Coach Patrick Roy on the Avalanche bench. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)
EDMONTON — Going into Wednesday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers, the Avalanche hasn’t yet written off its playoff hopes. But in acknowledging the long odds, coach Patrick Roy increasingly is beginning to talk about this season as a learning experience to be used as the franchise moves on — including to its third season under GM Joe Sakic and coach Roy in 2015-16.
Part of that involves a subtle admission that Colorado was a little complacent — perhaps even subconsciously — after last year’s surprising season.
“When you end up in the position we were in last year, with 112 points and first in our (Central) division, a lot of things came pretty fast,” Roy said at Rexall Place on Tuesday. “It happened to me as well in my second NHL year. You have the tendency of thinking it’s going to be easier, and then you’re not as sharp when you come to camp. And when you start behind, it’s hard.
“We are in such a competitive division … If you look around the league, there is no other division like this. It kind of reminds me of my days when I was playing at Montreal and it was the Adams Division.”
Roy emphasized that the coaching staff is learning from this experience too.
“Obviously, we’ve had to work a lot harder than last year,” he said. “Last year, we were playing with so much confidence. The fact was that we started really well, and this year was a little different. We’ve had to come up with a lot of ideas. I think we’ve redefined our structure, the way we want to play, forecheck, neutral-zone forecheck, D-zone coverage. We’ve made some changes and I think the thing that we’ve learned the most is you had to adapt.
“Injuries unfortunately are part of our season. But it’s also part of it for every team, being in the business, in the NHL, and you have to deal with this. You have to learn to adjust and adapt. And I think that’s the thing we’ve learned the most as a coaching staff.”
Roy wanted to make clear he believes the players remained open to being coached.
“That never has been a problem,” he said. “They were extremely receptive this year right at the start. I just think it’s the fact that we all, the coaching staff and the players, after every year, you always look at yourselves and say, ‘Hey, what could we have done differently.’ Obviously, this is something we’re going to do at the end of the year. At the same time, that’s the beauty of our game, you’re learning every day. If you stop learning, I guess we’re in the wrong business. We’ve been learning a lot as a coaching staff, the players have been learning a lot, and we’ve been talking about the process all the time, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Because of the 6 p.m. start, the Avalanche didn’t have a morning skate Wednesday.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
