It hasn't been a smooth start to the season for the Colorado Avalanche. Covid, suspensions, and an overall lack of results had the club limping into Saturday night's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Avs entered the game 1-3-0 and on a three-game skid. The goal differential was a very un Colorado-like minus-5 and all was not right in the Rocky Mountains. But. nobody said this season was going to be easy.

In fact, we should brace ourselves for more turbulence because championship teams are not built in a day and if lifting the Stanley Cup was easy... well. that would be no fun.

The Avs beat the two-time defending Cup champions 4-3 in the shootout to improve to 2-3-0 and perhaps give Colorado a little shot in the arm going forward.

The Lightning too had to face adversity before reaching the top of the mountain and this game almost feels like a statement game for the Avs. (If you can call game 5 of an 82-game season a "statement game")

To be fair, it hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows for Tampa. They too are slow out of the gate. The difference here is they have the last two Cups to fall back on. While all the Avs have to fall back on is more pressure.

Reminder: it's been 20 years since the Avs last tasted champagne from the bowl of Lord Stanley.

Cale Makar scored in the sixth round of the shootout to give Colorado the win. Makar beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a wrist shot after Darcy Kuemper stopped Anthony Cirelli to begin the sixth round. It felt like a giant monkey had been lifted off of Makar and the team as a whole.

The Norris favorite is also off to a slow start by his standards. Makar had a pair of assists in the game, but he has a total of three assists and is a minus-8 through the team's first five games. That's not good. Perhaps scoring the clincher finally gets him going.

The production from the Avs top line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, and Miko Rantanen was a sight for sore eyes. All three scored, combined for six points, and Kuemper made 29 saves for the win.

Colorado never trailed in the game and despite Tampa's resilience, it was Colorado that came away with the two points.

The Avs were 1/6 on the power play and are just 10% on the season. Again, it's still early but five games soon become 10 games which soon becomes 20 games. It's never too early to fix these issues.

Another thing to keep an eye on going forward is the health of Sam Girard. He left the game in overtime after taking a hit into the boards by Tampa captain Steven Stamkos. They have been no update on his health yet.

Colorado has a few days off before taking on another struggling Cup favorite in the banged-up Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading,
Steve

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