, you know, just make harder plays, and try to, there's no rush in that play, so try to execute."
Head coach Jared Bednar said the game was frustrating because the team played hard and broke down what contributed to the loss.
"I felt like we did it to ourselves at the end of the game. I thought the refs were letting us play. We get like two penalties I didn't really like — like Colt's (Ross Colton). He's backtrack and working his butt off and then he goes into the body with a hit when he doesn't touch the puck — the puck's right there. Bad decision," Bednar said in the postgame conference. "I think they scored on that one, then Mikko (Rantanen) time at the end of the game — you know like it's throw it in the stands and their power play last 10 games is 54%. We talked about it, but you can't give them too many opportunities and ends up being the difference in the hockey game really, because I thought we played really well."
When asked about Rantanen's outstanding play against the Dallas Stars following the loss to the Leafs, Bowen Byram was adamant to clarify that no one was blaming his teammate for that game.
"Yeah, first of all, I don't think — you know we win and lose as a team. We're not blaming a delay of game penalty on somebody. Stuff happens on the ice, you know. It's not a big deal. Mikko's a guy that goes out there and works extremely hard every night and he's a huge part of our team, a leader on our team and part of the engine that drives us," Byram told The Hockey News' Colleen Flynn after practice on Wednesday. "So in no way shape or form do I think anybody was blaming a penalty on the game. We made big mistakes throughout the game that caused us the loss."
It is apparent being around the team that they are a tight group and consider themselves family. So it was not a surprise Byram made sure he cleared up the correlation of Rantanen's penalty with the loss. That kind of bond between teammates is imperative for the Avs to go deep into the playoffs and have a chance at winning another Stanley Cup. No question the 2022 team had that same strong connection when they won it — and not much has changed among the players that were part of it.
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