Three weeks and 11 games remain for the Avalanche before they begin their third consecutive offseason of discontent.
They open a two-game homestand Tuesday, taking on St. Louis at the Pepsi Center following a winless two-game road trip to Detroit and Chicago.
Here are the
GAME NOTES.
The Avalanche are 11-22-2 at home, but they've won three of the past four there with wins against Carolina, New Jersey and Detroit.
Ten of the remaining games will come against teams that have secured or are competing for a place in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Blues, who have won seven of their past eight games, are in the second wild card position in the Western Conference, six points ahead of Los Angeles. They're two points behind Nashville, which is third in the Central Division.
"It doesn't hurt our team, that's for sure, to be playing hungry teams," coach
Jared Bednar said. "Every game's a challenge for us and we need to find ways to work through them and secure some points and see some growth in our team.
"We're working towards something, and it's not necessarily just this season. We've got some young guys in the lineup that have come up and done a real nice job for us. It's growth for them and it's trying to find some chemistry with some of the guys that we know are coming back."
Calvin Pickard will start for the seventh time in the past eight games.
The Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS
Sven Andrighetto -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Gabriel Landeskog -- Matt Duchene -- Matt Nieto
Mikhail Grigorenko -- J.T. Compher -- Rene Bourque
John Mitchell -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
DEFENSE
Mark Barberio -- Erik Johnson
Fedor Tyutin -- Tyson Barrie
Francois Beauchemin -- Anton Lindholm
GOALIES
Calvin Pickard
Jeremy Smith
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • 
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