Patrick Roy thought the Colorado Avalanche played well at five-on-five during last night’s 4-1 loss at Florida.
The Avs’ head coach -- the same one who said his team did “a lot of good things” after losing the other night to winless Columbus -- once again said his team “did a lot of good things” versus the Panthers.
Roy maintained that the difference in last night’s game was special teams. Florida capitalized on its man advantages. Colorado didn’t.
This time, however, one of his players shared a contrasting opinion.
“I don’t really agree,” forward Carl Soderberg told the Denver Post. “I think it’s the same thing every game.”
So, who was right?
According to the following Corsi chart, the Avs did not fare that well at five-on-five:
The Avs did outshoot the Panthers, 21-19, at five-on-five, so that’s something. But late in the second period, the Panthers had taken almost two even-strength shot attempts for every one Avs attempt. That suggests a considerable possession deficit for the Avs in the first part of the game, with score effects taking over later in the game while the Panthers were protecting a multi-goal lead.
It’s hard to win games when you lose the even-strength possession battle -- especially, as Roy rightly noted, when your power play goes 0-for-5 and your penalty killing goes 0-for-3.
The Avs are 2-5-1 after eight games. They play in Tampa tomorrow.