Is this any way to head into the two-week break for the Olympics?
The Avalanche has lost two consecutive games in regulation for the third time this season and needs to defeat the New York Islanders on Saturday to avoid losing three in a row in regulation for the second time. The Avalanche did it Nov. 12-16 against Carolina, St. Louis and Florida.
The Avalanche has totaled four goals in the first three games of the four-game road trip:
* A goal by PA Parenteau with 1:47 left in regulation in a 6-on-5 skating situation and one by Ryan O'Reilly during a 4-on-3 power play 28 seconds into overtime Monday in a 2-1 win in New Jersey;
* One by Gabriel Landeskog at 6:37 of the second period Tuesday in a 5-1 loss in New York;
* One by Nathan MacKinnon in another 6-on-5 situation with 2:50 left in regulation Thursday in a 3-1 loss in Philadelphia.
And this coming on the heels of last Saturday's 7-1 win against Buffalo.
Yeah, the Avalanche has come up against some very good goaltending in Cory Schneider, Henrik Lundqvist and Steve Mason, not that the Sabres' Ryan Miller is chopped chicken liver (he just happens to play for an awful team). And the Avalanche did get 39 shots against the Flyers.
No matter, the Avalanche needs to rediscover its offense against an Islanders team that has one win in the past seven games (1-5-1) while going 0-for-30 on power plays and has gone 0-4-1 in the past five games on home ice. The Islanders won the first meeting 2-1 in overtime on Jan. 10 at the Pepsi Center.
Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who made 27 saves against the Devils, will start in goal. He's stopped 46 of 48 shots in his past two appearances.
Still trying to figure out how a guy like Matt Duchene can score just one goal in 23 games. He has 16 assists in this stretch and his presence has been a nice boost for linemate Ryan O'Reilly, who has seven goals and six assists in 13 games since returning from a shoulder injury that put him on the shelf for two games.
Ditto for defenseman Erik Johnson, who has five assists and no goals in 15 games despite owning a big shot. Defenseman Andre Benoit has seven assists and no goals in 25 games.
On the plus side, Landeskog has three goals and seven assists in an eight-game point-scoring streak, and MacKinnon has four goals and six assists in a seven-game streak. MacKinnon and O'Reilly are tied for the team goal-scoring lead with 21.
The Avalanche will have no worse than an eight-point lead over Minnesota in the race for third place in the Central Division no matter what happens Saturday, but the Wild keeps hanging around and who knows how these teams will respond after having two weeks off for the Olympics.
The Avalanche has a rugged schedule when the season resumes with the first nine games against Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Winnipeg, Chicago and Anaheim.
Saturday's game against the Islanders is one of the two games in hand the Avalanche has in its competition with Minnesota. Best to take full advantage of it.