Longtime Colorado Avalanche reporter Adrian Dater took the club to task today in a scathing piece entitled “Avalanche lost in a haunted house.”
Dater aggressively questioned the direction of a team that, after starting the season 6-2-0, has lost nine of its last 11. Five of those losses have come at the Pepsi Center, where only 14,882 are showing up per night. (That’s 24th in NHL attendance.)
Three major issues with the Avs arise in the piece: 1) an inability to win at home, 2) the team’s lack of identity and 3) a muddled front office.
Dater, on Colorado’s home woes: “Trouble, like charity, begins at home. That has certainly been true for Denver’s once-proud NHL franchise, which was slated to start a record eight-game run there on Friday night against the Dallas Stars. Like the weather in Honolulu, such a favorable schedule would ordinarily be cause for some easy forecasting. Avs teams of yore would be expected to win a minimum of six and most likely did. But this most recent edition carried a 2-6-1 home mark into its game against Dallas, and was 5-19-2 overall in its previous 26 home outings.”
Dater, on the lack of identity: “Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, the Avs played a free-wheeling, fun, skilled game against the Penguins, taking a 3-1 lead and nearly building a bigger one if not for the stout defensive efforts of a couple of goalposts. In the third period, the Avs tried to slow things down and preserve their advantage. They played too much in their own end and left the arena on the nasty end of the 6-3 final score.
Then on Thursday night in St. Paul, the Avs took on the plodding, defense-minded Wild. Instead of skating like they did in Pittsburgh, they looked like they were trying to match each dump-and-change shift with Minnesota. The result? A competitive game, but a 1-0 loss.
Bottom line: the Avs play too much like the team they’re skating against and often abandon their own distinctive brand of hockey.”
Dater, on the front office: “The team’s ownership group, led by E. Stanley Kroenke and his son, Josh, are rarely seen at home games and they almost never talk publicly about the Avs (though Josh, an executive with the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, is often front and center at that team’s press conferences). Below the Kroenkes, former maestro GM Pierre Lacroix retains the title of team president, but he’s rarely around the building anymore too. His son, Eric, is the assistant GM to Greg Sherman. The great and popular [Joe] Sakic has the title of ‘executive adviser.’ Confused yet about really runs the show? The question of who’s in charge has been leveled at the guys upstairs as well as at the guys down on the ice.”
Dater also ripped Sherman’s highly-questionable trades (Craig Anderson-for-Brian Elliott, Chris Stewart/Kevin Shattenkirk-for-Erik Johnson/Jay McClement, Semyon Varlamov-for-1st/2nd round picks), the dragging of feet on naming Milan Hejduk captain (which had been vacant since Adam Foote retired) and the struggling young centerpieces of the team -- Paul Stastny and and Matt Duchene.
This is uncharted territory for a team with such rich winning history. The Avs have won two Cups and made the playoffs 12 out of 15 seasons since moving to Colorado. Sure, the Avs have had down years before, but they always seemed to have strong leadership and a sense of direction -- something that can’t be said for the current lot.
When looking at the Avalanche of today, one has to wonder what’s the end game.