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Avalanche’s Giguere predicted ‘unacceptable’ effort versus Dallas

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Colorado Avalanche goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere knew something wasn’t right with the hockey team in front of him Saturday.

Giguere, the 35-year-old netminder who replaced Semyon Varlamov in the second period of Colorado’s 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, then went on a fairly long rant about the Avalanche’s lack of preparation, focus and desperation.

“We had a big meeting two or three days ago, a players-only meeting. We talked about some stuff and I thought we had a good response against Dallas at home (Wednesday). Then we have a day off, then come back and practice, and I thought our practice was just awful,” Giguere told the Denver Post.

“The effort wasn’t there. We practiced defensive zone coverage, and guys weren’t taking the body and swirling and stuff like that. This is the stuff we have to work on every day. I told a couple of the guys that ‘I don’t think we’ll have a good game today.’

“It’s unacceptable. It’s an everyday job. You’ve got to work hard every day. You’ve got to be a lot more desperate than that.”

The Avalanche played the game without their captain, Gabriel Landeskog, who was a late scratch due with a torso injury.

The Avalanche had a chance Saturday to move past the Calgary Flames and, for the moment, out of the basement in the Western Conference standings.

The Stars, with the win, moved into the eighth seed in the West with 33 points.

The leaped one point ahead of the San Jose Sharks - 2-0 losers against the Minnesota Wild earlier in the day.
The Sharks still have a game in hand on the Stars.