This “second” season has been a trying one for Patrick Roy, who as a rookie NHL coach won the Jack Adams Trophy as the league’s coach of the year for 2013-14.
It also has been a learning experience — for Roy, his coaching staff and the Avalanche’s players.
Complacency, even short-lived and subconscious, and even when not obvious, is a fatal flaw in the NHL.
“All my years, and it’s not been 100 years, but the last 10 years as a coach and a coaching staff, I think we always like to evaluate our work,” Roy said Thursday in Vancouver before coaching the Avalanche to a 4-1 victory over the Canucks.
“We did that last year, we’re doing it this year. We’re always going to learn something. Talking to other coaches, there are years you’re going to be learning more than others. This year was a year that I thought I learned a lot more, compared to, say, last year.
“Last year we were playing with confidence, we were playing with such a good mind-set, it was kind of a lot easier. This year, we had to try to find ways to get the team going, find ways to help the power play, working at it, changing the structure of the team, working harder on details of our neutral-zone forecheck. These are things I feel that we learned a lot.”
With eight games remaining, the Avalanche is 10 points out of the second Western Conference wild-card playoff slot heading into Saturday night’s home game against the league’s worst team, the Buffalo Sabres.
There isn’t a little “e” next to the Colorado line in the standings, which would signify “eliminated” from contention for a playoff berth. Yet because of the gap and the additional teams the Avalanche would have to climb over, it would take a bizarre alignment of results (and planets) for there to be postseason hockey at the Pepsi Center.
“You’re playing to make the playoffs,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said after the victory at Vancouver. “As long as you mathematically have a chance, that’s what we’re playing for. We’re all professionals in here and all have personal pride and pride in this franchise and for this organization. If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t be here. It doesn’t matter where we’d be in the standings with however many games left. We’d still play for one another and still play for this organization.”
While not conceding the playoffs are out of reach, Roy said he believes the players have learned from this season.
“I’d like to say yes,” Roy said. “I wasn’t here the year before last year, but with the year we had last year, we got 112 points, we know it’s there for us. Now I’m not saying it’s back to some details; it’s making sure we come to camp ready and hungry. What a lesson it is for every team. Looking (Thursday) morning, L.A.’s not in the playoffs, and they won Stanley Cups twice in the past three years. Boston is not in the playoffs this morning. Unfortunately, it’s something you need to build at training camp. I’m not saying we took it for granted, but I’m sure we’re all going to have a different approach next year when we’re coming to training camp.”
Partially in jest, Roy was asked if he will be mean next season.
“Never,” he said sharply. “That’s not the way I am. I really believe in the approach I had last year. I still believe in it. I think partnership for me is really important, and I don’t think any of our guys came this year to camp saying, ‘We’re going to have a (bad) year.’ They all came in with good intensions. But our mind-set was just a bit different.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
Wild-card pictures
With eight regular-season games remaining, the Avalanche is 10 points behind the Winnipeg Jets and 13 points behind the Minnesota Wild for one of the two wild-card playoff berths in the NHL’s Western Conference. As it stands now:
| Team | Points |
| Minnesota Wild | 93 |
| Winnipeg Jets | 90 |
| Calgary Flames | 87 |
| Dallas Stars | 82 |
| San Jose Sharks | 80 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 80 |
BUFFALO AT COLORADO 7 p.m. Saturday, ALT2; 950AM
Spotlight on Avalanche D Erik Johnson: After Thursday night’s win at Vancouver, Patrick Roy indicated Johnson is expected to be on the ice with his teammates at the morning skate Saturday, a theoretical step closer to returning to the lineup soon. Previously, he has been skating on his own or with other injured players. It has been nearly nine weeks since he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, and the Avalanche projected then that he would be out three to eight weeks. There has been no talk, at least not acknowledged, of “shutting down” Johnson until next season.
NOTEBOOK
Sabres: Buffalo’s power play and penalty killing are the worst in the NHL. The Sabres have scored the fewest goals, and only the Edmonton Oilers have allowed more. … Buffalo has lost four in a row and 11 of its past 12, with two of the losses in shootouts and one in overtime. … The Sabres are coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the lowly Arizona Coyotes, and some Buffalo fans cheered, hoping for the Sabres to finish last overall and have the best shot at winding up with the top overall draft pick, expected to be Erie Otters center Connor McDavid.
Avalanche: Colorado didn’t practice Friday after returning from Vancouver. … Coach Roy indicated before Thursday’s game that he already had told Semyon Varlamov he would be back in the net against the Sabres after Reto Berra played against the Canucks. Terry Frei, The Denver Post
