The odds are extremely long, but the Avalanche aren't throwing in the towel yet.
They remain well out of the playoffs with 28 games to play, technically six points behind Vancouver before Wednesday's games for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with three other teams -- Minnesota, Los Angeles and Dallas -- to leapfrog.
The reality is, the Avalanche will need to finish with more points than all of those teams because they're so far behind in ROW -- regulation and overtime wins, the tiebreaker.
"We know we have some work to do, how much work we have to do, but we're going to put our nose to the grindstone and do it," Matt Duchene said after practice Wednesday. "The best way to go about it is to bury our heads and work as hard as we can and not look up until we're either in or we're out."
Winnipeg, which holds the first wild-card position, made a major trade with Buffalo on Wednesday, acquiring defenseman Tyler Myers and forward Drew Stafford, along with minor-league forward Joel Armia, the rights to 2014 second-round pick Brendan Lemieux, and the lowest of the Sabres' three 2015 first-round picks. The Sabres received forward Evander Kane, defenseman Zach Bogosian and the rights to college (RPI) goalie Jason Kasdorf.
The Stars also made a trade with the Sabres, acquiring goalie Jhonas Enroth in exchange for goalie Anders Lindback and a conditional third-round pick in 2016.
"There's still lots of time," Duchene said. "You have to think one of those teams in the wild card are going to have a little bit of a dip and we want to be the team that replaces them."
The Avalanche play the New York Rangers on Thursday to open a four-game homestand after losing three games in a row in regulation for the first time this season. They were shut out by Detroit and Minnesota before losing Sunday in Winnipeg.
Avalanche players practiced Wednesday for the first time since returning from Winnipeg after holding a team meeting Tuesday to address the dire situation.
"When you lose three in a row like that, you reflect on things," captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "You feel like there are things that definitely could have been better. It's disappointing, obviously, with such a big road trip, so yesterday we talked some things through and to go over some things we have to work out, which is good, and get guys going after a day off. We're just going to reload and recharge. We were upbeat today and feeling good."
Players weren't about to divulge any specifics of the meeting, but it sounds as though it might have gotten kind of rough at times.
"We have a good group in here, everybody handled things pretty well," Duchene said. "When tough things are said, guys are shouldering it well. There's a lot to be happy about and excited about with this group. I'm proud of all the boys and know that we're going to be OK at the end of the day.
"It's part of sports, it's part of hockey, part of a team game. We all love each other in here, we're a family and we do what's best for each other. it comes with the positive and negative. It's all good."
Said Landeskog: "If you don't believe, then there's nothing there. We certainly believe, we know that we still have a third left in the season to go. We know we have to be better, especially the power play. It's been taking momentum out of our game. There's been power plays where we've been close, but close is not going to cut it. There are times where we can't even get in the zone and get our entries right."
The power play went 0-for-27 in the past nine games, 3-for-48 in 17 games, and ranks 29th in the 30-team NHL.