The Avalanche looks awful. And coach Patrick Roy looks worse. There’s real anger in his steely-blue eyes.

Roy is ticked off with his players, whose suspect defense has surrendered a disturbing 14 goals in three games, while losing twice in embarrassing fashion during a homestand that quickly infused tension in this young NHL season.

“I’m not sure if I would choose the word upset,” Roy insisted Thursday. “But if I’m unhappy …”

The Avs are going to get an earful from Roy. And did they ever get a tongue-lashing. Only a coach that’s really, really unhappy calls a closed-door meeting after three dates on an 82-game schedule.

Roy read the riot act to the players: Lack of effort will not be tolerated.

“If we don’t compete, or we get outworked, that becomes a problem. That should not be part of our values or our DNA at all. And if I accept that, I don’t think I’m doing my job,” said Roy, concerned because the Avalanche looked unprepared and exhibited so little competitive fire during a lopsided 6-2 loss to previously winless Boston on home ice.

“I love our fans. I love the support that we have. I feel that as an organization, we need to set the bar. When we play in front of our fans, we’re not allowed to get outworked. Period.”

Showing strain as evident as the dark circles under his eyes, Roy pulled his players off the ice late in a contentious practice, went behind closed doors of the dressing room and tried to nip this slump in the bud.

And one more thing: Roy also has decided to bench struggling goalie Semyon Varlamov — whose save percentage has been a shaky .841 on 69 shots — in favor of Reto Berra for the game at Anaheim.

Holy moly. St. Patrick is mad as heck. He isn’t going to take it anymore.

Maybe it’s too early to call Colorado a team in crisis.

But it’s not too soon to declare that the Avs are a team in trouble with their disgruntled coach.

“If I feel we get outworked, I’m going to mention it. Something that I take a lot of pride in doing is: Always work hard. As a coach, as a player, I expect the same thing. It’s something that the players control. That’s something that should be a given to me,” said Roy, who preferred to call the closed-door meeting an exchange of ideas between him and the players.

Consider the message received.

“We’re trying to get better quickly, because in this conference, it’s going to be tough to make the playoffs. We had a talk. … I think it was needed,” said Colorado winger Jarome Iginla, who realizes when a lecture on lack of effort is given after only three games, it should set off the alarm before a little slump becomes a deep hole. “We’re all trying to get better. But it is hard to admit when you get outworked, and that’s what happened against Boston. … There are skilled and dynamic players on this team. But we’ve got to get that consistency on the defensive side. Those are things we are talking about. Our goal is to get in the playoffs, and ultimately to win in the playoffs, and we’ve got to be better defensively.”

While Roy tried to downplay the significance of giving Berra a shot in goal against the Ducks, it seems obvious the change was made for reasons beyond a rest day for the 27-year-old Varlamov.

Only two years ago, when a hot start propelled Colorado to the Central Division title and chants of “Varly, Varly” shook the Pepsi Center walls as he became a Vezina Trophy finalist, Varlamov was the starter in net for the opening 10 games of the season. Last winter, as the Avs made a desperate push for the playoffs that ultimately fell short, Roy put the team’s hopes squarely on the back of Varlamov, who was the goaltender of record in 22 consecutive games from Jan. 15 through March 8.

The real problem defensively for Colorado, however, is not between the pipes. It’s at the blue line. The Avs have been worse than ineffective in their defensive end. They have been sloppy.

“If you’re looking at the game against Boston, they didn’t beat us. We beat ourselves,” Roy said. “We had bad tracking on the first goal. Then you are looking at goals No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6, they are all give-aways. In looking at (the Bruins), they didn’t do nothing very fabulous out there. I mean, we just give the puck away,” said Roy, still exasperated more than 12 hours after the embarrassing defeat at home. “If you cannot learn from your mistakes, I don’t think you can become a better team.”

Mark Kiszla: , mkiszla@denverpost.com or @markkiszla