Enter the Avalanche locker room these days and it's as quiet and somber as I've ever experienced.
It's understandable, considering how the losses continue to pile up, seven in the past eight games after a 4-2 defeat Thursday in Dallas, 14 in the past 17 games (3-13-1) since Nov. 23.
The last-place Avalanche (12-22-1) will take a nine-game home losing streak (0-8-1) into their New Year's Eve meeting with the New York Rangers (25-12-1), who in three more games have scored 57 more goals than Colorado (129-72).
(Remember Nick Holden? He has seven goals -- one more than the entire Avalanche defense -- and 13 assists in 38 games for the Rangers. He also leads New York with a plus-16 rating.)
"We've obviously not played well at home, so it's a chance for us to have a really good crowd and show the fans we haven't given up," Tyson Barrie said after practice Friday. "They deserve better and we have to give them better. We've got a lot of work to do to win our fans back.
"We have to play like it's Game 7," said Barrie, who has two goals and 16 assists in 35 games, has gone 17 games without a goal and has a team-worst minus-19 rating. "We're sick of answering the same questions, but that's what comes with the territory when you lose nine in a row at home. It's got to stop (Saturday) in front of a great crowd. Traditionally it's a fun game to play on New Year's Eve, so it's a good opportunity for us to stop this home slide we're on.
"We show glimpses of playing well, but if you look at the history of the last-place teams in the league, I'm sure they did too. It's just not good enough; you can't show glimpses, it's got to be all the time. What's making it hard for us to do, I'm not sure. If I had an answer, I'd be more than willing to share it."
Calvin Pickard will make his fourth consecutive start as Semyon Varlamov recovers from a groin injury. Coach Jared Bednar said Varlamov is making progress and should be able to practice soon.
"He skated a little bit (Thursday) on his own, today he's doing something different," Bednar said. "He's feeling better."
Bednar changed up line combinations during the loss to the Stars and did so again during a hard practice Friday. The Avalanche won't have a morning skate Saturday because of the 6 p.m. MT start.
Carl Soderberg centered a line with Matt Duchene on the left and Jarome Iginla on the right, a combination that might be used against the Rangers.
"Things weren't working for us early in that game," Bednar said. "We didn't like some of the matchups, so we juggled them a little bit. Carl Soderberg had a real strong game for us, he worked hard and was doing things right defensively, so we bumped him into the middle and we moved Duchene to the wing a little bit.
"We kind of jumbled our lines a little bit because we were playing catch-up hockey and trying to get something going offensively. Some guys didn't get as much ice time later in the game."
Duchene had a goal and an assist in Dallas for his 400th and 401st career points, 11th in franchise history. His 169 goals are seventh.
These were the practice lines and pairings:
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen Matt Duchene -- Carl Soderberg -- Jarome Iginla Blake Comeau -- Mikhail Grigorenko -- Rene Bourque Cody McLeod -- John Mitchell - Andreas Martinsen
DEFENSE Fedor Tyutin -- Tyson Barrie Francois Beauchemin -- Nikita Zadorov Patrick Wiercioch - Eric Gelinas
GOALIES Calvin Pickard Jeremy Smith