With a chance to reach the .500 mark if they can sweep the upcoming two-game homestand, the Avalanche aren't looking past Thursday's game with Washington.
"Nothing else matters but the game right in front of you," Matt Duchene said. "You have to stay in the moment and take care of the job at hand."
The Avalanche will take their first two-game winning streak of the season into the game against the Capitals (8-7-3), who split the first two games of a three-game road trip. They defeated Arizona 2-1 in overtime Tuesday after losing 4-1 in St. Louis.
The Avalanche (6-8-5), who are 3-3-2 at the Pepsi Center, are coming off back-to-back come-from-behind wins against the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils after a 6-0 blowout loss on Long Island.
Jamie McGinn, who's been skating at left wing on a line with Nathan MacKinnon and Daniel Briere, didn't practice for the second day in a row Wednesday because of a back injury and is questionable for Thursday's game. Rookie Dennis Everberg practiced in his place.
"Have we played up to our potential? No, we haven't, but our last two games we showed a lot of character," Duchene said. "We were down in the third period in both those games and we just stayed with it."
The Avalanche are still adjusting to playing a zone defense after using man-to-man coverage last season and in the first 14 games this year. It's helped them to spend less time in their own end and more time in the offensive zone. The Avalanche need to take advantage of their speed if they're going to start winning on a consistent basis.
"It's something to build off of and now we have to take care of business at home," captain Gabriel Landeskog said of the two-game streak. "We've had enough of these situations this year where you win one and you feel good about yourself and then you lose two or three. That can't happen. We have to keep on building on this now and string a few together and get back to.500. It's a weird feeling, saying that after (19) games, but you have to start at some point.
"We're spending more time in the offensive zone and that's going to give us more momentum and more scoring chances. We're a fast team and we want to play fast, which we've been doing the last couple games. It's been more Avalanche hockey. Our forward lines have been playing well and everybody's been contributing.
"It definitely takes some time to get used to (the new system) and to figure out the ins and outs of it. There's always going to be an adjustment period, especially with D-zone coverage. It's hard to make it click right away. You have to make sure that everybody knows what they're doing, and we're getting closer every day."
Duchene said he'd never played man-to-man defense until last season when it was introduced by coach Patrick Roy.
"We're out of our zone quicker now," he said. "We have a fast team and we're able to play fast. We've all played (zone) at some point in our careers. I never played anything different until Patty came in last year when we started playing man-to-man. It was natural for us to go back. It took a couple games to get used to it again. I think we're playing a lot better under it."
Reto Berra will start in goal as Semyon Varlamov recovers from his second groin injury of the season. Calvin Pickard will be the backup. Berra has a 2-1-1 record in six games with a 2.70 goals-against average and .914 save percentage.
"He made big improvements over the course of the summer," Landeskog said. "His confidence is a big difference and he just wants to get better every day. He's been working really hard and it's paying off."