The Colorado Avalanche are not exactly off to a hot start to their Stanley Cup title defense in the 2022-23 NHL season, as they are just 3-2-1 through six games. They could have been brandishing a much better record if it weren't for their bumbling penalty kill.
A few Avalanche players have expressed their frustration about this particular issue, including Andrew Cogliano, who was part of the Colorado team that brought the Cup back to Colorado last season.
Via Bennett Durando of The Denver Post:
“For me, it’s upsetting, to be honest, just the ranking of it,” Cogliano said before the team departed for Vegas and a six-game road trip. “Some guys don’t look at that. I do. I take a lot of pride in that. … I look at the penalty kill ranking and it (ticks) me off.”
The Avalanche won their last game 3-2 against the Vegas Golden Knights in Sin City last Saturday in which they allowed a power-play goal to Jonathan Marchessault. So far this season, the Avalanche have allowed opponents to score a total of nine power-play goals on 23 opportunities. That is tied with the Seattle Kraken, Anaheim Ducks, and the Vancouver Canucks for the most in the league, thus far. Moreover, only the Canucks have a worse penalty kill success rate (57.14%) than the Avalanche, who are only denying opponents to score on the power play just 60.87 percent of the time.
The Avalanche hope it could get its act together on the penalty kill before it hurts the team more. In the final two rounds of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Avs allowed the Edmonton Oilers and the Tampa Bay Lightning to score just four power-play goals on 30 opportunities.
Follow Us
Subscribe