Shoulders slumped, Nathan MacKinnon put his head down and exhaled deeply before making the long skate back to his bench as play resumed.
His attempt at a zone entry had just been stymied, as so many had throughout a first period in which his team needed a heroic effort from Alexandar Georgiev to limit the damage to a late Wyatt Johnston goal.
Outshot 16-2 by the Dallas Stars and horrifically outplayed on home ice, MacKinnon’s body language said plenty about where things stood for the Colorado Avalanche then and where they stand now.
Earlier in the day the top-heavy hosts took two massive blows, losing leading scorer Valeri Nichushkin to a six-month suspension, and missing top-pair defenceman Devon Toews to illness.
Plenty to absorb on the heels of a Game 3 loss at home.
Things got worse early in the second when a Johnston power play goal was followed by a Miro Heiskanen strike en route to a 5-1 beating that makes it awfully hard to believe the Avs have anything left to throw at the deepest team in hockey.
At one point the shots were 22-4.
On Monday night Colorado’s best player was its goalie, which still didn’t give the reeling hosts a chance against a team with eight 20-goal scorers and an ability to shut down even the most dangerous of opponents.
As MacKinnon’s latest show of frustration suggested, the Avalanche are running out of players and ideas on how to tackle the juggernaut Jim Nill has built.
Teams down 3-1 in NHL lore have come back just nine per cent of the time.
After what the Stars did to the Avs Monday to put them on the brink, it would seem the odds of a comeback now seem even longer than that.
The Avs learned of Nichushkin’s sudden absence after morning skate when the 29-year-old Russian was placed in Stage 3 of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.
He can’t apply for reinstatement until November.
It’s a massive blow as he was leading all Avalanche players with nine playoff goals, which included tying an NHL record with goals in each of his first seven outings this spring.
The news, which was officially released one hour before puck drop, was followed by confirmation Toews would also miss the game.
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“We’re not using that as an excuse,” said Jared Bednar, whose postgame body language mirrored that of his beleaguered bunch.
“Today we lose a good player in Val, we add a good player in (Jonathan) Drouin, and he played well tonight.
“We looked frozen in the first period. We were not moving, we were not skating. We looked like we were exhausted and we should be the rested team right? Everything felt like it was a struggle tonight.”
Toews was replaced by Caleb Jones, putting even more pressure on Cale Makar to help MacKinnon breathe new life into a team previously known for its comebacks.
Instead, Makar was the one who coughed up the puck behind his own net on a late first period power play that wound up with Johnston’s shorthanded rebound beating Georgiev.
Johnston added a power play goal early in the second to become just the second player under age 21 in NHL lore to score on both special teams in the same playoff game.
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The only other player ever to do that was Wayne Gretzky.
Johnston, who became legal drinking age in the U.S. while flying back to Dallas a few hours after the game, is now tied for fifth for the most playoff goals scored in NHL history before age 21.
Seven of his 11 playoff goals have come this spring, putting him behind Jaromir Jagr (14), Jordan Staal (13), Jeremy Roenick and Brent Sutter (12 apiece).
Johnston was responsible for eight of the Stars’ 34 shots on goal and also added an assist on Sam Steel’s empty netter, as the league’s No. 1 road team all season demonstrated its ability to shut the door on any comeback attempt with its second-straight third period dominance in Denver.
The only bad news for the Stars came early in the second period when their top centre, Roope Hintz, left the game early following a stick check by Nathan MacKinnon that seemed to injure his right wrist.
Chris Tanev took a big hit from Ross Colton with four minutes remaining and remained on the bench for the balance of play. His status for Game 5 Wednesday in Dallas is unknown.
