With five losses (all in regulation) in the Avalanche's past seven games, even coach
Patrick Roy acknowledges this team has to go on a ridiculous run just to get into the playoff picture in the West, starting with Friday's game in Chicago.
Here are the
game notes.
In case you missed it, here's my
NHL.com feature on
Jarome Iginla.
The Avalanche are coming off a 4-1 loss to Los Angeles to complete a 2-2-0 homestand. With a 24-23-11 record and 59 points, they would need 36 points in the remaining 24 games to reach their goal of 95, which still might not be enough with all the three-point outcomes out there.
A reasonable goal? Seriously?
"Last year we (won) six in a row, we lost one, and we won another six in a row," Roy said. "We need a run like this. Is it possible? It is possible if we play the way we did the last four games.
"We should go into Chicago feeling good about ourselves because this is how we want to play. In those four games we played at home I thought we were very good in every one of them except maybe the first half of the game against the Rangers. We deserved a much better record than 2-2 in that homestand."
The Avalanche probably played about as well as they can in the first period Wednesday against Los Angeles yet couldn't expand on an early 1-0 lead, went 0-for-3 on power plays (combining for seven shots on them) and lost 4-1, with
Jeff Carter closing out things with an empty-net goal. Yes, give credit to Kings goalie
Jonathan Quick, who made 42 saves, 18 in the second period when L.A. outscored the Avalanche 3-0.
"The way we played offensively I thought the guys deserved a lot better," Roy said. "Their goalie played really well, he made a lot of good saves. That's part of the game sometimes. I can't complain. I understand it's frustrating because that was a big game for us and I'm very happy with the effort. I thought we did a lot of good things, but nothing to show for it.
"When we talk about changing the culture, values, I said to the guys that's our responsibility as a team. This is how we want to play. This is the identity that we want to have, a team that will forecheck and backcheck hard, a team that moves its feet all the time, competes.
"When someone is going to talk about the Avalanche, that's what we want to hear from them. This is a team that's going to track hard, this is a team that's going to move its feet offensively, this is a team that's going to try to possess the puck and put a lot of shots on net."
Speaking of shots on net, Avalanche goalie
Semyon Varlamov made 54 saves Jan. 6 in a 2-0 win against the Blackhawks at the United Center. He'll make his 15th consecutive start Friday. He has an 8-3-0 career record against Chicago with two shutouts, a 2.01 goals-against average and .945 save percentage.
The Blackhawks are 4-0-3 in their past seven games.
Remember defenseman
Kyle Cumiskey? He's expected to play in his fourth game for Chicago after being recalled from Rockford in the AHL, where he had one goal and 10 assists in 38 games. He was signed as a free agent in July.
The Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Nathan MacKinnon
Max Talbot - Matt Duchene - Jarome Iginla
Alex Tanguay - John Mitchell - Dennis Everberg
Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Paul Carey
DEFENSE
Jan Hejda - Zach Redmond
Nate Guenin - Tyson Barrie
Brad Stuart - Nick Holden
GOALIES
Semyon Varlamov
Reto Berra
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