The Avalanche has been fairly pleased with its play since returning from Sweden following the Nov. 10-11 games. The club is 3-1-1 in those five outings and has liked how it has performed in those losses.
That includes its most recent contest on Friday night, a 3-2 shootout loss at the Minnesota Wild where Colorado held a 30-27 edge in shots on goal and a 58-42 advantage in total shots attempted.
Bednar said he wants his team to keep playing with the same tenacity over the next two weeks and beyond.
"For me, it's keep playing to our identity--our energy, passion and spirit that we've come to play with. And then the attention to detail I think is key for us," Bednar said. "When we play with the right level of intensity, our execution is good. I think if you don't come with the right level of intensity to play then your execution will start getting a little sloppy. We've seen that at times. We're still a work in progress, but those are the things we'll key on."
Much of the Avs' success at home has come from their play on special teams. Colorado's home power play (27.8 percent) and penalty kill (92.6 percent) both rank fourth in the NHL, compared to 28th and 31st, respectively, on the road.
The top line of center Nathan MacKinnon, left wing Gabriel Landeskog and right wing Mikko Rantanen have also been equally strong in the Avalanche's home barn. The trio has combined for 43 points (15 goals and 28 assists) at home, with Landeskog currently riding a six-game home point streak (six goals and three assists) and MacKinnon registering 14 points (four goals and 10 assists) in his last five home outings. Rantanen has 15 points (four goals and 11 assists) in nine home games.
Colorado's No. 1 forward group has helped make Pepsi Center a rocking place recently, and Bednar wants that electric atmosphere to continue.
"We're trying to prove something here at home. It's a goal of ours to play really well in front of our fans and sort of build our fan base back and get the city excited about this group. To this point, we've done that," Bednar said. "We got to make sure we're still taking it game by game. We can't look at it as a five-game homestand. We have to break it to down game by game and even period by period, and it starts tonight against the Flames."
A victory would give the Avalanche 17 points at home this season, its third-most output through 10 games since moving to Denver in 1995. The squad recorded a 9-1-0 (18 points) record through 10 home contests in 2007-08 and marks of 8-0-2 (18 points) in 1995-96 and 8-1-1 (17 points) in 2000-01.
