DALLAS — When there are two big, fundamental mistakes made on the first shift of the night, it’s kind of tough to get into that “Let’s start the game on time” mentality that Avalanche coach Joe Sacco likes to preach.

Then again, bad starts are nothing new to Sacco’s Avs. This season, his team has been outscored 36-19 in the first period, with opponents getting the first goal in nine of the last 10 games and 21 out of 30 overall. This year, the Avs are the equivalent of a 1965, rusted Dodge Dart when it comes to getting good, clean jump-starts.

Mistakes right off the hop by David Jones and Ryan O’Byrne helped spell doom for the Avs in their 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday night at American Airlines Arena. The loss dropped the Avs back to 15th place in the Western Conference, with the playoffs entering Jim Mora “Playoffs? Playoffs?” territory.

After the game, Avs veteran goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who relieved Semyon Varlamov early in the second period when it was 4-0, laced into his team’s effort and preparation coming in.

“We had a big meeting two or three days ago, a players-only meeting. We talked about some stuff and I thought we had a good response against Dallas at home (Wednesday). Then we have a day off, then come back and practice, and I thought our practice was just awful,” Giguere said. “The effort wasn’t there. We practiced defensive zone coverage, and guys weren’t taking the body and swirling and stuff like that. This is the stuff we have to work on every day. I told a couple of the guys that ‘I don’t think we’ll have a good game today.’ It’s unacceptable. It’s an everyday job. You’ve got to work hard every day. You’ve got to be a lot more desperate than that.”

The Avs played a miserable first two periods and trailed 4-0. It started with a Jones giveaway in the Stars’ zone to Derek Roy, followed by a sluggish backchecking job by the forwards the other way. Then, O’Byrne backed off too much from the developing Stars rush, and in doing so only served to screen goalie Varlamov on Roy’s shot to the top corner at the 34-second mark.

“You don’t have an opportunity for 13 other guys to get on the ice and we’ve got a goal against. That’s a bad turnover in the offensive zone, played poorly on our backcheck,” Sacco said.

P.A. Parenteau and Paul Stastny cut the Dallas lead in half with early third-period goals. Then, Aaron Palushaj and Stefan Elliott nearly scored. But the puck stayed out, and Dallas’ 41-year-old Jaromir Jagr salted the game away shortly after with a wraparound shot that was accidentally deflected in off the skate of Elliott.

“We have to put all the noise aside and not worry about the standings right now,” Giguere said. “We have to just worry about each individual bringing their ‘A’ game within the system that we have. If we do that, we’ll give ourselves a chance tomorrow. If we don’t do that, it’s going to be the same old story.”

Avs Recap

The Post’s three stars

1. Jaromir Jagr. Ageless Stars player had a goal and an assist.

2. Jamie Benn. Stars center had three assists.

3. Derek Roy. Scored the first goal of the night for Dallas.

What you might have missed

Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog was a late scratch Saturday night because of a torso injury. He is considered day to day, with Colorado playing host to Vancouver on Sunday.

Up next

Vancouver, Sunday at 6 p.m., Pepsi Center.