Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog has been spending more time than he'd like talking to himself, giving himself pep talks, trying to stay positive while in the midst of a prolonged scoring slump.
It finally ended Sunday when he used what had been a typical power move to the net to score a second-period goal that gave the Avalanche a 2-2 tie with Columbus in a game that would end in a last-minute 4-3 loss.
Landeskog had failed to score in the previous 14 games, since Nov. 29 against Dallas, despite launching 43 shots on goal. That included seven shots in a Dec. 11 game against Winnipeg.
"I'm starting to have scoring chances and I've been trying to tell myself not to get frustrated," he said after practice Monday. "I've been trying to tell myself I'm getting great chances and I'll be fine. It felt good to score, absolutely."
The goal was just his eighth of the season even though he's taken more shots (121) than anyone else on the team. Nathan MacKinnon is next with 116 shots; he has one goal in the past 21 games and six overall after scoring 24 goals last season when he won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie.
"I think my first year I had a stretch of 24 games or something like that where I didn't score," Landeskog said. "They come in bunches usually and it's a matter of not taking it for granted because they're not easy to come by in this league. But it felt good to get one."
Matt Duchene is also in a slump with no goals in 10 games. He's taken 99 shots in 39 games and is tied with Jarome Iginla and Erik Johnson with 10 goals, two behind leader Alex Tanguay.
"Like I said to (Landeskog) and Matt, I understand how they feel," coach Patrick Roy said. "It's not fun to be in that position, but they're not alone. We're there with them and as coaches we certainly want to help them find some solutions for them to perform and score those goals.
"It's also our job, and it's going to continue to be a partnership with them and we're certainly going to help them to try and produce. If we could get a power play here and there and the guys score on the power play, it's going to help them."
The Avalanche are 1-for-14 on power plays in the past five games. They had four power plays against the Blue Jackets and managed six shots on goal.
"I've been starting to feel better the last few games, starting to feel like I've been around the net," said Landeskog, who had a career-high 26 goals last season. "It's just about helping the team any way you can. Of course a goal scorer is supposed to score goals and you want to score goals any time you're out there, but as long as you're helping the team win somehow ...
"For me, it's about playing hard and being good on the forecheck and working hard. I feel when I do those things I'm going to get rewarded for that, whether it's goals or whatever. Working hard is the key to everything. At times you can try to change the tape color and whatnot and little things like that if you're a little superstitious, but it's really a matter of getting your head into it and focusing where to go on the ice to score the goals."
Tyson Barrie and Daniel Briere have gone 14 games without a goal, John Mitchell seven games without one, and Ryan O'Reilly has two goals in 10 games.
"No one likes to be in that position," Roy said. "Yeah, it certainly could be mental. Like I said to them, when the chances are there you should not worry. Just keep putting pucks on net and good things will happen."
*****
Goalie Semyon Varlamov is expected to start the next four games, beginning with Tuesday's visit to Chicago, through the Jan. 12 game in Washington, which is the first of a back-to-back set on a five-game road trip.
"I'm not going to use Varly all the time," Roy said. "We're going to use Varly for this period of time. When we're going to hit the road our plan is to (give) about three games of five to Varly and give two other games to someone else."
Someone else?
"We have a plan and if you don't mind I'm just going to focus on tomorrow," Roy said, referring to the Blackhawks game.
Reto Berra hasn't played since a third-period relief appearance Dec. 5 in Winnipeg. Calvin Pickard is the other option. Roy told Pickard, who was returned to Lake Erie in the AHL on Dec. 28, to be prepared to come back for that trip.