Sitting with a record of 26-24-11 on Feb. 25 seemed improbable when the season started for the Colorado Avalanche, but here we are. Patrick Roy’s second season behind the bench has been nothing short of disappointing.
After winning the Central Division last season, Roy’s young squad now occupies the basement. Colorado’s only hope of making the playoffs is to complete the daunting task of jumping four teams. They currently sit six points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
There are a laundry list of reasons why the Avalanche find themselves struggling to make the playoffs this season instead of fighting for another division title.
The Joe Sakic-led front office made a number of questionable offseason moves.
Semyon Varlamov spent the beginning of the season fighting through injuries.
Colorado’s young nucleus of forwards – Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Duchene, Ryan O’Reilly and Nathon MacKinnon – have struggled to find the back of the net all season.
Outside of Tyson Barrie and Erik Johnson, Colorado’s defensemen have been pedestrian, at best.
All of these factors have accounted for Colorado’s poor play throughout major portions of the season. But, unlike their Pepsi Center counterparts, the Denver Nuggets, the Avalanche haven’t come on under fire from fans and media.
There is one major reason why. Effort.
The Colorado Avalanche have shown up and competed night after night. No one can accuse this team of taking nights off or quitting on their head coach. Effort buys a lot amongst sports fans.
Look no further than Calvin Pickard as truth to that; he delivered herculean performances in Varlamov’s absences. So much so that people were wondering if Pickard had earned the starting job when Varlamov returned. That seems silly now, but at the time, Pickard’s effort won over the hearts and minds of this town.
After a heartbreaking, unexpected first-round playoff exit last season, everyone knew the roster needed tinkering. The most pressing issues were keeping a blossoming roster together and upgrading the defensive unit. Neither of those happened.
Sakic let Paul Stastny walk via free agency and traded P.A. Parenteau for Daniel Briere. These moves haven’t turned out to be addition by subtraction, as they were sold at the time.
Colorado has struggled with chemistry on the ice all season and Briere has been a disaster – lately being relegated to healthy scratch status. That said; one man’s effort to replace them has been admirable. On the season, Alex Tanguay has scored 40 points, which puts him one point off the team lead; his career resurgence has been a nice surprise.
Trading for aging defensemen Brad Stuart hasn’t had the desired effect on defense, but Barrie is having a career year. The young defensemen leads the Avs with 27 assists on the year. Barrie has not only been one of the few bright spots on defense, but he has helped carry the offense for most of the year while the Big Four has struggled.
When the scoring of Landeskog, Duchene, O’Reilly and MacKinnon was needed the most was at the beginning of the year, when Colorado’s Vezina Trophy goaltender sidelined they were ghosts. That doesn’t mean these four were complete no shows. Early in the season, physicality was the name of the game for Colorado’s stars.
Landeskog only sits behind Cody McLeod for the most hits for the team. Duchene and O’Reilly have logged major ice time on the penalty kill and MacKinnon has been no stranger to getting his nose dirty.
The effort these four put forth doing the little things during their early scoring drought has been the reason they’ve all recently turned the corner. In the last five games, Colorado’s Big Four has racked up 20 points. That production needs to continue if this team wants to make a run at the playoffs.
As a franchise, Colorado need only look in the mirror for the current state of affairs at Pepsi Center. Everyone has failed to live up to expectations that haven’t been this high since 2001, when Colorado won the Stanley Cup. And while that’s disappointing, it’s been pleasant to see that this team hasn’t given up.
Through their ups and downs, Roy has managed to keep his team fighting hard. Effort has kept the vultures at bay, but Roy and Company need to remember that effort only goes so far.
Colorado’s currency for forgiveness has undoubtedly been effort, but this is professional sports, where the only thing that carries true value is wins.
Effort has helped Colorado remain out of the crosshairs thus far. But if effort doesn’t start translating into wins, potential talent will start to look like potential wasted.
