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Johnson injury compounds woes |
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Rick Sadowski
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The Avalanche are looking more and more like a broken down jalopy whose engine is spitting out steam as the wheels fall off.
They can't score, the power play stinks, they take too many penalties and don't kill off enough of them, defensive lapses are all too frequent, and you can never be sure about the goaltending.
And all this was happening even before defenseman Erik Johnson sustained a broken fibula that is expected to sideline him for 6-8 weeks.
Johnson was injured in the second period Saturday when he blocked a Tyler Seguin shot in the Avalanche's 3-0 loss to Dallas.
Coach Jared Bednar was using Johnson with Fedor Tyutin as his top pair, and Tyutin didn't play Saturday because of a lower-body injury.
The Avalanche didn't practice Sunday, so we'll have to wait until Monday for updates on Tyutin and captain Gabriel Landeskog, who has missed eight games with a lower-body injury.
Forward Rocco Grimaldi has already been sent back to San Antonio. He had three shots in 8:09 of ice time against the Stars and spent most of the third period on the bench.
Down to five healthy defensemen, the Avalanche will certainly summon someone from the Rampage, possibly Cody Goloubef, who last week was acquired from Columbus for defenseman Ryan Stanton.
Bednar is familiar with Goloubef, 26, from their time in the Blue Jackets organization. Goloubef also has NHL experience, having played 96 games with Columbus, 43 last season.
The Avalanche will probably call up another forward, perhaps A.J. Greer again, before heading to Nashville to open a daunting four-game road trip that includes stops in Boston, Montreal and Toronto.
Not that the Pepsi Center has been any great shakes. The Avalanche managed to lose every game of their season-high five-game homestand, going an embarrassing 0-4-1 while scoring 10 goals.
They've already been shut out five times, are 4-8-1 at home overall, and have plummeted to the bottom of the NHL standings at 9-13-1 and 19 points, matching last season's record through 23 games.
General manager Joe Sakic recently told the Denver Post that he wasn't looking to make a trade, but that was before the Avalanche hardly put up a struggle against a Stars team that's been in a slump, and before Johnson got hurt.
Nathan MacKinnon said it's up to players like himself to pull the Avalanche out of the deep hole they've dug. He included Tyson Barrie, Matt Duchene, Johnson (not realizing the extent of his injury) and Mikko Rantanen in the group.
"Losing five straight is a horrible feeling,” he said. “It’s just playing horrible hockey and it starts with us, the key guys. Myself, Dutchy, E.J., Tys and Mikko; he’s playing first line, top minutes. All of us need to be better. We haven’t been good this homestand. We’ve been pretty bad.
“It’s inevitable when you’re losing, you go into games thinking, ‘We have to win this game.’ That’s not how you win games. You win with confidence and execution and playing the game plan, and (with) the top guys being the top guys. That’s how you win, not trying to force things. I’m not saying we’re approaching the game with a losing mindset, but we’re definitely tentative, especially in the first periods. I don’t think we’ve scored the first goal in I don't know how long, but it's been pretty bad."
The Avalanche have scored the first goal six times in 23 games. They've been outscored 26-10 in first periods.
"The first goal of the game is so crucial, so important, and we haven't found a way to get it in a long time," Bednar said. "We have to work through it and be better. I still can't help but feel we have more to give. We give a little push in the third period, we're trying to claw our way back into the game and create a few chances again and we don't capitalize on them. We have to stick with it and get through it, it's the only way to get out of it."
An already brutal power play went 0-for-4 against Dallas, which gave up four power-play goals in the first three games of what had been a winless road trip. The Avalanche went 1-for-14 on the homestand and are 2-for-25 while going 3-6-1 in the past 10 games overall.
Maybe the Avalanche can straighten things out on the road, where they're a respectable 5-5. Already seven points out of the last playoff spot, they'd better do something. Fast.
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