Consider the following as a microcosm of the Colorado Avalanche season.
Blake Comeau, on a breakaway, with his team down 5-0 to the Winnipeg Jets in the second period, deciding at the hash marks that passing the puck to a trailing teammate was the play to make. Instead, the puck was turned over on to the stick of the back-checking Patrik Laine.
It was a seemingly unthinkable decision, an embarrassing gaffe that underlined the depths of how bad things turned for Colorado in a 6-1 loss to the Jets on Saturday, in game No. 63 of another disastrous season for the Avalanche.
It’s almost over, the regular season that is. Only 19 games remaining with the Avalanche all alone in last place overall by 16 points. Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog remained in Colorado after the trade deadline but that could certainly change in the summer.
This has been an extraordinarily bad season for the Avs.
On Saturday, Colorado was down 3-0 by the midway point of the first period. It proceeded to go from bad to worse from there. Such has been the case for the Avalanche over the last three seasons.
“We had a couple games like this already this year,” said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar, per the Denver Post.
“I thought we were past that as a group. It’s a tough situation we’re in. There’s no doubt. It can be disheartening at times, but that remains unacceptable. We gotta play with some pride, and tonight we didn’t have it.”