Poor first period, lack of offense bury Coyotes in loss to Avs

GLENDALE, Ariz. — There was a recurring theme among the Coyotes in their postgame conversations with media following an ugly 5-1 loss to the Avalanche on Friday.

They either had little elaboration to offer or elected not to share their unfiltered thoughts.

“I have my opinions, I’m going to keep them to myself today,” Derek Stepan said. “Just — it wasn’t even close. It wasn’t even close enough to being ready to play an NHL game and we paid the price pretty heavily today.”

Arizona gave up two shorthanded goals on the same power play — both to Avs forward J.T. Compher — to make it 2-0 in the first frame. That was followed up later in the period by a pass from Gabriel Landeskog to Mikko Rantanen that made it 3-0, and those were just the chances that the Avalanche actually converted on.

“If it wasn’t for ‘Raants’ [goaltender Antti Raanta], it would be 6-0 after that first period and that’s not good enough,” captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “We’ve got to play better than that.”

Turnovers, puck mismanagement and indecisiveness by the Coyotes early on put them in a hole. Head coach Rick Tocchet was asked about the poor decision-making that led to some of those Colorado scoring chances.

“Exactly what you said,” Tocchet replied to an inquiring reporter. “There’s nothing to break down. Errant pass, not knowing — being surprised. I can’t analyze it, you guys saw it.”

The early deficit was one that the Coyotes’ struggling offense didn’t lift them out of.

“Right now we can’t chase any game because we’re not really getting a lot of production,” head coach Rick Tocchet said. “So, we’ve got to be really clean on certain things, and obviously there were blatant giveaways.”

The bad game by Arizona was the second time in three games that the Coyotes have been bitten early. On Saturday against Boston, Arizona surrendered two goals in the games’ first 2:45 and wound up losing 2-1. After the game, forward Brad Richardson offered a summation that could’ve applied to Friday’s game: “The first period, I don’t think we were ready to go,” he said.

Poor starts are a dangerous trend, especially for a Coyotes team that is now 2-5-2 in their last nine games since winning five in a row.

“I think what’s upsetting with the coaching staff is we work hard to give them a game plan,” Tocchet said before offering examples of how he’ll advise his players before a game. “And when you’re surprised by it, and a couple guys give the puck away and we get a breakaway, it’s disheartening because it’s like, ‘Are you ready to play? You prepared?’ You’re prepared, game-plan wise, but I think it takes ownership of a player to be ready to play.”

It was a not-so-warm welcome back for Raanta, who had missed the last eight games with a lower-body injury. Raanta went on to make 34 saves as Colorado outshot Arizona 39-38.

Colorado’s Phillipp Grubauer made 37 saves. Arizona forward Dylan Strome had the team’s lone goal, which was on the power play in the third period.

Arizona entered the game ranking 29th in the NHL in goals per game at 2.50, and has scored seven goals in its last five games. It’s a drastic change from the five-game win streak a few weeks ago in which the Coyotes scored 24 goals.

With their five goals on Friday, Colorado has totaled 83 goals this season, which was the second-most in the NHL.

Stepan made note of some good news he could turn to after Arizona’s defeat:

“The Pacific’s wide open,” Stepan said, referring to the Coyotes’ division that had just seven points difference between first-place Calgary and second-to-last place Arizona.” We’ve got to win those hockey games. We’ve got to learn from tonight but we’ve got to get ourselves ready to play some better hockey.”

The Coyotes will host the Calgary Flames on Sunday to finish a five-game homestand.

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