Win Big...Or Don't Win At All

Back on January 12th and 13th, the Avalanche won two tight back-to-back games in the southeast, with a 5-4 come-from-behind win in Carolina followed the next night by a 4-3 shootout victory against the Florida Panthers. Since that weekend, the Avs have not won a single game by a one-goal margin.

Over the last twelve games, Colorado has a nicely symmetrical 6 wins and 6 losses.

Here are the scores for the last six Avalanche wins:

3-0
3-1
6-3
6-4
3-1
6-2

Average margin of victory: 2.7 goals

And, for the last six losses (* denotes an OT or SO loss):
2-1
4-3*
2-0
3-2
4-0
2-1*

Average margin of defeat: 1.7 goals.

As you can see, it's pretty much feast or famine for our dudes in the burgundy uniprons. In several of the recent losses, the team seemed hellbent on either sitting on a 1-goal lead or - even worse - trying to take a tie game to overtime. The Anaheim game was a great example of that. Here's a hint: it doesn't work. This team seems to have better luck keeping pressure on in the offensive zone, but has been, in my opinion, far too quick to let the foot off the gas.

So far this year, the Avalanche have lost 9 games in regulation by just one goal, with 4 of those coming since the beginning of January. On the flip side, they've won just 6 regulation games by a single goal, and only one of those wins have come in the 2008 calendar year.

Tonight, Mr Jack Adams, if the team gets a lead...don't be content. Keep the pedal to the metal. We can't afford many more disappointing losses in winnable games.