Regrets? To paraphrase ol' blue eyes, Avalanche coach Patrick Roy has a few, the most significant not being able to guide the team into the playoffs for the second year in a row.

"I've said it many times, I'm here to win the Stanley Cup, and you need to make the playoffs in order to win the Stanley Cup" Roy said. "It is a disappointment. We're all disappointed with our situation, but at the same time I'd like to think we'll benefit from it. I like to think it will make us a better team along the way."

Roy said he's optimistic about next season after the Avalanche went 17-9-1 in the final 27 games that followed a four-game losing streak -- all in regulation -- from Feb. 5-12. They went 10-4-0 at home and 7-5-1 on the road in this stretch, scored 16 power-play goals in 74 attempts (21.6 percent, yeah surprised me too) and killed 54 of 59 penalties (91.5 percent).

The Avalanche also scored four or more goals (not counting shootouts) 10 times in the final 27 games after producing that many 11 times in the first 55 games. They allowed two goals or fewer 14 times in that stretch.

If they had played like this in the first half of the season, the Avalanche would have been practicing Monday for a first-round playoff series instead of having exit interviews before heading off for the summer.

"These are things, unfortunately, we didn't see at the start of the season," Roy said.

The reasons for missing the playoffs have been well-documented: a poor regular-season start that began in training camp and continued in preseason games; an awful power play; inability to exit the defensive zone, in part because the defensemen couldn't skate, clear or pass the puck out; no depth on the third and fourth lines; slow starts by the top forwards.

The Avalanche went 16-13-0 against Central Division teams (1-4-0 against Minnesota and 1-2-1 against Winnipeg) and 22-21-7 against Western Conference, with two losses in three games to Edmonton. They won't make the playoffs with a repeat.

Yes, injuries were a factor. The most significant were to goalie Semyon Varlamov, who missed 16 games with groin injuries, though Calvin Pickard played just fine in his absence; defensemen Erik Johnson (35 games) and Brad Stuart (18); forwards Jesse Winchester (82), left wing Jamie McGinn (63), and right wing Nathan MacKinnon (18).

In all, the Avalanche lost a franchise-record 495 man games to injuries. Winchester sustained a concussion in a preseason game and still wasn't feeling right when the season ended. He signed a two-year contract as a free agent last summer and would have provided a lot more offensive spark than Marc-Andre Cliche while centering the fourth line.

McGinn, who's hopeful his back surgery will give him the relief he's needed for several years, scored a career-high 19 goals last season and would have been on the third line. Let;s hope Joey Hishon gets a real chance to make the team in the fall based on how he looked following a late season call-up from Lake Erie.

"Sometimes the reality is you have to go through it (missing playoffs)," Roy said. "I truly believe our team will be much better because of it. No one's happy about what's going on and I'm sure everybody is going to take a deep look at what we did this year and come in with a totally different mindset next year."

Signing Ryan O'Reilly to a contract extension, adding a solid defenseman and more depth up front are priorities. The Avalanche have the 10th pick in the NHL draft heading into Saturday's draft lottery; according to the NHL, they have a 3.5 percent chance winning the first pick, an 88 percent chance of staying put and an 8.5 percent chance of dropping one spot.

They aren't expected to re-sign forward Daniel Briere (more on him later in this blog) or defenseman Ryan Wilson, and have a decision to make regarding defenseman Jan Hejda. All three will be unrestricted free agents July 1 and made a combined $10 million in salary this season.

"We'd like to get our defense better, but we'll see how it goes," Roy said. "We're going to have some decisions to make. When you're missing the playoffs, you have to reevaluate your team and look at which areas you think can improve. We have a good idea what we need to do.

"That's why we made some changes in our chief scout (firing Rick Pracey earlier in the season), that's why we need it to be from our draft. We believe we have good young defensemen coming, now we need to have a good vision with the forwards to mix with the young guys we have."

Brad Smith is the Avalanche's director of player personnel and Alan Hepple, who worked under Pracey, is listed as assistant director of amateur scouting.

The Avalanche have some promising defensemen in the system with Chris Bigras, 20, Mason Geertsen, 20, and Duncan Siemens, 21, who made his NHL debut in Saturday's season finale. Stefan Elliott, 24, only played in five games with the Avalanche despite making the AHL All-Star team and will be a restricted free agent, according to nhlnos.com.

"I'm not in Denver to see us missing the playoffs, I'm here to see us winning," Roy said. "I really want to make sure that's the last time we're missing the playoffs."

*****

Daniel Briere, 37, played his final game with the Avalanche on Saturday and possibly the last game of his NHL career. He had eight goals -- three game winners -- and four assists in 56 games while averaging about 12 minutes per game. He scored his 300th career goal Oct. 13 in Boston with less than a second left in regulation to give the Avalanche a 2-1 win and has 307 goals and 389 assists in 973 regular-season games.

"It might be the last one, it might not be," said Briere, who was acquired last summer from Montreal for PA Parenteau and a fifth-round pick in 2015. "I'll definitely take a few weeks to think about it. I have a lot to think about. I've been away from the kids the past two seasons and it's been a little tough at times. So that's what I have to decide. The next few weeks will probably be able to tell me more on what's next.

"I don't want to say it's my last one, but there's a chance it could be. All year I've known that I don't have a lot of time left. When the season started it was one, maybe two seasons left. I think all year I've tried to enjoy, tried to live at the moment, tried to appreciate and savor every single moment of the season. It went fast once again."

A first-round pick (24th overall by Phoenix) in 1996, Briere scored 30-plus goals four times in a 17-season NHL career with the Coyotes, Buffalo, Philadelphia and Montreal before arriving in Denver. A clutch playoff performer, he has 53 goals and 63 assists in 124 postseason games.

Best of luck to whatever Briere does. You won't find a classier person in sports.



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