Avs winless on their 5-game homestand
The home-building malaise seems to have been contagious.
From Nov. 23 on, the Avalanche and Denver Nuggets have combined to lose eight consecutive games at the Pepsi Center, with the asterisk and small print that one defeat — the Avalanche’s to Vancouver on Nov. 26 — came in a shootout, meaning it salvaged a point in the NHL standings.
The Avalanche, in fact, pulled off the difficult feat of going winless (0-4-1) in a five-game homestand, finishing it off with a 3-0 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday — on “Star Wars Night.” There was other bad news for the Avalanche, when defenseman Erik Johnson didn’t come back out to the bench for the third period, and after the game Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Johnson had suffered a broken fibula and would be out six to eight weeks. Colorado already has been without captain and winger Gabe Landeskog, who missed his eighth consecutive game with a lower body injury, but briefly skated Saturday morning.
Coming to Denver to end a four-game road trip was a temporary antidote for the Stars’ ills after they had gone winless (0-2-1) on the previous three stops. Dallas got goals from Curtis McKenzie, Tyler Seguin and Patrick Eaves (empty net), and previously struggling Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen — who came in with a 3.28 goals-against average and an .885 save percentage — had 23 saves.
The Avs were shut out for the fifth time in 23 games. The team record for a full season is 12 shutouts, set in 2008-09 — when Colorado finished with 69 points, the third-lowest total in the NHL.
“We’re not playing good hockey right now,” said Avalanche forward Matt Duchene, who had two shots on goal. “We’re not confident. We have to dig deep and find it, that’s the bottom line here.”
The Avalanche was 0-of-4 on the power play. Bednar, who has been prone to sending messages and saying players get what they earn, used unlikely manpower on the third power play, including when he sent out John Mitchell and Blake Comeau to start it out.
“We were awful,” Duchene said. “I totally get why he did what he did. It’s frustrating. We’re just not executing right now. I think we’re overthinking things because we haven’t been winning. We have to get back to just working hard and we’ll find things.”
Nathan MacKinnon centered Rene Bourque and Mikko Rantanen and also had two shots.
“Losing five straight is a horrible feeling,” MacKinnon said. “It’s just playing horrible hockey and it starts with us, the key guys. Myself, Dutchy, E.J. (Johnson), Tys (Tyson Barrie) and Mikko now. He’s playing first line, top minutes. All of us need to be better. We haven’t been good this homestand. We’ve been pretty bad.
“It’s inevitable when you’re losing, you go into games thinking, ‘We have to win this game.’ That’s not how you win games. You win with confidence and execution and playing the game plan, and (with) the top guys being the top guys. That’s how you win, not trying to force things. I’m not saying we’re approaching the game with a losing mind-set, but we’re definitely tentative, especially in the first periods. I don’t think we’ve scored the first goal in (a long time).”
Said Bednar: “We’re creating some chances, but we’re not capitalizing on them, and when other teams are getting them, they are. But for 60 minutes, our group has to be better.”
Dallas opened the scoring at 5:08 of the first, when Semyon Varlamov couldn’t control the puck after making the initial save on McKenzie, and the Stars winger got his stick on it again before it went in out of a scramble in front. Seguin made it 2-0 on a power play at 6:02 of the second, with a laser from the top of the left circle.
The Avalanche now will try to right the ship on a road trip that features games at Nashville on Tuesday, Boston on Thursday, Montreal on Saturday and Toronto next Sunday.
Given the way things have gone at the Pepsi Center lately, perhaps the visiting skaters in Disney On Ice are due for a winning run. Lightning McQueen, Ariel, Buzz, Woody, Anna, Elsa and the veteran — Mickey — have eight performances over four days in the arena, beginning Thursday. And their power play reportedly has been better than the Avalanche’s lately.