For the struggling Avalanche, going back to the drawing board includes returning to the line combinations that saw the team begin the season 17-7-5. Following a one-game shakeup of the lines that backfired in Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Vancouver, Avs coach will revert to what they previously looked like Tuesday night when Colorado tries to salvage a victory out of a four-game home stretch.
With center back with and and wingers and reunited with , Colorado hopes to snap a three-game losing streak against Columbus, which has lost five in a row.
“We’ve had success in the past for a reason and we obviously know each other real well on the ice,” Landeskog said. “Bottom line is, we got to play better (overall). It doesn’t matter what line combinations you put together. You got to play better. And, as a group, we have to be better defensively.”
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The Avs, stuck on 52 points, can regain a wild-card spot by beating the Blue Jackets. Colorado is 3-11-2 since Dec. 21 because of sub-par goaltending and team defense and not enough secondary scoring. Central Division all-stars MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen make up one of the NHL’s highest-scoring lines but have cooled over the past month.
“You get the big line back together. You get Soderberg’s line back together,” Bednar said Monday. “We’ve liked some of the things (Alex)Kerfoot, (J.T.)Compher and (Colin) Wilson have done together and the (Sheldon) Dries and (Sven)Andrighetto and (Gabriel) Bourque line the other night was really good. They gave us good energy. They started in the D-zone a lot and they ended in the offensive zone a lot and got us some offensive zone draw situations for some of our more offensive lines.”
“On paper,” Bednar added, “I like our lines. But in some of the games (of late) we didn’t get exactly what we expect.”
The Avs have 11 games before the NHL trade deadline Feb. 25. General manager and his top assistant, Chris MacFarland, could become sellers if the Avs’ slide continues.
“Nobody said it was going to be easy. Even in December, we knew it wasn’t going to be a cruise even though we were fighting for first in the conference at one point,” Landeskog said. “Trade deadline looming? It’s the same thing every year. We’re going to focus on what we can control on the ice.”
