If the Avalanche miss the playoffs for the second year in a row, and that's a very distinct possibility right now, chances are pretty good it'll be because they've lost so many times to poor teams (Columbus and Toronto twice each, for example), are awful at home, and because they've blown so many third-period leads.
They did it again Saturday, turning a 2-1 third-period lead into a 5-2 loss to Nashville at the Pepsi Center. Colorado, which has a 15-15-4 home record, has lost seven games -- five in regulation -- after taking a lead into the third period.
The Avalanche have lost three of their past four games overall, two of those after taking 2-1 leads into the third (Detroit at Coors Field and Saturday to the Predators), and on Tuesday in Minnesota when it was 3-3 going to the third. They easily could have lost to Florida on Thursday when goalie Calvin Pickard stopped an Avalanche record 24 saves in the third to preserve a 3-2 win.
Turnovers were the culprit Saturday.
Nick Holden's giveaway led to a Filip Forsberg goal in the second period; Nathan MacKinnon's gaffe, followed by poor defense by Francois Beauchemin while on-on-one with Ryan Johansen and Erik Johnson's failure to get back in the play helped James Neal score the tying goal 62 seconds into the third; and Andrew Bodnarchuk's weak swipe at a rebound handed the puck to Mike Fisher for the go-ahead goal with 9:44 to go.
The Predators secured the win with two empty-net goals.
"Our third periods needs to be better," coach Patrick Roy said. "If you look at our record in the last four games, we're 1-3 and in all those games we were even or ahead going into the third period. We need to be smarter in the third period. We have to learn how to play those situations much better."
You'd think they would have already learned this 67 games into the 82-game schedule.
"It's a tough loss, let's not kid ourselves,"Roy said. "We need to remain even keel and make sure that we remain focused for the next game. I've seen many funny things happen in a season. We need to win the next two games at home. They're going to be important games for us."
And look who's coming to town for Monday's game: an apparently rejuvenated Alex Tanguay and the Arizona Coyotes.
The 36-year-old left wing, in his first game with the Coyotes since last week's NHL deadline deal, had two goals and an assist in a 5-1 win against Florida. The Tanguay-Antoine Vermette-Anthony Duclair trio -- dubbed the French Connection II line -- combined for three goals and six assists as the Coyotes ended a seven-game losing streak.
“We’re going to get better hopefully as it goes on,… Tanguay told reporters. “Not sure it’s going to be this productive every night, but when it does we'll certainly come and enjoy it with a smile, for sure.…
Counting the Coors Field game when he scored the tying goal in the third period against the Red Wings, Tanguay has three goals and an assist in his past two games. He didn't play Thursday in Arizona's 5-1 loss to Anaheim because of a sore knee.
As for the Avalanche's third-period woes, here's Gabriel Landeskog, who gave them a 2-1 lead with 45.8 seconds left in the second period:
"We know what we have to do and we know what we're not doing right. We'll talk about it and address it and watch video. There's no time to sit around and pout here. We have to get right back on the horse. Fifteen games left, we know it's crunch time and we have to get it going and win hockey games.
"You have to be able to win these games this time of year. We can't afford to make mistakes and let them back in the game."
The Avalanche held their annual charity brunch Sunday and didn't practice.