An NHL dressing room is a two-section scenario. One is a public place, where everyone is on their best behavior, and the other very private, where dark stares and curse words surely abound. There’s an equipment-changing room and a suit-and-tie room. Media are only allowed in the former, unlike other pro sports like the NFL, and when you’re a player on a team like the Avalanche these days there is very little face time with reporters after losses. The guys undress down to their hockey underwear/sweats and quickly walk off into the private room. The Avs PR staff is good about getting requested guys to come back and talk to reporters, but even now that’s a touchy thing because, let’s face it, this season has turned into a broken record (yes, I’m a product of vinyl): guys are sick and tired of talking about playing better as a team and getting back into the playoff hunt. They’d rather say nothing. Can’t blame them there, but make no mistake, they are accountable when pressed in the worst of times. However, the best time to get the best reaction about the state of the team is after practice, when preparation to turn things around is made and a renewed optimism is fresh.
Captain Gabe Landeskog held a players-only meeting Sunday or Monday, after the 6-2 blowout loss at Winnipeg. Here’s what he told me after practice Monday: “Meeting went well. We handled it internally. We talked about a lot of things and I hope we react well to it. I certainly feel that, in the past when you have players meetings or whatever, guys come out hungry. It’s about any relationship with anybody in your life. You just have to talk things out sometimes, and that’s what we did. What we said, we’ll keep that in the room, but I certainly think we’re going to benefit from it. … We know we have the leadership in here and the experience in here to get back in the picture, back in the hunt and start playing well again. All it takes is to get hot and have a good month and all of a sudden you’re in the thick of things. We have enough leadership in this room to bring everybody together.”
The main speakers were Landeskog and assistant captains Cody McLeod and Jarome Iginla. But Alex Tanguay, Erik Johnson and Daniel Briere also had a voice, I hear, among others.
Said Iginla: “When teams go through tough times they tend to start pointing fingers. We’re not doing it. We definitely have to stay focused on that. There’s two-thirds of the season left and we know where we’re at. It’s a tough road back in the playoffs but every year there’s always one team that climbs back after being written off, every year, and there’s always a team or two that falls out, that everybody says won’t fall out. Everybody has to think that we’re the (one that climbs back). Nobody is happy the way things are going. We feel that we’re a better team and should be playing better and we’ve lost too many close games, throwing away close points too easily. Saying that, we look at other teams’ lineups and know we’re very capable of getting hot. But we all have to look at ourselves, me included … I don’t think there’s a guy in here that feels that they can’t be a little better, and needs to be better. When it goes bad it’s easy to look around for a scapegoat.”
Avs fans are hurting, no doubt. This was supposed to be the “next-step season” in which Colorado advanced past the second round of the playoffs and competed with Western Conference powers Los Angeles, Anaheim, Chicago and St. Louis. But now it’s looking like a Connor McDavid/Jack Eichel sweepstakes year, with the Avs looking like a draft lottery team in the hunt for one of the two can’t-miss young standout forwards who represent the absolute best from Canada (McDavid) and the United States (Eichel). After Tuesday’s 3-0 loss to Nashville at home, the 9-13-6 Avalanche (24 points) is 12th in the 14-team Western Conference and only Buffalo (22 points) and Carolina (19) have had worse seasons in the Eastern (Columbus is at 22 points, but just 27 games).
Said Tanguay: “This situation, it’s nothing uncommon. We talked among ourselves and we understand (there’s a problem). We clarified a few things and we know where we stand. Last year, it’s funny how (when) you win everyone gets along and now, in a situation where we’re in, we don’t want to deviate from the program. We know the importance of sticking together as a team and we’re working on it. But wins are at a premium and that makes (Tuesday’s game against Nashville) huge.”
Huge turned into a shutout loss. Tanguay might have had his worst game in his second stint with the Avs, and he and Iginla both had zero shots on net.
What to do next? The Avs move on. They, after all, are the ones who compete as hard as they can but again and again have few answers to explain why it’s not working. Anyone who has played hockey knows it’s a frustrating game when you lose, yet nobody is going to publicly point fingers. That opens the door for fans to scream, and scream they will.
