They're kind of incapable of scoring ugly goals at the moment. It's more than just being willing to get in those dirty areas on the ice and take more than a few cross checks to the back in order to do so. You have to be able to have that puck awareness AND be able to maneuver around in tight spaces to not only grab that puck, but put it on net past the goalie. Hawks were going out of their way to stack bodies in the slot area, the many rebounds Mrazek was coughing up never got touched by an Avs player as a result.
Avs in the past have made a point of getting guys who make their living in front of the net. Donskoi was such an acquisition. I'd argue Kadri was another guy. Obviously Nuke and Landy are hands DOWN their best net-front players. But apart from Lehkonen (and he has his limits in that department), there's no one who can really do that. So they kinda have to make the perfect snipe or it's not going in.
BTW I'm not making excuses for them--they SHOULD be taking more shots. But I can see why they're reluctant to. This is IMO a failure of management. Should've gone out of their way employing more guys who at the very least crash and bang in the slot area. Maybe Wood was an attempt to do that but it's failed miserably.
They need more volume shooters. If he weren't old AF, I'd love for them to get Taylor Hall. On a line with MacKinnon and Rantanen he'd absolutely dominate.