This should be the best time of year for hockey with the Stanley Cup playoffs right around the corner.
Unless you play for -- or follow -- the Avalanche, that is.
One more season without a playoff game, one more spring to wonder what might have been.
That's two years in a row now without playoffs (and six of the past eight) following that magical 2013-14 season under first-year coach Patrick Roy when just about every single thing went the Avalanche's way -- well, until Game 7 against Minnesota in the first round when they blew a bunch of leads, including in the third period on the way to being eliminated.
It's been pretty much the same story since.
The Avalanche will complete the latest disappointing season Saturday against Anaheim at the Pepsi Center on "Fan Appreciation Day," when the organization will hand out various prizes and players will take off their jerseys to present to fans after the game.
The Avalanche have lost a season-worst five consecutive games in regulation and seven of the past eight since winning three consecutive games in western Canada from March 16-20.
I'll be interested to hear what GM Joe Sakic has to say about Roy, what he thinks went wrong, and what he plans to do to fix things.
No one should be surprised that Roy told the Denver Post after Thursday's 4-2 loss in Dallas that he wants to return for a fourth season. The Avalanche have gone from 112 points to 90 to 82 with one game left under Roy.
"Sometimes you want to go fast track, but that would be the wrong thing to do," Roy told the paper. "The problem is we got 112 points the first year and that's where everybody thought we made the turn. But let's not forget that the year before, we were second-to-last overall. There's a reality between that year and what's going on.
"Last year, 90 points. This year, less points. Obviously, it's not something we're proud of, not something we're happy about. I am very frustrated about it, but at the same time, I think we need to find ways to make this franchise better and it's not just for one year. It's for a longer term, and that's what we want."
Injured players have been made available after past season finales, so we should finally find out just how serious Nathan MacKinnon's knee injury is; he will have missed the last 10 games. He missed the last 18 games last season with a broken foot.
It's a meaningless game for the Avalanche, unless you consider the possibility of getting a top 10 pick in the NHL draft with another loss, but not for the Ducks. They're two points behind Pacific Division-leading Los Angeles with a game in hand.
Unfortunately for the Ducks, they'll have to travel to Washington after the game to play Sunday against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Capitals, a make-up game from the one postponed earlier because of a blizzard.
Not that the Avalanche wouldn't trade their fate for a similar cross-country trip for a game that actually means something.