Avs Looking For Wins On Four-Game Roadie

The Colorado Avalanche practiced one last time at Family Sports Center on Monday before heading out on the road for a four-game road swing.
After dropping five consecutive games at home, the Avs are looking to use their previous road success--they're 5-5 on enemy ice--to get back on track.

"I think we just play better hockey than at home, simple as that. Obviously, that was a terrible homestand for us, about as bad as we could have imagined, and we're going to have to have a big roadie here if we want to stay in it," forward Matt Duchene said on Monday. "We want to stay in this thing, and we don't want to play ourselves out of the playoffs early in the year."
Figuring out the funk is going to require the skaters playing their way into wins, stringing together successes out on the ice.

"We don't have time to pout. We don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We don't have time to take a day off from the grind," head coach Jared Bednar said. "We have to try and get better every day. I believe the guys [had a good] mindset today. We came out to practice hard with good detail. That's what we need to see from them. We need to see it every day and eventually that goes into your game and you start moving in the right direction. Our guys' focus was really good today. It's a type of practice we needed to have."
Colorado is ranked second in the NHL in faceoff win percentage (53.6 percent) and first among all clubs in offensive zone wins (57.4 percent), which is a positive for the squad. It is also something the team needs to build on.
"We don't make anything of those faceoff wins. We got to make way more. We win so many in the O-zone that we don't create any opportunities on. It doesn't have to be right away, it just needs to be a buzz, get a buzz going for a shift," Duchene said. "In the D-zone, there's so many times where maybe we break it out but we're giving it right back to them in the neutral zone. We should be creating rushes out of our wins there. So we got to do a lot better job at creating stuff off our faceoff wins."
Finding a positive and using it to fuel further prosperity while also having an underdog mindset is something that the Avalanche is looking to do heading into a tough Central Division matchup at the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
"At the end of the day, we just need to play with passion and play hard and do the things we do best. I think we tip-toe our way into too many games and we don't take charge right away. I don't understand why we're doing that, but it's got to stop," Duchene said. "It doesn't matter who we're playing right now; we're last in the league right now, so there's no such thing as an easy game. I think, if anything, we can use it to our advantage. Maybe teams are looking at us and saying, 'Oh they're struggling. We got to jump all over them.' Maybe we can catch them by surprise. I think that's the best way to look at it."
According to Bednar, the Avs will roll with netminder Semyon Varlamov in net again on Tuesday. On top of that, newly acquired rear guard Cody Goloubef--who was recalled from the San Antonio Rampage on Sunday--will be in the lineup.

With Fedor Tyutin day-to-day while dealing with a lower-body injury and Erik Johnson on the shelf for six to eight weeks after breaking his fibula on Saturday, Goloubef will provide some defensive support for a coach he's already familiar with.
"We know what Cody has done in the past and what he's capable of doing. He's a good skater. He can chip in on the penalty kill," said Bednar, who coached the blueliner while he was in the Columbus Blue Jackets' organization. "He has a little familiarity with our system, although it's been a couple of years. He's played under [Nolan Pratt] and I before. I think he's going to be a guy who can contribute, make the simple play, get us in and out of our zone and hopefully give us some stability down there."
For the 27-year-old acquisition, the key to success is in communication.
"It's the same game no matter who you're playing with. To build chemistry doesn't take that long, so just going to be talking out there and doing the right things," he said. "Just talk out a lot during the game.
"I don't try and do too much, just try and play simple and hard. Just try and contribute any way I can."
Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog will be on the four-game trip, but he won't be playing in Tuesday's contest.
"He's been feeling better every day for the last three or four days," Bednar said. "Obviously skating a little bit, joining the team for part of practice. So it's a step in the right direction. He's day-to-day."