The Colorado Avalanche has a chance to end any doubt about the Central Division race well before the end of the regular season, but there\u2019s something more important on the short-term to-do list.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time for the Avs to snap out of the closest thing to a funk this team has encountered this season. Colorado is 2-3-1 in its past six games, which includes the worst loss of the season \u2014 a 7-3 defeat Saturday night against Nashville at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n
There are 31 other teams in the NHL that would love to have 2-3-1 be its worst six-game stretch of the season. But, the Avs are playing a game against other things now beyond wins and standings points \u2014 their top opponents are complacency and bad habits.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team has showed that\u00a0 they can respond to coaching on video and dialing in on the details of our game,\u201d Avs coach Jared Bednar said. \u201cThey\u2019ve done it all year, get focused and prepared to play. No question, the last couple games we haven\u2019t done that for a full 60 the way we\u2019d like to. But we\u2019ve talked about a handful of things that we want to improve on that help us play to our identity, and we expect it to be implemented tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loss to the Predators included two empty-net goals, which inflated the score, but Bednar went off a bit on his team afterwards<\/a>. He didn\u2019t like what he saw against Nashville, nor the negative trends that have developed over the past six games.<\/p>\n The Avs still have a positive goal differential during this \u201cslump,\u201d having outscored their opponents 21-19. But there are plenty of signs that this team isn\u2019t firing at optimal levels like it was for the first 40 games.<\/p>\n Colorado is 16th in expected goals for percentage (xGF%) over the past 15 days, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Avs have been pacing the league in that metric all season, and still do, but this stretch is not close to their standard.<\/p>\n The penalty kill has remained strong, and while the power play has shown flickers of improvement, Colorado has scored just one more goal than its allowed (3-2) while playing with the extra man in this stretch.<\/p>\n A silver lining during this mini-slump is the top two teams chasing the Avalanche in the Central Division and Western Conference are also stuck in the midseason mud. Minnesota is now 5-4-4 in its past 13 games, which began with a 5-1 thumping by Colorado. The Wild have won just two games in regulation in nearly a month.<\/p>\n Dallas, which has been the No. 2 team in the division, conference and NHL standings for months, is struggling even worse. The Stars are 2-6-4 in their past 12 games, and have scored one goal in each of the past three games.<\/p>\n Colorado will welcome the Washington Capitals to Ball Arena on Monday afternoon, and the Avs will begin the day with an 11-point lead on both Dallas and Minnesota in the Central and Western Conference standings. The Avs also have three games in hand on both clubs.<\/p>\n If Bednar\u2019s team can get back on track this week, with three more games at home, there\u2019s a chance the Avs could make it all but impossible for Dallas or Minnesota to catch them after the Olympic break.<\/p>\n