"Just clean up things. Just keep polishing things and making sure our breakouts are where they're supposed to be," said captain Gabriel Landeskog on the team's practice goals for the next seven days. "Our forecheck is good, obviously special teams is going to be important as well. Basically just polishing up all the things, and all the little things that will add up."
During the Avalanche's six preseason outings, the team found ways to win while also holding onto leads in the third period, an important aspect that the club struggled with last year. But there are still some glaring holes that need to be filled for head coach Jared Bednar.
"You saw our game (in Vegas), we have some significant work to do," Bednar said after Friday's practice at Family Sports Center. "We're going to have to be better than that come the regular season if we want to win. I think the last two games we did a lot of good things in a lot of areas, but we also relied on our goaltender too much in my opinion.
"Yesterday, they controlled the game for a too big period of time. In Dallas (on Monday), we had a real good start and then they took it over. We bounced back a bit, but last night we were opportunistic and relied on our goalie too much."
Landeskog agrees with Bednar good and bad assessment. He says the club has worked hard in their practices and games during the two-week training camp, but it needs to aim on sustaining that effort for 60 minutes, game in and game out.
"From an energy standpoint and a passion standpoint and how hard we play, that is something that you can never compromise on," Landeskog said. "You always have to have your work ethic there. You look at our game last night in Vegas, we were pretty flat through the first two periods and we still came out of there with a lead going into the third. That is something that we definitely can't compromise on."
