Avs Lay A Massive Egg In Game 1

Flatline performance puts them in 0-1 hole to Kraken

OK, so it won’t be a sweep. As I wipe off some egg from my face (hey, at least is a Benedict, with good bearnaise sauce), the Avalanche just finished a performance that can favorably be compared to that of Sean Penn in the 1995 film “Dead Man Walking.”

Just a flat, uninspired performance from the hop tonight at Ball Arena. Final was Seattle Kraken 3, Avs 1. Seattle now has home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven series. I still think the Avs will win the series. But am I cocky anymore about the predicted outcome?

No.

What a dreadful performance all around, in all aspects, tonight. It started with a weird, weird pregame issue: Jack Johnson was listed as one of the six starting defensemen for the Avs tonight. But when the game started, he was out and Erik Johnson was in.

The Avs claimed after the game that JJ hurt himself in warmups, lower-body. OK then. I have some conspiracy theories I’d love to indulge on that, but whatever.

When the game started, it was all Kraken. They took a 1-0 lead early on after a dreadful giveaway by Devon Toews, followed by a basketball-sized rebound allowed by Alexandar (outplayed by Philipp Grubauer) Georgiev and follow-up goal.

Mikko Rantanen tied it, but it was mostly all Kraken after that. Yeah, Nathan MacKinnon was unlucky when he hit the post late in the game and, yeah, the Avs sometimes had a couple of decent flurries. But they were outplayed pretty much from the word go tonight and got a well-deserved loss.

It’s just one game. I expect the Avs to win Thursday night to even the series. But for that to happen: