Avalanche coach Joe Sacco tried shaking up his power-play strategy against Vancouver on Sunday night, using forwards Kevin Porter and Tomas Fleischmann on the point on each of the two units.
It didn’t work. Colorado was 0-for-5 on the power play in the 2-1 loss to the Canucks, continuing its recent stretch of futility with the man advantage.
“We had a couple of chances there (early), and when you have those opportunities, that’s certainly the time of the game where you need to bear down and get one there,” Sacco said. “It hasn’t gotten the job done in the last little while, and it’s got to get better, no question.
“I have the right to make some changes, and I may have to look at that eventually. It’s not clicking right now. . . . I tried a couple of different things out there tonight to just try to shake things up a little bit, I guess. But at the end of the day, we have a certain amount of guys that we play there, and they have to get the job done. You have to dig in and outwork the opposition.”
On the other hand.
The Canucks officially were 0-for-4 on the power play, but one of those was a 15-second span of 4-on-3, and Colorado was short-handed for a total of 4:55 for the night. Still, Colorado’s previously struggling penalty-killing unit has killed off 12 manpower disadvantages in the past three games.
Not yet ready.
Defenseman Kyle Cumiskey, who participated in the morning skate, hasn’t been cleared for contact in the wake of his Oct. 30 concussion.
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
