Unhappy with their inconsistent play of late, which included turning a 2-0 lead into 6-2 loss Monday, the Avalanche had a team meeting Wednesday morning.
They play the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday at SAP Center to complete the two-game set and a four-game road trip. They went 2-1-0 in the first three games and are 2-3-0 in the past five games overall.
Here are the GAME NOTES.
“I sensed we’re a hungry group this morning," coach Jared Bednar said. "We executed well on the ice, we skated good. I liked the energy and the juice on the ice this morning, so hopefully that’s a good indication on the way we’re going to play tonight.
“As far as conversations go, I think they were … I don’t want to say tough conversations, but they were to the point, honest and fair. We got together as a group this morning, had a meeting and discussed some things. We’re ready to go for tonight.…
The Avalanche (11-7-1, 23 points) are in fourth place in the West Division, four points behind first-place Vegas, one point ahead of Los Angeles and two in front of Arizona.
The top four teams will make the playoffs.
“I think the biggest thing is just consistency,… Brandon Saad said. “We’ve shown spurts where we’re a real good hockey team this year and then other nights where we kind of take the night off and you see the outcome that came last game. We have a young team so I think the biggest thing for us is touching upon consistency and knowing how good we can play when we show up to play.…
The Avalanche were considered a Stanley Cup contender before the season but haven’t always played like it.
“You look at our record and you wouldn’t think we’re having these kinds of struggles,… Devon Toews said. “It’s tough at times with the expectations that we have for our team, so consistency is something that we really got to focus on a lot and make sure that we bear down and we finish games and play through games and play through that adversity that comes in a game.…
The lineup:
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen Brandon Saad -- Nazem Kadri -- Joonas Donskoi Valeri Nichushkin -- J.T. Compher -- Andre Burakovsky Tyson Jost -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Logan O’Connor
DEFENSE Devon Toews -- Jacob MacDonald Ryan Graves -- Samuel Girard Dan Renouf -- Conor Timmins
GOALIES Philipp Grubauer Hunter Miska