The long wait is finally over as the Colorado Avalanche dropped the puck on the 2024-2025 season at the home of the Vegas Golden Knights. Both teams are looking to return to Stanley Cup glory after failing in the postseason last spring. After a slow first period, both teams erupted for goals, but Vegas got the better end of the scoring and walked away with an 8-4 victory.

The game

It was a measured start to this game, but the Avalanche controlled most of the game. Mikko Rantanen broke through first for the Avalanche with a great shot high in the slot at 10:28. However, the visitors could not maintain the momentum, which would be a theme for the evening.

Victor Oloffson tied the game just 28 seconds later after a sharp angle shot on the goal line. Before the period ended, Vegas added two more goals, taking advantage of lax defensive zone coverage from the top line. Ivan Barbashev cashed at 18:32 and Mark Stone just 25 seconds later put Vegas ahead 3-1 after 20 minutes of play.

To start the second frame, the Avalanche started to creep back into the game and then Nathan MacKinnon drew a power play on which Rantanen scored his second goal of the night at 4:15. But again, the momentum didn’t last long as Zach Whitecloud took advantage of poor coverage on a line change and scored at 5:49.

The Avalanche would have another highlight of the period when Casey Mittelstadt scored at the net at 5:32. Thirty seconds later, Miles Wood took a bad penalty and the Golden Knights scored again on their power play from Oloffson just before the period expired. With a 5-3 score, Vegas had a commanding lead.

For the third period, the Avalanche tried to generate a spark with Justus Annunen in net. The hope didn’t last long after it looked like Vegas would quickly score their sixth goal, but that was allayed by a high stick penalty just before the puck went in. The Avalanche then continued on the power play, capitalizing seven minutes into the period just after the penalty. ended when Rantanen scored his third goal of the night for a hat trick at 6:59.

Not to break character, the Avalanche once again decided to throw away any momentum when Devon Toews committed a four-minute sticking violation and Vegas scored five seconds into their power play at 8:29 when the puck bounced off Stone’s arm and Vegas came back to a 6-4 lead.

The seventh Vegas goal was certainly the dagger as Barbashev danced around Sam Girard and fired an incredible backhand shot at 13:53. The game was pretty much over at that point, so Jared Bednar pulled Annunen in favor of the extra attacker with just over five minutes to go. Maybe not conceding a goal for four minutes was a small victory, but Brett Howden finally found the back of the net and Vegas finished 8-4 for their first win of the season.

Takeaways

Despite the final score, this match was close at times. The Avalanche got the crucial first goal and an impressive hat trick from Mikko Rantanen, but continually gave away momentum with poor play and stupid decisions. Four times after getting back into the game no more than two minutes later, Colorado undermined their own success. It’s very difficult to win a road race that way.

Mistakes and sloppiness are expected early in the season, but the same kinds of mistakes and weaknesses are still present from last season. The goaltending was generally not good enough, as Georgiev only lasted two periods and conceded five goals on 16 shots. The team defense also wasn’t good enough with multiple miscues from Colorado’s top players. These issues go hand in hand and look very similar to the 2023-2024 Avalanche.

The bright spot was the NHL debut for Calum Ritchie, Ivan Ivan and (regular season debut) Nikolai Kovalenko. All three had their mistakes, but also many encouraging moments as they brought energy and generated attacking pressure. It remains to be seen how much dedication these three players have, but this loss was not due to youth and inexperience in the lineup.

Upcoming

The Avalanche enter their home opener at Ball Arena looking for their first win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7:00 PM MT on Saturday, October 12.