I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a happy holiday, whatever you celebrate at this time of year. I don't plan on any more blogs until after the Avalanche resumes practice on Saturday.
And just to help get you in the holiday mood, here is the best ever version of Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (though I miss the late, great Clarence Clemons):
You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout, I'm tellin' you why... https://t.co/xXpcVOviif
— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) December 22, 2015As for the Avalanche, a 7-4 loss to Toronto on Monday certainly wasn't the way they wanted to head into the Christmas break, not after reeling off five consecutive wins to climb into the playoff picture.
They'll resume play five points out of the second wild card position in the West, meeting Arizona at the Pepsi Center to close a four-game homestand.
"It's a good opportunity to regroup now, take those four days off and be ready for a good practice on the 26th and be ready at home against Arizona," coach Patrick Roy said. "We need to bounce back right away."
It figured that on the very day Semyon Varlamov was named the NHL's first star of the past week, he gave up as many goals -- six -- on 21 shots against the Maple Leafs as he did on 202 shots in the previous six games combined.
"It's too bad because Varly played so well and the team had such a good run," Roy said. "Sometimes, when you see your goalie is not having his 'A' game because he looked tired to me, this is an opportunity for us to play ... give shots, but not give breakaways or 2-on-1s. We need to be better."
Roy said he had no choice but to leave Varlamov in goal because backup Reto Berra hurt his ankle playing soccer before the game -- every team seems to knock a ball around -- and wasn't available. He was to have an MRI Tuesday but no results were announced.
Defenseman Nate Guenin sustained a probable concussion in the second period and isn't expected to be available against the Coyotes. Penalty killing was a major problem for the second time this season against Toronto, which converted all three of its power plays. The Leafs were 4-of-5 in the previous game, a 5-1 win Nov. 17 in Toronto when they also scored a shorthanded goal.
"You have to tip your cap to those guys, but our PK needs to be better and we all take responsibility for that," Gabriel Landeskog said. "There's no excuses."
The Avalanche took an early 1-0 lead on the first of Jack Skille's two goals, but they fizzled on a power play with a chance to grab a 2-0 advantage and the game went downhill from there, though it was a 3-3 game going to the third period.
Former University of Denver star Tyler Bozak scored three times in the third for his second career NHL hat trick.
"I did think we dominated the game the first 10 minutes and we got a power play and our power play just sucked the momentum out of us," Landeskog said. "That wasn't good enough on our part. After that they kind of slowly took over. They got their power play working, but at the same time we weren't playing our best game and we were still tied going to the third. Our third wasn't the best period. Lately our third periods have been strong."
Said Roy: "I think after the first 10 minutes it seemed like our focus was gone and we just had a hard time to get back in that game. It just wasn't there for us."
Still, the Avalanche have gone 8-3-0 in December and they'll play six of the next seven games at home, which should be an advantage despite a 6-8-1 record there.
"We've grown over the last couple of weeks and that's something we're going to bring to the Christmas break," Landeskog said. "We'll definitely have to think about this one and watch the video and see what we can do better. The last five games before this one is definitely going to build our confidence. We know that we're a strong group in here, we're going to keep our heads high and get some rest and be ready for Arizona."