The Broncos are 1-4 and used their bye week to trade a Pro Bowl receiver and bench their starting quarterback.
The University of Colorado football team is 1-6, lost by 28 points last Saturday and is a 30 1/2-point underdog this Saturday.
The Colorado State University football team lost by 50 last Saturday.
The Rockies recently finished their season with a record of 73-89, maybe the most disappointing campaign in their history.
And the Nuggets, the only one of these programs to finish with a winning record in their last complete season, may not play.
In short, the road is plowed for the Avalanche. The Avs can own this town the way they did a decade ago if they can continue the surprising and inspired play of their recent 5-0 road trip.
But if home is where the heart is, it is not yet where the Avs’ legs are. They’ve scored 20 goals in five road games and one in two home games after Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the Blackhawks at the Pepsi Center.
It’s a small sample size, to be sure, but also an odd one.
“It’s just coincidence,” said center Matt Duchene, who had an assist on the Avs’ only home goal so far. “It’s nothing to look into. Obviously, we want to get some wins at home here, so we’ve got to score some goals, but I don’t think it has anything to do with home versus away.”
Defenseman Kyle Quincey, on the other hand, noticed a difference in the environment. Coming off that five- game, nine-day road trip at sea level, the altitude treated the Avs the way it normally treats their opponents.
“It’s like breathing through a straw out there,” Quincey said. “I don’t know what the scientific thing is, but it’s like there’s a hole in your lung. We talked about just being sure we had short shifts. When we get caught out there, it’s hard to recover. You’re out there for 2 minutes sometimes and that’s all you need and your tank’s done for the rest of the game.
“We’re down a goal and it’s tough to jump up in the play and skate. (The Blackhawks) are such a good skating team. I don’t know what it is, but every time we come back, the three years I’ve been here, it’s something else. It’s tough.”
Couple that with a natural tendency to try crowd-pleasing plays in your own building and your offense has a chance to disappear. The Avs drew a full house of 18,007 for their opener against the Red Wings, a 3-0 loss almost two weeks ago, and 17,523 on Thursday. Both were significant improvements from last season’s average of 14,820.
“We’re trying to do a little bit too much with the puck maybe,” coach Joe Sacco said. “I think I’d like to see us simplify a little bit more at home. We did end up with 32 shots, but we got a lot of them at the end of the third period there. And we had about 13 in the first period.
“I just think we need to put more pucks to the net. A good example was the goal that Ryan O’Byrne scored. It was a shot that got redirected. Good things happen when you go to the net. When we do that, we usually generate some more offense because we create chaos around the front of the net. So simplify our game a little bit, be a little bit more direct, put pucks to the net, get bodies there, try not to overpass.”
On the bright side, goalie Semyon Varlamov had some highlight-reel saves and the Avs looked quick up front and sturdy along the blue line for the most part.
“They were fast and have a lot of skill,” Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford said. “We matched up really good against them — the same thing, fast and a lot of skill and speed.”
Five wins in their first seven games have the Avs atop the Northwest Division in the early going, just the sort of start they needed to bring back their fans.
But for now, they seem to be playing a little looser on the road, which is just as well because that’s where they’re headed for the next two.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or
