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Avs live and die by their penalty kill |
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As the Colorado Avalanche continue to fight to climb back into the playoff standings, their continuing problem continues to be penalty killing.
The Avs are 26th in penalty killing with a 76.7 percentage. With them are two teams, Anaheim and New Jersey, in the playoff picture but the other three are with the Avs at the bottom of the standings.
Team have scored a powerplay goal in nine of their 17 games with a record of 1-7-1 in games where they have given up at least one powerplay and are winless in games where they have given up more than one.
On the penalty kill, the Avs let teams stand in front of the net with no opposition and let the other team wheel around the zone. Last year, when the Avs were 12th in penalty killing and fighting for a playoff spot, they got sticks in the lane, cleared the net and forced the teams to make a perfect pass to beat them.
Granted, the Avs are missing their top two defensemen in Erik Johnson and Ryan Wilson and key penalty killers Jay McClement and Ryan O'Reilly are not on the team.
Even without four key players, the Avs' problem on penalty kill is it looks like four players trying to do their best to kill penalties instead of working as a cohesive unit.
Without a penalty kill the Avs will continue to be a stone in the bottom of the fish bowl that is the NHL standings. That way when the refs make controversial calls and insert themselves in the game, the Avs will not be screwed.
Their powerplay has improved of late and has started to produce. If they can just get their penalty kill working, maybe they can start to improve in the standings.
Duchene out for Sharks game
Matt Duchene is out for tonight's San Jose Sharks game with a groin injury. Duchene, the teams' leading scorer has been dealing with a nagging hip and groin injury for a couple of weeks.
Now it will be up for Paul Stastny to step up and break out of his slump. This against the San Jose Sharks whom the Avs have not beat December 15, 2011 and recently beat the Avs 4-0 in the game that Brad Stuart's big check knocked out captain Gabe Landeskog with a concussion.