The Colorado Avalanche

DENVER (AP) — could point to obvious flaws for their prolonged plunge: Erratic goaltenders www.officiallightningprostore.com/authentic-adidas-anton-stralman-jersey , floundering special teams, inconsistent scoring from players not on their top line .Or just go with the more direct one.“We just haven’t played good enough,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said.The Avalanche were tied for the most points in the Western Conference after games on Dec. 7. Two months and a 5-15-6 record later, they’re trying to get on track and climb back into playoff contention. It’s been a perplexing freefall for an Avalanche team that hasn’t won since Jan. 19.“Everybody’s kind of taking their individual games down a couple of notches,” said Landeskog, whose team hosts Toronto on Tuesday looking to break a seven-game slide (0-4-3). “That adds up to the team not desperate enough, not hungry enough, not fast enough, not physical enough.”The silver lining to this grisly stretch: Colorado (22-22-11, 55 points) still sat just four points out of a playoff spot entering Monday. Any other year, the deficit probably would be even greater.“We’re lucky,” center Nathan MacKinnon said. “We’re lucky the West is bad this year. If we were in the East, we’d be (eight) points out. So, we’re lucky everyone’s kind of lost separately. It’s been weird. We had a great start. We were first in our division and we’ve been just losing ever since, so we’re lucky. It feels like we’re 30 points out, but we’re only (four) and we need to remind ourselves of that.”Colorado finished a three-game trip with three straight overtime losses . Those are a valuable three points earned in defeat, but the team desperately needs wins.“It’s been two months we’ve been losing, so if we don’t get wins we’re not happy,” said MacKinnon Womens Brayden Point Jersey , whose team dropped to 1-11 in OT games this season. “We need wins. That’s all that really matters.”General manager Joe Sakic recently gave the reeling team a vote of confidence. Playoffs are still firmly on his mind.“I believe in the guys in that dressing room, that we can right the ship,” Sakic said. “I know they believe it. Right now, the confidence is a little low.”Colorado’s role at the trade deadline on Feb. 25 could be decided over the next few games. Once potential buyers — or comfortable making no moves — the team could become sellers. One thing Sakic won’t do is mortgage the future. He said the two first-round picks are off limits, along with some of their prized prospects.“For us, it’s got to make sense going forward,” Sakic said of a deal.The recent struggles in net have plagued Colorado. Semyon Varlamov is 13-13-8 with a 2.91 goals-against average. Backup Philipp Grubauer hasn’t been any more steady, going 9-7-3 with a 3.47 goals-against.“Got to get them playing with a little more confidence,” Sakic said.The power play of late has been problematic, too. Since Dec. 8, they’re last in the league in penalty kill percentage and 21st in converting power play chances.Colorado also is looking for more secondary scoring to help out the top line of Landeskog, MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, which has combined for 206 points.“Obviously, everything is magnified when you lose,” MacKinnon said. “When you win, those mistakes kind of get covered up and you don’t really see them in video or things like that. So, it’s been tough. Obviously, a lot of negativity, but we’ve played some decent games.”Sakic remains firmly in the corner of coach Jared Bednar Braydon Coburn Jersey , who led the Avalanche back to the postseason a year ago — he was a coach of the year finalist — after going 22-56-4 in his first season.“The problem is not coaching at all,” Sakic said. “We have good systems.”The skid hasn’t soured the locker room, MacKinnon said“Some losing teams kind of turn on each other, but everyone has each other’s backs and we’re trying to win with each other,” MacKinnon said. “We know (with) losing comes changes and we don’t want to change our team. So, the mood is still pretty good.“I think that’s the only way to get out of it. If you hang your head and be negative, I think you’re just kind of doomed from there. So we’re still positive.” RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Even as an offensive-minded defenseman, earning a hat trick never really entered Justin Faulk’s mind.That changed Tuesday night.Faulk had his first career hat trick, Jeff Skinner scored twice, and the Carolina Hurricanes routed the short-handed Los Angeles Kings 7-3.Faulk’s three goals came in a span of 12:21 as Carolina raced out to a 5-0 lead. He became the 10th defenseman in NHL history to score a natural hat trick.”It’s not something I ever really thought about, getting a hat trick,” Faulk said. ”I know I’ve had plenty of two-goal games. It’s pretty cool. I like that (defenseman) scoring, so hopefully it happens more.”Jacob Slavin and Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes, who won their third straight and finished their eight-game homestand 5-2-1. Cam Ward made 27 saves.Slavin opened the scoring 6:40 into the game and Faulk scored just over two minutes later. He scored again on a slap shot in the waning minutes of the first period, and completed his hat trick with another slap shot 1:17 into the second period.”Obviously the puck was coming off the stick tonight all right tonight,” Faulk said. ”I’m not going to turn down opportunities to shoot. Sometimes that’s probably (been) a bad thing in my career, I shoot a little too much once in a while. But I treated it the same, whether I had one goal or three goals.”Anze Kopitar J.T. Miller Jersey , Tyler Toffoli, and Torrey Mitchell scored the Kings, who were without key forwards Dustin Brown (suspension) and Trevor Lewis (injury). Jonathan Quick saved 16 of 20 shots before being pulled following Faulk’s third goal.Carolina outshot Los Angeles 41-30 and was in control from the outset.The Hurricanes outshot the Kings 18-3 in the first period. The result was a 3-0 edge at the first intermission.”They showed up to work and we didn’t,” Los Angeles coach John Stevens said. ”Pretty simple…Penalty kill, checking, breaking the puck out, you’ve got to put your work boots on and you’ve got be ready to work. We didn’t, and we got the result we deserve.”Carolina piled on in the second. Faulk reached his hat trick with a slapper on the power play from the left point that beat Quick – his second straight power play goal – to make it 4-0, and the Kings netminder skated to the bench as hats rained onto the ice at PNC Arena.Darcy Kuemper replaced Quick and was given the same rough treatment. Carolina peppered him with five quick shots, including one that hit the crossbar and another that hit the post, and Skinner finally found twine on the power play with a wrist shot over Kuemper’s glove into the top corner of the net.The Kings kicked into gear down five goals. Kopitar’s power-play goal got them going and Toffoli banged home a loose puck in front of the net in the final minutes of the second. Mitchell’s pristine redirection of a Kyle Clifford pass 6:43 into the third period made it interesting, but Skinner squashed any comeback hopes with a backhander with 5:45 left.”They were coming,” Skinner said. ”They’re a good team, they’ve got some skilled guys. I think once we scored that goal there, it turned it around for us”.Aho followed with a breakaway goal for the finishing touch.Kuemper made 18 saves on 21 shots in relief of Quick.NOTES: Carolina scored three power plays goals in a game for the first time this season. … Teuvo Teravainen had three assists and Aho, Justin Williams and Victor Rask had two for the Hurricanes. … Skinner passed Geoff Sanderson (196) for seventh place on Carolina’s all-time goals list and Erik Cole (363) for third on the team’s all-time points list. … The Kings placed Lewis (upper body injury) on injured reserve before the game, retroactive to Feb. 9. … Brown served a one-game suspension for kneeing Tampa Bay D Mikhail Sergachev on Feb. 10.UP NEXTKings: Continue their seven-game road trip at Pittsburgh on Thursday.Hurricanes: Travel to face New Jersey on Thursday.