Well, the latest line changes had little impact Friday. Playing against an Edmonton Oilers team with eight wins that was playing its third game in four nights after trading David Perron to Pittsburgh in the morning, the Avalanche needed shootout goals from Matt Duchene and Alex Tanguay to secure a 2-1 win.
Impressive? Hardly, but the Avalanche (15-15-8, 38 points) will take any win they can get at this point. They were seven points out of the second wild card playoff position before Saturday's games.
They've won two games in a row and are 6-2-2 in the past 10 games heading into Sunday's game against Columbus with a chance to sweep the homestand and match their longest winning streak of the season, modest as it is. The Blue Jackets (16-16-3) played Saturday night in Arizona.
"We've got three out of the next four at home with one game in Chicago," Tanguay told reporters Saturday. "For us, we need wins. In our situation right now we know how important the wins are going to be. We need to be winning on a consistent basis."
The most positive thing to say about the Avalanche right now is that goalie Semyon Varlamov seems to be rounding into form after missing 12 of 15 games from Nov. 20-Dec. 21with groin injuries. Varlamov wasn't very busy in the first two periods Friday, but he stopped 11 of 12 shots in the third period when the Oilers -- yes, the Oilers -- dominated. He also robbed Taylor Hall on a 2-on-1 rush in overtime and was perfect in the shootout.
Varlamov has gone 3-1-0 since returning from his latest injury with a shutout, a 1.68 goals-against average and .935 save percentage. Friday's win was his 85th with the Avalanche, moving him past Stephane Fiset into sole possession of fifth place in franchise history. He has a 85-66-17 record in 170 games with Colorado. He's 7-7-5 for the season with a 2.87 average and .914 save percentage.
Varlamov didn't get much offensive help as the Avalanche were held to one goal or fewer through overtime for the eighth time. They took a 1-0 lead in the second period when Duchene came from behind the net and made a slick pass to Daniel Briere for a shot into a half-open net. But they took a late penalty that carried into the third, followed by early back-to-back penalties. Benoit Pouliot cashed in the second one and the Avalanche didn't register a shot on goal until 7:15 remained.
"We found a way to win," Briere said. "Earlier in the season we found ways to lose those types of games. To get the last two (wins) it's a big relief to realize that it's not always going to be pretty, to go all our way, but we can still find a way to win, and we did that. I'm hoping it's going to give us a lot of confidence moving forward." Even when the Avalanche should have had decent scoring chances they didn't take advantage. One example: defenseman Tyson Barrie, who had all sorts of problems in his own end, intercepted an Oilers clearing attempt in the slot in the second period but chose not to take a shot. Instead, he skated into the right circle and took a bad-angle shot that goalie Ben Scrivens easily stopped.
They had two power plays and managed one shot on each.
"I think it just shows the lack of confidence we have around the net," coach Patrick Roy said. "I thought we could have been up by two or three goals after the second period. We had plenty of good chances. We missed good opportunities and I just feel we're a little tight around the net.
"It's sad in some ways that we're not as confident as we should be around the net. You're coming back after 40 minutes of play and you're up by one goal and you think you should be up by two or three and then they have some power plays and took some momentum."
The power play is ranked 26th in the NHL at 14.6 percent. The penalty killing has been decent most of the season and is ninth in the league at 83.8 percent, but it's fallen off lately; the Avalanche have allowed five power-play goals in the past four games.
Briere's goal was his first in 13 games, since Dec. 1 against Montreal. Duchene has gone nine games without a non-shootout goal, Gabriel Landeskog has gone 14 games without a goal and Nathan MacKinnon has one goal in 20 games. Barrie hasn't scored in 13 games.