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Playoff chances slipping away fast

March 16, 2019, 5:07 PM ET [2 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Two lottery picks?

It’s sure looking that way for the Avalanche, who own Ottawa's top pick in the 2019 NHL draft and could have another, considering they would be as many as seven points out of a playoff position late Saturday night if Arizona beats Edmonton at home.

There are 11 regular-season games remaining, and the Avalanche hardly seem capable of piling up enough points to catch the Coyotes, who’ve won 10 of their past 12 games.

“If you want to be a playoff team, we got to deserve it,” Nikita Zadorov said. “Right now, it doesn’t look like we deserve to be in the playoffs.”

Colorado has lost three of the past four games and five of seven since putting together a 5-0-1 run. Two of the losses were to Anaheim, the latest a 5-3 setback Friday at the Pepsi Center.

Corey Perry broke a 3-3 tie with a power-play goal with 57 seconds left in the third period after Mikko Rantanen was penalized for high sticking.

OVER AND OUT?

The Avalanche wrap up a disappointing four-game homestand with a Sunday matinee against New Jersey, which was officially eliminated from playoff contention Friday.

“There’s still a possibility (of making the playoffs),” coach Jared Bednar said. “As long as there are games left, we still got a chance. Until we’re mathematically eliminated, we have a chance.”

A slim one at that, especially with road games in Minnesota and Dallas next week. Along with how this team is playing.

“We have to win hockey games,” Ian Cole said. “We can’t keep letting games slip away. Not only do you have to beat the teams that we should beat, which I guess at this point is up in the air, but we need to win games and that’s really all there is to it.”

The Avalanche took a 2-0 lead in the first period against the Ducks, who were playing their third game in four nights, yet needed a third-period goal from Sven Andrighetto (his first in 14 games) to make it 3-3 after giving up three goals in the second period.

“We build the lead and it looked like we got comfortable with it and stopped working,” Bednar said. “I didn’t think our work ethic was exceptional first period either, to be honest with you.”

It appeared they’d at least get to overtime for a chance at a much-needed two points, but Rantanen’s penalty and Colorado’s failure to kill it off put an end to that.

“As a team you can’t continually learn the same lesson,” Bednar said. “It seems like we’re just learning the same lesson over and over in our losses. I know our guys care. We didn’t play an inspired game like we really needed it, like it was mandatory that we won. The urgency for me wasn’t there. If it was, we would have checked harder than what we did.

“We needed a big effort and we got it from some guys. We got it partially from other guys. Sporadic, inconsistent, but that’s a skill. Being consistent is a skill as a player. We have good players, really good players. But being able to do it every night is a skill. We go to work on it, we got to mature to the point where we’re good every night, not just every once in a while.”



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