After Colorado beat Toronto 4-3 in a shootout last week, I asked coach Patrick Roy what it would take for him to conclude that the Avalanche had the ship righted.
“Let’s try to win a few games in a row,” Roy said. “And (have) that type of effort for 60 minutes, and then I’ll start saying we have it and we’re there. … I’m very positive with this performance, but I don’t want to overreact. I want to make sure to stay very humble and see how we’re going to play against Philly.”
That game at Philadelphia on Saturday, the opener of the four-game trip, turned out to be ambiguous. The Avalanche fell behind 4-0 but roared back only to lose, 4-3, making the folks who had left early to be at the front of the lines for cheesesteaks at nearby Pat’s or Geno’s wonder if they should have stuck around.
Part of a two-team stumble out of the gate at the Pepsi Center — the Nuggets have looked even worse — the Avalanche’s start is befuddling. A year ago, Colorado was 14-2 through 16 games; now, the Avalanche is 4-7-5.
Any attempt to contend the NHL suddenly exposed Roy’s coaching as flawed after a summer to study it is ludicrous. There is some of that out there, in part because of the rather curious resentment of Roy among many “hockey men” — including other coaches. Sure, there have been some adjustments to his system, leading to Roy and his staff to tinker after the slow start, going to more zone coverage.
That’s part of the game’s usual reaction and counter-reaction culture, not proof that the smoke has drifted away and the mirrors have broken.
As bad as the Avs have been — and they’ve been bad — focusing too much of the blame on Colorado’s still-suspect defense lets the forwards, even the young stars among the forwards, off light. Matt Duchene, Ryan O’Reilly, Gabe Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon all have to be better. Much better.
The most troubling long-term issues for this team involve the contradictions in its organizational approach, even in its in-house reactions. The playoff loss to Minnesota last spring seemed to show they knew the team had overcome its deficiencies during that remarkable regular season and needed to upgrade their toughness and veteran grittiness quotient. The moves so far haven’t worked.
Almost as if it was excessively proud of “unearthing” players previously underrated or not given sufficient chances, the Avalanche over the past year has signed a handful of players to contract extensions who haven’t been major contributors long enough — at least not here — to earn that faith. Among that group is Nick Holden, Marc-Andre Cliche, Nate Guenin, Brad Stuart and Reto Berra. That wouldn’t be a potential impediment if the NHL didn’t have a hard salary cap that makes excessive faith in players competitively costly too.
After the departure of Paul Stastny — always underappreciated — in a contractual fiasco that led to St. Louis jumping in with a trumping hometown offer, that was followed by bringing in Jarome Iginla and Daniel Briere, both 37. As a leader, Iginla is peerless. But charisma only goes so far, and the three-year commitment looks iffy, at best. Briere’s deal is up after this season, but it would help if he’s at least making significant contributions on the ice rather than watching as a healthy scratch.
What it comes down to is that the Avalanche seemed to be saying this roster was flawed, but it’s also a roster dotted with marginal players who have been rewarded — seemingly out of nowhere — with contract extensions. I think that’s far more of a significant issue than how the Avalanche is playing now, because the talented core will snap out of it.
Terry Frei: tfrei@ or TFrei
