The Avalanche's offensive woes continued Tuesday night in a 3-1 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes at the Pepsi Center, the team's second loss in a row and third in the past four games.
It doesn't much matter which goalie the opponent throws at the Avalanche these days, he plays like an NHL All-Star against a team that now has scored a meager 15 goals in eight games while going 0-for-22 on power plays.
Coyotes goalie Mike Smith, who owns an 8-1-3 record against the Avalanche, didn't play Tuesday because he was feeling ill. So backup Thomas Greiss made the Avalanche feel under the weather with a number of big stops among the 29 saves he made for his fourth win in as many career games against Colorado.
The Coyotes pulled within one point of the eighth-place Avalanche in the Western Conference with a 17-8-5 record and 39 points in 30 games. The Avalanche (20-9-0), which has played one fewer game, has a better road record (10-4-0) than at home (10-5-0).
"We didn't get too high early in the season when things were going our way and now it's certainly not a time to get too low," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "We didn't have that punch-first mentality in front of the net. We have to be relentless there and we have to be hungrier there, that's for sure.
"We just need to recharge here. It’s frustrating obviously to lose a game like this at home. We got to recharge. We don’t have any time to feel sorry for ourselves.…
The Avalanche has had trouble finishing chances lately, whether at even strength or on the power play.
"We have to find ways to score," said center Paul Stastny, who doesn't have a point in the past seven games. "One goal is not enough. We have to find ways to get in front of the net, whether it's a deflection, whether it's a rebound. It's on us. Other teams aren't going to sit back and give us those chances. We're going to have to do it ourselves to create more power plays and get more chances and score more goals.
"If you play hungrier and play grittier, you're going to get more power plays. That's what we have to find ways to do."
Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said it's become a matter of confidence, or a lack of it.
"I think it's just the type of shots that we're taking on our chances," he said. "They need to be better shots, but I thought we had a good start. We played very well in the first period. We gave them only two scoring chances and we had four or five pretty good chances. Their goalie made some great saves."
The teams combined for all four goals in a 7:02 span of the second period. Coyotes center Antoine Vermette began the scoring spree at 8:31 and ended it at 15:33 to give the Coyotes their 3-1 lead. Fourth-liner Patrick Bordeleau scored for the Avalanche, his career-high fourth of the season.
Too many of the Avalanche's front-line players are mired in slumps. Aside from Stastny, Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly have no goals and one assist in the past eight games; Jamie McGinn has one goal in seven; PA Parenteau has two goals and two assists in nine; Landeskog has no goals and two assists in four.
The Avalanche isn't getting any offense from the defense. Erik Johnson has no goals and two assists in 13 games, while Tyson Barrie and Andre Benoit are both scoreless in the past eight.
"I think we need a bit of confidence offensively," Roy said. "The chances are there, it's just a matter of time before they go in. During that time we're going to have to find other ways to score. We're going to have to drive that net a little more. It might have to be ugly goals and the confidence is going to come back.
"We're going to have to start putting more pucks on net, but we put pucks at the net tonight. Their goalie made a couple of good saves. When you're not confident around the net, it's just a matter of trying to do things with a little more patience. In the first period (Nathan) MacKinnon was all alone and he had plenty of time and he rushed his shot. I think that's what happens when the team is not playing with confidence around the net."