Now that the season is approximately 20 games in, the Avalanche are still stuck in neutral, taking one step forward and two steps back on a nightly basis. You could focus in on the goaltending position, where last year’s Vezina runner up, Semyon Varlamov, has been out twice with minor injuries, and inconsistent play from backup, Reto Berra, have made it a challenge to know what to expect on a nightly basis. Alternatively, you could take a look at the AHL caliber defense that the Avs posses. One could make a pretty convincing argument that the Avalanche consistently field only three NHL caliber defensemen, Eric Johnson, Tyson Barrie, and Jan Hejda, on nightly basis, although that horse has been beaten so many times, it’s not even worth exploring any more. The coaches, management, and fans all know that defense is a major area of concern.

Colorado Avalanche Power Outage

It’s time to start pointing fingers elsewhere, as there is much more going on than weak defense. A great deal of the blame for the poor start can be placed on the top 6 wingers. The trio of Gabriel Landeskog, Jarome Iginla, and Ryan O’Reilly came into the year expected to score goals. Up to this point, they simply haven’t been performing. Those three players have accounted for a grand total of nine goals in the teams 21 games. That averages out to approximately .42 goals. To make matters worse, this trio accounts for approximately 16.8 million dollars against the salary cap. You can’t be paying that much money to players that aren’t scoring.

By comparison, the trio of Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon, and Alex Tanguay, all of whom are considered the team’s playmakers, not goal scorers, have accounted for 18 goals in the 21 games played. When your playmakers are doubling up your top goal scorers, it doesn’t bode well for winning games. You need your playmakers to be on the same page as your goal scorers, as when they are a functioning unit, the goal scorers are feeding off the playmakers, not vice versa.

Even the bottom six players are giving similar production to the top 6 wingers. The trio of Talbot, John Mitchell, and Danny Briere make a combined 7.55 million, significantly less than the trio of Landeskog, Iginla and O’Reilly, yet to this point in the season, they’ve only accounted for two less goals, despite Briere being a healthy scratch or benched for at least seven games. Your bottom six players can’t be keeping pace with your top six wingers if you want to have success in this league.

The defensive trio of Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie, and Zach Redmond has also kept pace with the top six trio, posting nine goals so far. Your top 3 defensive players should not have the same amount of goals as your top six wingers 20+ games into the season. It could be argued that this defensive trio is very offense-minded, but that really shouldn’t have any bearing on the situation. Your defensemen shouldn’t be keeping pace goal scoring wise.

Too many times this year has the trio of Landeskog, Iginla and O’Reilly been some of the worst players on the ice for the Avalanche, and this just can’t happen if they want to push for a playoff spot. Landeskog takes a lot of the blame, fair or not, he is the captain of this team, and much more is expected from him. His play has been very uninspiring and casual all season long. The way he has been playing this year is not what earned him the “C” on his jersey. He needs to take control of his team, and he can do that by going into what lots of Avs fans call “Viking Mode”. This is basically where he takes over the game by being physical, and a terror on the ice for defensemen. He has the capability to be a top 10 power forward in the game, he needs to figure out how to get back there.

Same goes for O’Reilly. He consistently looks like a guy that just doesn’t want to be out on the ice with his teammates. He rarely uses his body, relies too much on his hands, and often times, that leads him to become flatfooted and get beat fairly easily. This is not the type of play that earned him the reputation as one of the best defensive forwards in the league and the Lady Byng trophy last season. Much has been made about the contract issues O’Reilly has had in the past, which basically came down to the player and his agent wanting more money than perhaps he was worth. In both of the past two contract issues, the Avs eventually caved and gave in to his demands. Now, he is rewarding them with a performance that a player making half his salary is probably worth. Plain and simple, O’Reilly needs to start performing at a level he is capable of to prove he was worth his demands. If he continues his lackadaisical play, I would not be too surprised to see him traded, because right now, he is big time headache.

Iginla has been a notorious slow starter throughout his career, but he is taking it to new levels this year. Three goals through 21 games is unacceptable for a player with his pedigree and salary. It’s tough to determine if father time is just catching up to the 37 year old, or if he is just struggling to find chemistry with his line mates. Either way Iginla was brought in for his veteran leadership, and while he has been a nice influence on the young players, he needs to start performing more on the ice. The Avs can’t afford to pay 5.3 million dollars a year to a role model, they need on-ice results as well.

Overall, the Colorado Avalanche have multiple issues that need to be addressed in order to become a competitive team. Simply put, your highest paid and strongest players need to perform up to expectations on a nightly basis, and currently…they aren’t.

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