The Avalanche vowed Friday to compete a lot harder -- it won't take much effort to accomplish that -- against the Minnesota Wild at the Pepsi Center on Saturday night than they did Thursday in the 5-0 blowout loss at the Xcel Energy Center.
"Obviously, after the game no one was very happy about our performance," coach Patrick Roy said. "We didn't compete the way we wanted. Today, the guys know that. They're smart players. They understand that in order for us to be successful like we were last year, we're going to have to be a lot better in that area of the game.
"Saying this, we said all year long last year we want to be even-keeled. This is the first test for it. We're going to have to regroup and be ready for tomorrow. We have to be a lot different than we were last night."
A few players, including injured center John Mitchell, skated Friday, but the Avalanche stuck to their original plan of working out in the gym and watching video of Thursday's horror show.
Roy will make a couple of changes Saturday: defenseman Ryan Wilson will replace Nate Guenin, and the Avalanche will rework the top two lines: Matt Duchene will center Ryan O'Reilly and Jarome Iginla, and Nathan MacKinnon will move back to center with Gabriel Landeskog and Alex Tanguay.
But it won't matter much if the Avalanche play with the same disinterested attitude they put on display in Minnesota. The Wild skated circles around the Avalanche, kept them hemmed in their end and outshot them 48-16. Including missed and blocked shots, the count was an embarrassing 78-29.
Roy pulled beleaguered goalie Semyon Varlamov, who stopped 38 of 33 shots, after two periods. Reto Berra stopped all 10 shots he faced in the third
"We were so bad in front of him," Roy said. "He's the reason why it was only 5-0 after two, to be honest."
Said Duchene: "We just want to rebound. That was a clinic for them last night. They absolutely dominated us. They probably deserved to beat us 8-0. Varly made some great saves, he got absolutely shelled, and Reto played great in the third."
The top two lines were ineffective from start to finish, combining for four shots on goal, and the Avalanche failed to register a shot on goal on any of four power plays.
"We have to know that we can't just show up and put the gear on and we're going to be a good team," Duchene said. "We have to put the work in. We have to do what we did last year. We came to every game with enthusiasm and hard work and excitement. Last night we almost seemed a little tentative. We have to forget about trying to duplicate what we did last year and just be a good team. We don't have to go 13-1 or whatever we did like that start of last season. We just have to be a good team, be a playoff team."
The Avalanche hardly looked the part in the opener, and Roy said he wasn't all that surprised considering the team's 1-5-2 record in the preseason.
"I'd be lying if I said that," he said. "All summer long, everybody said how nice we were, how good we were, how special we were, how everybody was excited about the team, how everybody was excited about this year. We forgot about how hard we worked last year to be the team we were. That's what we have to do. Now we have to regroup. It happened, unfortunately for us, in the first game of the season. Losing 2-1, 5-0 -- big deal, it's a loss. It's how we respond.
"I mean, you saw the way we played in exhibition. It was (a reflection) of what we did yesterday. But it's a wakeup call. We certainly are going to have to play a lot different tomorrow. I don't like to use the word effort, but I want us to be stronger on pucks. Better sticks in our D-zone coverage, better in front of the net, screening the goalie on the other side. We were always on the outside. Those details of the game need to be a lot better.
"We cannot push it aside and say, 'Hey, let's forget about it.' If we had an outstanding preseason, (we could) probably say, 'OK, it's a bad night.' I have to say this to you, in my career, I had a lot of bad games. That doesn't mean we can't turn this around. Tomorrow is a great opportunity for us in front of our fans, to have a great night and play hard. It's how we're going to bounce back. Even keel goes when you win, but also goes when you lose."
In light of Thursday's awful effort and a four-game road trip through the East that begins Monday in Boston, the Avalanche can't afford to put on another stinker Saturday.
"Every game is important to us and you want to get off to a good start," Landeskog said. "We want to make sure that the team feels good going into the fall here. For us, it's a bump in the road and the focus is moving forward, what we can do to be better. It was a wakeup call. We are not a good team if we don't work hard. We have to come out tomorrow and work hard and play the systems the right way. Last night we weren't winning a lot of battles. I thought we weren't doing anything right.
"But we can't hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves. We have to move on. It's a long season, it's 81 more games and we're looking forward to tomorrow."
The lineup for Saturday:
FORWARDS Ryan O'Reilly-Matt Duchene-Jarome Iginla Gabriel Landeskog-Nathan MacKinnon-Alex Tanguay Jamie McGinn-Daniel Briere-Max Talbot Cody McLeod-Marc-Andre Cliche-Dennis Everberg
DEFENSEMEN Brad Stuart-Erik Johnson Nick Holden-Tyson Barrie Jan Hejda-Ryan Wilson
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Reto Berra