I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or Festivus, if you prefer. Have a safe and happy holiday weekend with family and friends. Safe travels if that is in your plans.
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If anyone wonders what it's like to cover a bad team like the Avalanche, well, can't say it's a whole lot of fun. I suspect the situation won't get any better Friday when they play the Blackhawks in Chicago.
Goalie Corey Crawford will make his first start for the Hawks after missing 10 games recovering from an appendectomy, so that probably won't help.
The Avalanche didn't have a morning skate, but Calvin Pickard will start. Colorado said in a tweet Friday afternoon that Semyon Varlamov, who got the hook Thursday in the 6-0 loss to Toronto after allowing five goals on 18 shots, has another groin injury. Spencer Martin has been recalled from San Antonio to dress as the backup.
Here are the GAME NOTES.
Is it time for GM Joe Sakic to blow up this team? I don't think detonating the roster is the answer. Sure, he can try and make a major trade, but it isn't going to make enough of an impact this season.
Anything he does would be for the future, whether that's next season or beyond. Making a deal out of desperation, just to do something, is about the worst thing a team can do. Just my opinion.
Yeah, the so-called core hasn't played up to expectations or their hefty contracts, but the Avalanche also could use a better supporting cast.
I feel for coach Jared Bednar, who inherited this mess after Patrick Roy quit on the Avalanche a little more than a month before training camp.
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Checking out the media guide -- I didn't go as far back as the Quebec Nordiques -- this team (11-20-1, 23 points) has the worst record through 32 games since the franchise has been in Denver.
The 2012-13 Avalanche had an 11-17-4 record (26 points) in what was a lockout-shortened 48-game season. In 2011-12, the Avalanche went 14-17-1 (29 points). Needless to say, they missed the playoffs both times.
Last year's team had a 15-16-1 record (31 points) at the same stage. *****
Still can't figure out how a team with Tyson Barrie, Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen can be so inept on offense, especially on power plays.
Colorado has been shut out in back-to-back games -- 2-0 in Minnesota on Tuesday, 6-0 against the Maple Leafs on Thursday -- and already has been blanked seven times this season.
The only goal in the past three games was scored by Jarome Iginila during a 6-on-4 power play in the late stages of Sunday's 4-1 loss in Winnipeg. The only goal before that was scored by Fedor Tyutin in a 3-1 home loss to Florida.
"I don't have an answer for that, why were shut out seven times," Bednar said Thursday night. "We've had some bad nights, some of those have ended in zero."
The Avalanche have lost eight in a row at the Pepsi Center (0-7-1), where they're an abysmal 4-11-1.
The power play was 0-for-6 against the Leafs, who allowed at least one power-play goal in their previous five games. The Avalanche failed to convert on two 5-on-3s and will take a 1-for-23 slump into Chicago.
"You'd much rather finish with a win going into Christmas than a 6-0 loss, so we're going to have to respond just like we did after the Montreal game," Landeskog said.
The Avalanche rebounded from that 10-1 shellacking in Montreal on Dec. 10 with a 3-1 win in Toronto. Of course, Varlamov needed to make 51 saves.
"You have to have a short-term memory in this game," Bednar said. "You can't forget the struggles that we're having and how much of an effort it takes for us to win. It feels like right now we have to play the perfect game to win because something else is popping up every night. But you have to break the game down, shift by shift, 5-minute segments, period by period, and you just have to find a way to block out what's happened in the past and live in the moment and play the game.
"That's mental preparation. As an athlete, a professional athlete, as a coaching staff, that's what you have to do because you're playing (the next) night; you can't worry about (the previous game). We'll break it down and show them some things and then you have to move on. You have no choice."