Injury news: Defenseman Nikita Zadorov sustained a concussion Friday in the Avalanche's 4-2 loss to Washington, so he won't play Sunday against St. Louis at the Pepsi Center.
Zadorov was injured at 4:10 of the second period on a hit by Tom Wilson while he was being checked by Marcus Johansson at the side of the Avalanche net. No penalty was assessed.
"I didn't like the hit because to me it was a blindside hit," coach Patrick Roy said after practice Saturday. "I think it was a head shot (and) should have been penalized. That's how I see it."
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The Avalanche won't have a morning skate Sunday because of the 6 p.m. MT start, but Roy said Semyon Varlamov will start against the Blues.
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Roy sure was frustrated after Friday's loss because there were so many turnovers, two of which led to Capitals goals, and he acknowledged as much Saturday. It's been the same story every game.
"Yes, I am," he said. "We know why we're losing, and it's kind of funny because last night I went with a buddy after the game and I was watching the end of the (NBA) game between Boston and Golden State. (The Warriors) had 54 wins in a row at home and their coach after the game, after the loss, took the time to praise his players for what they've been doing for 54 games. But the first thing he said, 'We had 22 turnovers and we cannot win (like that).'
"It goes for basketball, it goes for hockey, it goes for all the sports. It's why I said yesterday I was very frustrated because I have to find a way to make our guys accountable. How I'm going to do it, I guess I'm going to have to figure out. By showing them on the clips night after night? Is it by taking them out of the power plays, by benching the guys? But we have to find a way.
"We had way too many turnovers. I'm not going to give you the number that we came up with, but I'd say probably half of their shots (were) coming after turnovers."
The Capitals had 47 shots on goal but also had 20 blocked and they missed the net 16 times. The Avalanche, in contrast, had 19 shots, eight blocked and missed the net 10 times.
"It's impossible when you're playing against top teams like this where their counter attack is outstanding, their transition game is good," Roy said. "If you turn over the puck -- bang, they're gone. They're going to have breakaways, 2 on 1s, 3 on 2s, they're going to possess the puck.
"There's moments in the game where we had the puck two times, three times, and we could not get it out of our zone. You're watching and you've been in your zone for a minute and 30 (seconds) because we give the puck (away) three times. That's the cause of our problems."
I asked Roy why players continue to make these mistakes game after game.
"There's different ways to see it," he said. "Is it a lack of talent? Is it a lack of concentration? Is it a lack of options? These are the things we might have another conversation on."
Is it too late to fix it after 78 games?
"My values are respect and trust," Roy said. "Should I show those clips (before practice Saturday)? I didn't want to do it because I didn't want to affect the confidence. Sometimes if you watch this too many times, you're like, 'OK, is it going to help?' What's the good strategy? Is it too late to fix? We'll see.
"All I can say is we talk about it for a while and we know we need to be better. You hear me say it many, many times."
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Matt Duchene said he felt fine physically after playing his first game since hurting his knee March 16 in Vancouver. He logged 19:15 in ice time and had one shot on goal.
But he obviously wasn't happy about the Avalanche's loss, along with how poorly they played. They remain five points behind Minnesota for the second wild card playoff position in the Western Conference with four games remaining, one more than the Wild, who lost to Detroit on Friday.
"It was a missed opportunity," Duchene said. "We didn't give ourselves a chance to realistically win that game. We were lucky to be even in it. Varly was outstanding, and that seems to be story every day.
"We have nothing to lose at this point. I think we almost have to think like that. That's not saying we play loose and careless, it's playing confident and on our toes and just go for it at this point. Like Patty said today, we don't want to have any regrets.
"We were in seventh place in January, in the first wild card spot. We were ahead of Nashville and Minny at one point. We did the right things to get there. It's frustrating to be in the position we're in, but we have four games (left) and we'll make the best of it. At the very least we have to play for our fans and the logo, finish hard."