One thing, above all, is killing the Avalanche right now

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This day, like most every other day for the Colorado Avalanche the last two months, unfolded the same way.

A peppery sense of optimism characterized the dressing room after the morning skate. Semyon Varlamov joked around with TV man Marc Moser, doing stretches just outside the room. Jared Bednar spoke of how he liked his team’s leadership core in the face of recent adversity. Nikita Zadorov spoke confidently of getting two points against the defending Stanley Cup champions.

And then the game happened, and the Avalanche beat themselves the same exact way they have for two months now: Too many penalties, too many offensive zone penalties, spotty penalty killing, spotty goaltending, too much overpassing and not enough offense from anyone not named MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen.

After the game, the same bemoan from the same players in a library-silent room. And yet, this was a game they got a point, a game in which they tied it up after being behind by two goals in the third period. The Avs gained the point in a 4-3 OT loss to the Capitals, and on most nights a sense of joviality might have been the mood in the Avs room over a comeback like that.

But this team has lost so many games recently, that one point isn’t going to cut it anymore.

The Colorado Avalanche, a team with so much hope, fun and promise a mere 60 days ago is running out of time, running out of answers in a season suddenly gone horrifically bad.

“It’s just tough right now,” a stone-faced Mikko Rantanen said after the game here. “The only thing that matters is winning games. We need to win games and we didn’t do it again.”

Needless, careless penalties were most responsible for this latest loss, and of all the things that don’t make sense with this team anymore, the fact that they are one of the most heavily penalized teams in the league is at the top of the list.

The Avs arguably outplayed the Capitals at even strength in this one. They did a lot of good things at Capital One Arena. But, wow, did they take some horrible penalties. Against a team with a legend like Alex Ovechkin firing howitzers from the left side, with one of the top setup men in recent league history, Nicklas Backstrom, feeding him one-timers, it’s just plain suicide to take dumb penalties as the Avs did.

Mikko Rantanen – offensive zone trip. Nathan MacKinnon, offensive zone trip. Ian Cole, a five-minute major for interference in the third period of a game his team is one shot away from tying. Nikita Zadorov, a hit on Caps agitator Tom Wilson without the puck (bad call, I thought, but Z should know refs will pick on him for something like that).

I wanted to ask Big Z about that call and the game in general, but he declined. It’s that kind of atmosphere right now, folks.

The lack of discipline by this team – one that isn’t very big, one that doesn’t fight much, one that likes to skate and play a finesse game – remains the most puzzling aspect of the season.

The Avs entered this game tied for second in the NHL in penalty minutes taken as a team per game (9.7). That average went up after this one. If the Avs had a great penalty-killing unit (and I’m including the goaltending here), maybe this wouldn’t be such an issue. But entering this game, the Avs were 28th in the league in killing penalties (76.1 percent). It’s a double-whammy that is just killing this team.

“Those are preventable penalties. We’ve got to find a way to clean that up,” said Jared Bednar, who otherwise was pretty upbeat about the way his team played, saying it was a step forward, something to build on, etc. “A game like this, it catches us. You’re playing one of the best power plays out there. Those are minutes you don’t get to play and produce offense yourself.”

That the Avs actually went beyond three minutes to an overtime can be considered a moral victory, but, again, they made a critical mistake to cost that extra point. Tyson Barrie, who just refused to shoot the puck all night, passed up a scoring chance in favor of an unnecessary pass down low. Then, he compounded the mistake by pinching further down, but he wiped out one of his own teammates behind the net. The puck came out to Evgeni Kuznetsov for a breakaway, and he beat Semyon Varlamov (38 saves in an up-and-down performance) through the 5-hole.

The Avs did gain on their point total tonight. There was something to feel good about. Trouble is, only 29 games remain on the season. The time for moral victories is over. What’s needed are, you know, actual ones.