"I mean, there's always next year. That's all we talk about, I feel like," Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon said. "I mean, I'm going in my ninth year and I haven't won anything]. Definitely motivated, and it just [stinks]*
The Avalanche won their first six straight games this postseason, a four-game sweep of the St. Louis Blues in the first round and the first two games against the Golden Knights.
When the Avalanche made a mistake, the Golden Knights capitalized. Goalie Philipp Grubauer also struggled in the second round with a 3.18 goals-against average and .901 save percentage. He had a 1.75 GAA and .936 save percentage against the Blues.
"Game 2 (a 3-2 overtime win) we got away with a win where I think they were the better team," Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "Game 3 especially, we didn't play good at all (a 3-2 loss). Game 4 (a 5-1 loss), we really competed hard, but we made mistakes that they scored on. Game 5 (a 3-2 overtime loss) obviously we're in control. Game 5 was a strong effort from us, then we make three turnovers and they score on all three of them.
"Tonight, I thought we fought real hard and battled and worked our [butts] off and kept coming back. But a couple of bounces go the wrong way and couple of shifts where we're not really engaged or not really focused they capitalized on. I'm real proud of the group in there, I'm proud of the season we had. Obviously, you're never really going to be satisfied, never going to be happy until you win that final game of the season. So, it stinks."
Colorado had five winning streaks of at least five games, including a season-high seven-game streak from March 10-22, which began a stretch when they were 18-1-2. The Avalanche lost consecutive games in regulation three times.
They led the NHL in goals per game (3.52) and were third in goals against per game (2.36).
