It’s not as if the Avalanche power play has stunk all season. In fact, as Super Bowl Sunday dawned and the pregame coverage began, Colorado’s success rate of 19.8 percent ranked the Avalanche sixth in the NHL – behind only Detroit, Buffalo, Ottawa, Toronto and Carolina.
But the Avalanche’s recent failures with the man advantage, and especially its 0-for-7 performance in Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Detroit, have been glaring. Veteran center Pierre Turgeon has been out for nearly a month, and winger Milan Hejduk missed the Saturday game with a neck injury, but using those facts to explain away the struggles ignores the reality that Colorado isn’t the only team in the league with significant skaters sidelined.
“Their penalty kill was better than our power play, that’s for sure,” Avalanche defenseman Rob Blake said. “We weren’t able to penetrate their blue line. They stacked us up at the blue line, and we weren’t able to get past that and create stuff.”
The loss to Detroit also dropped the Avalanche to 0-3 this season against the Red Wings, with the finale in the regular-season series set for Sunday at Joe Louis Arena.
“It’s a challenge,” Blake said. “They’re obviously one of the top teams in the league, and if you want to be at that level, you have to be able to beat them. We haven’t been able to do that this year.”
Said defenseman John-Michael Liles, also an integral member of the Avalanche’s top power-play unit: “If the first two losses to them weren’t wake-up calls, this one definitely was. It shows where you have to be. We have to be better and bury our chances and try to generate more chances. It’s tough when you get down against that team, because you have to open it up in the last few minutes, and that’s not how you play against that team.”
There were no Western Conference games Sunday, and the Avalanche remained in the No. 8 spot in the conference standings. Colorado is within three points of the Northwest Division lead, and a division title guarantees at least the No. 3 seed.
The Avalanche is four points ahead of the conference’s first “non-playoff team,” Anaheim. Yet even that involves a catch, because San Jose – after ac- quiring Joe Thornton – is out of the playoff mix right now, but wouldn’t shock anyone by jumping over several Western teams down the stretch.
After facing Edmonton at home, the Avalanche finishes the pre-Olympic schedule with three road games: at Minnesota, Columbus and Detroit.
Colorado has 27 games remaining – including 12 against Northwest Division opponents, against whom the Avs have gone 12-6-2. Of Colorado’s 27 remaining games, 16 are on the road. Also, nine members of the Avalanche’s current active roster – plus minor-league goalie Vitaly Kolesnik – will be in the Olympic tournament.
Depending on what happens in the final four games before the break, a little more might be known about whether the “down the stretch” handicapping should involve the Avalanche’s chances of finishing first in the division and securing at least the No. 3 seed, or making the playoffs at all.
Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
