The Western Conference playoff race was, bluntly, a disgrace for the Avalanche, Minnesota Wild and Arizona Coyotes on Monday.
The three teams on the wild-card bubble each failed to enhance their position on Black Monday. The Avalanche and Wild each lost, 3-0, at home and the Coyotes fell, 7-1, at Chicago. That’s a combined losing score of 13-1 for three teams who are in better positions than they deserve.
Colorado is stuck on 72 points, Arizona is at 73 and Minnesota 74, and suddenly, the Blackhawks and Edmonton Oilers, both with 69 points, have joined the race to become the worst No. 8 playoff seed in conference memory.
The Avs and Wild have 12 remaining games, while the Coyotes, Blackhawks and Oilers have 13. But none of those teams are on pace for 90 points. If Colorado goes a respectable 8-4 the rest of the way, it will finish with 88 points and have a good shot at the No. 8 playoff seed.
A year ago, the Avalanche was the No. 8 seed with 95 points, finishing 43-30-9. The Avs are now 30-28-12, with no chance to improve on last season’s 95 without ending 12-0.
“It’s frustrating,” forward Colin Wilson said after Monday’s shutout loss. “There’s things that we could have done better to score, myself especially. We played a good game, just couldn’t put the puck in the net.”
Hurricanes goalie Petr Mrazek (38 saves) was sensational for the visitors Monday. But good teams find a way to score, and the Avalanche couldn’t get one goal in its fifth shutout loss of the season.
“I think we should have won the game with the chances we had,” Avs winger Mikko Rantanen said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of good goalies in the league and have to give credit to him, he had a great game.”
He added: “We should have (caught Minnesota) and separated ourselves from Arizona. We didn’t do it. But now, we just have to rest three days and go back at it on Friday against Anaheim.”
The Avs will take Tuesday off before resuming practice Wednesday. They host the Ducks on Friday in Game 3 of their four-game homestand that concludes Sunday against the New Jersey Devils.
Shots galore. Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon had a team-high seven shots Monday to reach 304 for the season, becoming just the third player in club history to produce 300. Joe Sakic had 339 in 1995-96 and 332 in 2000-01, and Claude Lemieux had 315 in 1995-96.
