DALLAS — Before the days of assessment and reckoning begin in earnest, the Avalanche has two games left — at Dallas against the Stars on Thursday and at home Saturday afternoon against the Anaheim Ducks.
Now that the Avs (39-37-4) have been eliminated from contention for a playoff berth, what’s left to play for?
“Pride and the logo and our fans,” Matt Duchene said after the 4-3 loss at Nashville on Tuesday. “And for each other. We won’t lay over and die, and we don’t want to embarrass ourselves just because it’s hard and it stinks to know we’re not in the playoffs. We have to keep going.
Avs Mailbag:
“It’s going to be really hard to get up for the next two because it’s so heartbreaking right now. But we’re going to have to be good pros and put on a good performance for the fans who spend their hard-earned money to come watch is play.”
The “race” for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference turned out to be between two teams that couldn’t even get their engines to turn over in the past week. Minnesota and Colorado both have lost four consecutive games, and doing nothing was good enough for the Wild — five points up on the Avs — to clinch Tuesday.
Minnesota at least ran off six victories in a row before the losing streak, while Colorado has gone 1-6 in its past seven. If this had come down to merit in the stretch run, it’s arguable the final spot should have gone to: c) None of the above.
Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said he was angry “and frustrated and disappointed and all that. It’s so fresh right now that I don’t know what to say.”
Regardless of the reasons, the fact is that after a stunning 112-point season in the first year of the Joe Sakic-Patrick Roy stewardship as the general manager and coach, the Avs have missed the playoffs two seasons in a row.
The postmortems will touch on, among other things, third-period collapses, spotty goaltending, a soft and thin defense, and the roster including only six Colorado draft choices at the end of the season.
Three of the six — Nathan MacKinnon, Duchene and Landeskog — were acquired in the top three choices of the draft, illustrating the lack of success at adding depth in other rounds. The other three “home-grown” players on the current roster are Chris Bigras (second round, 2013), Calvin Packard (second, 2010) and Tyson Barrie (third, 2009). Other Colorado draft choices have been traded away or departed, including Paul Stastny, Kevin Shattenkirk and Ryan O’Reilly.
Plus, Roy continues to challenge the young “core” to step up as leaders.
“Obviously, this is something Joe’s going to have to talk (about) and look at, and I’m sure we’re going to talk about it,” Roy said.
Te rry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei
COLORADO AT DALLAS 6:30 p.m. Thursday, ALT; 950AM
Spotlight on Jamie Benn:
The Stars took Benn in the fifth round of the 2007 draft when he still was 17 and hadn’t yet played a game of major junior. Then he joined the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League and played two seasons there before going straight to the Stars in 2009. Now, at 26, he’s second in the NHL in points (88) and third in goals (41) and a bona fide Hart Trophy candidate.
NOTEBOOK
Avalanche:
Colorado didn’t skate Wednesday, instead going through off-ice workouts in Dallas. … Despite the loss at Nashville in the first game of the trip, the Avalanche is guaranteed to have a winning road record this season. Colorado is 22-18-0 away from home. … The Avalanche is 2-0-1 against Dallas this season and won 3-1 in the other meeting at the American Airlines Center, on Jan. 23.
Stars:
Dallas has something at stake in its last two games. It will go into Thursday night tied with St. Louis for the Central Division lead, both at 48-23-9. … The Stars had won four in a row before a Sunday loss at Anaheim. They haven’t played since.
