Of course Patrick Roy isn’t giving an inch.
And seriously, would you expect him to?
In the pitched battle between the way Roy’s Colorado teams play and the way in which statistical analysts believe they should play, Tuesday was not a good night for Roy. The Avalanche didn’t get the high shooting percentage and excellent goaltending their low-possession style demands en route to an embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Except Roy, coach-of-the-year two seasons ago, didn’t quite see it that way.
“Tonight was one of our good [possession] games. I checked the Corsi after the game,” he told reporters. “You know, it’s kind of funny, but everybody’s talking to me about puck possession, but every time I look at Corsi, when we dominate the other team, we’re losing our games, and on nights when we don’t have as good Corsi, we’re winning our games.”
In truth, the Avs did basically fight the improved Leafs to a draw five-on-five. But when Colorado was shorthanded — or even on the powerplay — well, this one was no contest at all.
The Leafs scored four power play goals and added a shorthanded goal from Leo Komarov, using the one-sided win to jump past the Avs in the overall standings.
“At the end of the day, puck possession is one thing, but goaltenders are capable of making a difference, and special units also,” said Roy. “If your power-play’s clicking, if your penalty killing is playing well, you can win.”
Colorado is last in the Central Division, probably the toughest division in hockey, and could be digging a hole from which they won’t emerge next spring with a playoff spot for the second season in a row.
The Avs simply couldn’t handle the hot Leafs power-play (two goals in the first 10 games, 10 goals in the last nine), particularly the threesome of Tyler Bozak, ex-Avalanche winger P.A. Parenteau and a rejuvenated Peter Holland.
Roy pointed a finger towards assistant coach Dave Farrish.
“Dave has the shorthanded [unit],” he said when asked what needed to change strategically. “We’re gonna sit down on the plane and figure out what went wrong, see what adjustments we can make. I guess we had an off-night. Let’s not panic over that game.”
Interestingly, Farrish was part of Randy Carlyle’s staff in Toronto when the Leafs were a team constantly criticized for playing a poor possession style. The Avs brought him in over the summer after moving out Andre Tourigny and Mario Duhamel, but from a possession-point-of-view, Colorado seems to have regressed.
Some nights, it’s not a problem. On Saturday in Montreal, for example, they thumped the Habs 6-1 with 25 per cent shooting and with Swiss goalie Reto Berra stopping 39 of 40 shots. Against the Leafs, however, Berra stopped only 22 of 26 shots before being pulled, while a surging James Reimer blocked 34 of 35 Colorado drives in the Toronto net. MacKinnon and Barrie each had five shots but couldn’t score.
With those lousy special team performances, the Avs would have needed to shoot the lights out or get mind-blowing netminding.
They got neither, and the absence of captain Gabriel Landeskog due to a two-game suspension for an illegal check on Boston’s Brad Marchand didn’t help.
“But that’s no excuse,” said veteran winger Jarome Iginla. “They were better than us.”
The result vaulted the 6-9-4 Leafs past the 7-10-1 Avalanche — surprising, when you consider how badly Toronto started the season with one win in its first 10 games.
There’s no question the Avs have a more talented core than the Leafs with Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, Landeskog and Tyson Barrie. But being a budget team that operates about $7 million under the cap, Colorado has to save somewhere, and that seems to show up on the third and fourth lines, as well as on the blueline.
Add in a style of play that’s at odds with the way most of the more successful teams are playing, or even a lower-ranked team like Toronto that has made a gigantic swing in the possession game under Mike Babcock, and the Avs just haven’t been getting close to the results they got under Roy in his rookie season.
Which puts executive vice-president of hockey operations Joe Sakic in a delicate spot.
He brought in Roy to bring back the glory in Denver, and the initial results were tremendous. But now, it seems the Avs are swimming against the prevailing current, and Roy either doesn’t want to alter the way the club plays, or can’t with the personnel he has.
Seeing veteran centres like Paul Stastny and Ryan O’Reilly move on hasn’t changed the Colorado narrative for the positive, and neither has shuffling the coaching staff. The rumour mill has been churning out Duchene trade rumours, but while moving out the 24-year-old pivot might improve the salary cap situation with MacKinnon and Barrie headed for big raises, it’s unlikely to be a major short-term fix as long as the Avs prefer this type of hockey.
So we’ll see what Sakic chooses to do. Colorado had a good road trip going before stumbling at the Air Canada Centre, and maybe this was a blip. But they’ve been lousy at home, which isn’t going to improve their attendance, with the club having fallen into the bottom third of NHL clubs in recent seasons.
The Avs are clearly going to be a fascinating club to watch as the season progresses. At this point, it appears they — like the Leafs under Carlyle — are going to stubbornly pursue a style of play that doesn’t seem to be delivering the results required to survive in a tough division.
Something’s going to have to give eventually. But what?