The Colorado Avalanche lost 5-3 to the Boston Bruins and remained winless this season. Here are the Avs Studs & Duds from the game.

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The power game

This unit played 3/3 tonight, moving the puck well and creating great scoring opportunities. It wasn’t like one of those evenings where the device somehow becomes cheap and the numbers are a little misleading. No, it was decided tonight.

Ross Colton and Mikko Rantanen had a nice back and forth for the first goal, then a bomb from Cale Makar and then a one-timer from Rantanen. It was the goods throughout. It’s a shame they couldn’t do anything at 5-on-5, but at least they were great on the power play.

Alexandra Georgiev

I’m putting him here because he only conceded one goal tonight that made me roll my eyes, and he made a ton of saves that kept the Bruins from completely running away from the game as they dominated the game in the second period .

He then scored an absolutely ugly goal that turned out to be the game-winning goal, but that seemed like a big step up from the first three games of the season (particularly the first two).

It feels like some kind of karmic balance that Georgiev played so poorly when the team in front of him was solid, and then the team fell apart because Georgiev found his game a little. Boy, imagine if things could actually be brought into line.

In any case, Georgiev’s play tonight wasn’t atrocious and that’s a significant step forward.

Duds

Calvin de Haan

For de Haan, this is not a complicated task. He has to take advantage of scoring opportunities up front, take penalties, block shots and push a few guys around. The job description is straightforward. The Avs don’t care if he doesn’t pick up the tempo offensively.

Tonight he doesn’t take a stick away on Boston’s first goal and then allows a simple backdoor play that goes right through him for Boston’s third goal. There are other problems with these plays, but de Haan is still thinking a lot and isn’t playing as much at the moment.

I’ve watched him for much of his career and believe he will get better, but tonight it was a tough call.

Oliver Kylington

Similar to de Haan, only much, much worse. I had no problem giving Kylington a pass for his play in his first game, but it hasn’t improved at all tonight. He was a disaster alongside Cale Makar, and when he was moved down alongside Josh Manson, he responded by literally hitting him with the puck.

I’m not sure what’s wrong with him. He’s always been a guy with some variance in his game, but this goes beyond all that. He looks completely lost.

Serenity? Maturity? Capability?

I don’t know what to attribute another collapse in the second period to. Yes, the lineup is broken. We’ve already seen struggling Avs lineups perform respectably. This team rolled over in the second period, letting the Bruins do whatever they wanted until the score was 4-1 and finally out of reach.

Where is the leadership? Where is the coaching staff that can calm them down? The combination of newbies and freshmen has really put this team in trouble with the injury issues. It doesn’t help that the newcomers aren’t doing much (Cal Ritchie wasn’t there and Nikolai Kovalenko couldn’t find the net at the crucial moment) and almost everyone is overwhelmed.

I’m just not sure what the right answer is here, but right now the team isn’t even remotely thinking about 5v5. They don’t create any dangerous chances (zero high-danger chances at 5-on-5 in the third period! Zero!) and tonight they got way too cute and gave up a few good plays to try and make the perfect play.

It’s a team that seems very much in its own head at the moment. Almost nothing goes well for them. They couldn’t get the call at the right time and also lost Miles Wood to injury later in the game. What the hell are you doing when everything is falling apart every night?

Unsung hero

Matt Stienburg

Ultimately, it didn’t matter much, but Stienburg’s tackle on Nikita Zadorov in the second period, right after Boston made it 4-1, changed the tone of the game. The Avs woke up a bit, received a penalty and Cale Makar scored to make it 4-2.

After that goal, Colorado was in control of the second half of the second period and tried to reduce the deficit before the third period. It didn’t happen, but this is some of the best hockey they’ve played in the last two games. It all started with Stienburg making his NHL debut.

That’s who he is as a player. He’s the agitator the Avs don’t really have right now.