For the first time in the 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche find themselves behind the 8-ball.
The Avs are behind early in their Western Conference Finals series against the Vegas Golden Knights, who won Game 1 on Wednesday, 4-2, at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo.
It was a tough loss to swallow for Colorado because the team dominated the possession battle, only to struggle to find the back of the net.
The Avalanche went scoreless in the first two periods. They cut Vegas’ lead to one goal, 3–2, on back-to-back goals from Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog in the third frame before Golden Knights forward Nic Dowd put the game out of reach with an empty-net insurance goal with under a minute to go in regulation.
It all boiled down to one word for MacKinnon: execution.
“We just weren’t sharp. Execution was poor from everybody,” MacKinnon told reporters after the game, via Ryan Boulding of NHL.com.
“We had chances. They didn’t do a whole lot either. It was kind of a nothing game, and then they got a few goals. Really good team, obviously, but I thought we did a lot of damage to ourselves. Yeah, just guys kind of everywhere. Execution, like I said, needs to be better. Obviously, we’re capable of being better than that.”
Colorado outshot (shots on goal) the Golden Knights in the game, 38-28. The Avalanche had plenty of great scoring chances, but failed to capitalize. They had 16 high-danger even-strength shots to just 7 by Vegas.
Additionally, the Avs had 80 total shot attempts (shots on goal, missed shots and blocked shots) while the Golden Knights only generated 52.
MacKinnon was right to feel disappointed, but he and the Avalanche can still rectify things beginning in Game 2 on Friday at Ball Arena.
