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Lack, Hurricanes remain optimistic vs. Avalanche (Mar 07, 2017)
The Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche were relatively quiet at the NHL trading deadline last week.
That said as much about their lost seasons than anything else.
When the two teams meet in Denver on Tuesday night, it will feature franchises that were sellers when the deadline hit last Wednesday. The Hurricanes shipped two expiring contracts for draft picks and journeymen while the Avalanche simply unloaded a couple of players for a draft pick and Sven Andrighetto, who made his Colorado debut Sunday night.
So while they both had aspirations of facing each other while trying to jockey for playoff positioning, Tuesday's game will be between teams who are playing out the string.
At least Carolina (26-26-10) is coming into the game with a little momentum after a 2-1 win at Arizona on Sunday night. It was a much-needed boost for a team that had gone 1-6-3 in its previous 10 games, and also helped goaltender Eddie Lack quiet critics for a little while.
Lack entered Sunday with an .873 save percentage, which ranks near the bottom for NHL goaltenders, and had allowed four goals on 16 shots in a loss to Tampa Bay on Wednesday. His coach, Bill Peters, criticized him Friday and he responded with 25 saves against the Coyotes.
He told The Charlotte Observer that the coach's criticism wasn't hanging over his head entering Sunday.
"I have so many positive people around me and everything, and I felt like I got so many phone calls and texts the past couple of days," Lack told the newspaper after Sunday's win. "I just stayed positive and kept working hard in practice."
The Avalanche (17-44-3) are having a tough time finding anything positive to lean on this season. Colorado suffered its 11th shutout against St. Louis on Sunday and for the second straight night gave up two early goals and was never really in the game.
The loss was the 11th in 13 games, including one overtime loss to the Lightning. The Avalanche have scored two goals in their last four games, one of which came with 16 seconds left in a 6-1 loss in Winnipeg on Saturday night.
St. Louis scored twice in the first 5:33 Sunday and never looked back, sending Colorado to its 23rd home loss in 31 games at Pepsi Center.
"Painful. There's no other way to describe it," center Matt Duchene said after the loss to the Blues. "It's not fun. I wish I had an answer for you. I wish I did. It's hard to even get good shots on net. We just don't execute enough when we have opportunities to strike and make things happen. We don't get good looks. It's kind of the way it's going."
Nothing sums up Colorado's season more than the breakaway chance of forward Blake Comeau. He came in alone on goaltender Connor Hellebuyck but instead of taking a shot he tried a drop pass to Nathan MacKinnon that rookie Patrik Laine broke up.
It is one reason Colorado is last in the NHL in goals scored with 123, which translates to 1.92 goals per game. The Avalanche are on pace for 157 goals, which would be 33 fewer than their franchise low set in 2008-09.
"We've struggled to score goals all year," coach Jared Bednar said. "You need to score goals to win hockey games, so to me we have to be rock solid defensively and we have to find a way to stay out of the box. We have to try and put that whole package together for the rest of the way to give us our best chance to win every night."
