It’s set up nicely now for the Avalanche to make its move:
•Eleven of the next 13 games at home.
•A nice rest before its next game, Saturday against New Jersey.
•A roster that is considerably healthier than many NHL teams.
Can the Avs take advantage?
“You try not to say anything is make or break and just take it one game at a time, but it’s obviously an important stretch for us,” goalie Craig Anderson said. “We’ve been on the road a lot so far this year and done well, and we have to make our building a place teams don’t want to come into now.”
One of the flaws of this Avalanche team is a tendency to relax when it thinks the living will be easy, so the long home stretch poses the threat of a letdown.
As much as the players have talked about avoiding such pitfalls, the trend has been clear, either against lesser opponents or in games when they have a cushy lead.
Before he got hurt in Carolina on Friday, captain Adam Foote talked about a need to develop a sort of instant amnesia.
“We’ve sat back too many times and it’s cost us. When we get three goals, we have to want the fourth, things like that,” said Foote, who is nursing an ankle injury. “You can’t just play 40 minutes and think that’s going to be enough, that the last 20 don’t matter. But I think we have to be happy with how we’ve played overall; happy, but not satisfied.”
Keep in mind: The Avalanche is still viewed as easy pickings for two points. Maybe not easy, exactly, but until the team proves otherwise over an 82-game season, it is considered the underdog more often than not.
“We’re a team that just wants to be in a position to win every game,” Anderson said. “I think we’ve shown that we battle to the end every night. Sometimes we make things a little too interesting, and it’s something we just have to keep working on, being more consistent through 60 minutes. But it’s tough to just go out and dominate in this league. Teams are so evenly matched.”
Footnotes. The Avs took Tuesday off. . . . Defenseman Brett Clark could return to practice today. He’s been out with a cheekbone injury. . . . The Avs will honor former player Claude Lemieux before Saturday’s game with the Devils. Lemieux won Stanley Cups with both teams.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
