Good and bad: Parker Kelly scores first season, goaltending fails in loss to Capitals

Big things were expected from the Avalanche’s top six, with two key players returning to the line. Instead, the team scored bottom-six goals — Parker Kelly scored his first of the season and Nikolai Kovalenko got his third — in the 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals.

Justus Annunen was pulled less than three minutes into the second period after giving up a third goal on the Caps’ sixth shot of the game. Trent Miner took over between the pipes and allowed one to Connor McMichael – his second of the match. The final goal was an empty-netter by Rasmus Sandin.

While it was a fairly seamless return for Artturi Lehkonen – who has six points in his first five games – the Avs struggled to put the timing together with the new personnel.

“When I played the first match, I thought it would be much more difficult. I feel pretty good,” said Valeri Nichushkin. “I think our line has good chances today – a bit of bad luck. Hopefully next game.”

Nathan MacKinnon was held scoreless to end his season-opening home points streak at 11.

Good: Avalanche fast start, depth

Colorado struggled with its starts but turned that around with Kelly’s goal just two minutes into the game. The team scored just 16 goals in the first period (12th in the league), but allowed 24 (tied for the most with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the league) through 17 games.

Kelly assisted on Kovalenko’s goal, giving him a two-point night, and Miles Wood earned an assist for his first game since October 28.

“He’s been solid on the defensive end. He’s done a lot of heavy lifting with D-Zone starts, faceoffs and penalty kills. It’s kind of his niche with us.

“That was the line that gave us a good spark early on, and they finish – like in the minutes they played, they played well and they scored two goals. I mean, if you put up two goals on the fourth line, limited ice time should be a good sign,” head coach Jared Bednar said.

Bad: goalkeeping, timing

Annunen allowed two goals on the Caps’ first two shots and didn’t look solid in net. Granted, he hasn’t played a game in 109 days, but it wasn’t a case of nerves. He was off his game. Miner did well to keep control of the ball after allowing a fourth goal, but this loss once again raised concerns about goaltending.

“No excuses, but yes, it was definitely a bad night. We didn’t, in the simplest form it looked like we were second to the puck all night, and our execution wasn’t good,” Bednar said. “We had a hard time stringing together two passes, turnovers. The first goal was a shot from the point of the power play, the second goal – turnover, the third goal – turnover, and after that most were unforced. And those are just the ones that ended up in the back of our net on the attacking side. And we didn’t make much because we couldn’t put together passes.”

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