For the Avs and their fans, if it's not panic time, it's getting closer

MONTREAL – Vacant stares. Clipped, abrupt sentences. Shrugged shoulders.

It seems like the members of the Avalanche are somewhere in the five stages of grief right now. First, there was denial that anything was really wrong. Then there was anger. Then, a bit of bargaining. Now, it appears some depression is setting in.

Whether the Avs start to become a team that – like they did just a couple of years ago – starts to accept losing? Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s at that point just yet.

But it’s getting a little closer.

The Avs lost again Saturday night, 3-0 to the Montreal Canadiens. Despite a somewhat lackluster showing through the first two periods, Semyon Varlamov gave his team a chance entering the third, matching Carey Price save for save in a scoreless game.

Then it all fell apart in the third. Montreal seemed to just want it more, which is surprising given the Avs came into this one saying all the right things for a team that had lost eight of the previous nine.

It’s just there for the Avs right now, and maybe the most worrisome thing about it all is: Nobody seems to know how to get out of this.

“I don’t know how to really break it down for you,” captain Gabe Landeskog told BSN Denver. “It’s frustrating, no doubt.”

Things started to go wrong for this team on Dec. 17, when Barry Trotz and the New York Islanders came into the Pepsi Center and beat Colorado 4-1. Shortly after, NBC hockey analyst Pierre McGuire said on the air that Trotz had discovered a formula to beat the Avs, and that other coaches were copying Trotz.

I asked Avs coach Jared Bednar about that specifically after this one and here’s what he said:

“You can make some minor adjustments, but I don’t think teams are altering their playing style to play the Colorado Avalanche,” Bednar said. “I just think that (Montreal) checked us hard, and won some battles and I didn’t think our puck support was the way it was the last couple of games. They’d stand us up and we didn’t have enough guys coming on the puck. And we’d run out of numbers and they’d grab it and transition it the other way.”

The Avs look like a team that’s expecting to lose right now – and that’s just what’s happening. They are still in a playoff spot, there’s still a long way to go, but this is the worst stretch of hockey for the team since the awful 2016-17 season. The Avs lost this thing because of yet another awful special teams showing.

It was a scoreless game with the clock getting close to the midpoint of the third when Colorado gave up a short-handed goal with 27 seconds left still on a Shea Weber hooking minor. There was no pushback after that. Montreal got another goal at 10:39 of the period, and that was that. Carey Price got the shutout and made 28 saves, but he really wasn’t tested all that much.

“Our power play is not doing good enough,” Mikko Rantanen told BSN Denver. “We get four or five chances and we don’t do anything, don’t create any momentum for ourselves. But we have to move on and forget it.”

I asked Rantanen if maybe it’s time for a team meeting – if one hasn’t happened already. He kinda sorta said they’ve already been there and done that.

“We talked about it. I don’t think it’s not enough talking,” he said. “It’s what we do on the ice. We just have to be better. Every individual has to look in the mirror and ask what they can do better.”

They get their next chance to do that Monday night in Toronto. Game four of a five-game roadie. For the Avs, hopefully it’s not another just another stage of grief.